Michelle's Candied Corns​ - Colorful Quality Cornsnakes

Keeping corn snakes is easy. Unfortunately many fail to thrive because of simple husbandry mistakes.

This page is designed to assist you with some basic information not found in the previous care pages.

 

Temperature and Humidity

Reptiles are ectothermic, meaning they rely on external temperatures to regualte their internal temperature. It is important that your snake has both a warm side, and a cold side, in its tank or cage. The warm side should stay about 85 degrees, and the cool side about 75-78 degrees. This is why it is so important to have the thermostat and digital thermometer already discussed. Corn snakes are from the Eastern United States and require moderate humidity, especially when they are going to shed their skin. Usually, humidity around 50% is perfect for corn snakes. If you live in a dry climate, ensure that the snake has a moist hide box (discussed below) during the shed cycle. 

 

Cohabbing

Many stores will tell you that it is OK to house two or more corn snakes together.  This is simply untrue.  Like all snakes, corn snakes are solitary.  Being forced to be in contact with another snake causes undue stress for both of the animals. Many inexperienced keepers will see two snakes curled up together and think it is "cute" and that they enjoy each other's company.  This is a case of "anthropomorphism" and lack of knowledge about reptile behavior. When two snakes are sitting together, one is actually trying to push the other out. The more dominant snake will soon outgrow the less dominant one, even if they are being fed the same amount of food! Eventually, the stress may cause health issues such as regurgitation, which is deadly if not treated immediately. You may also experience bad sheds even when your husbandry is perfect, simply due to stress. Eventually, one of the snakes may eat the other. Do not be fooled by those who claim corn snakes are not cannibalistic- they are opportunistic, so they can and will eat each other. It doesn't have to happen right away, it could be years later. Cohabbed snakes also have a significantly shorter lifespan than those which are housed by themselves. Imagine if you had to live with the one person you hate more than anything in this world, eventually, one of you would fail to thrive. For this reason, cohabbing corn snakes is not only cruel, but completely unneccesary. If you choose to cohabitate your snake, you void any and all health guarentees.

 

Shedding

As your snake grows, it will shed its skin. This is recognized by the colors becoming dull, and the eyes becoming "blue". Sometimes, a change in behavior is also seen at this time. Do not feed your corn snake when they are in shed, it increases the chance of regurgitation. Ensure that the humidity in your tank or cage is around 50%-60% during this time. An alternative would be to simply place a "humidity hide" within the cage. This is essentially a plastic box with damp sphagnum moss inside of it. Your snake should shed in one piece within about 7-14 days. If the shed starts to flake off in many pieces, you will need to help your snake shed. IT SHOULD NEVER COME OFF IN FLAKES.

 

If your snake requires assistance, you can fill a small sterlite box with room temperature water, place a small towel inside, and then place the snake inside as well. The skin should come off within 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, allowing the snake to move through your hands and a towel will help too. 

 

Always make sure that the eye caps and the tip of the tail have shed properly. Retained eye caps can lead to blindness in severe cases, and retained shed on the tail can cause the tail to fall off. 

 

Regurgitation

This is a very serious issue.  When a snake "throws up" it disrupts the balance of beneficial bacteria in their stomach and digestive tract.  If this happens, DO NOT FEED YOUR SNAKE AGAIN for two weeks! You will need to order "nutribac" from Kathy Love during this time. Once the nutribac arrives, begin to provide that in the snake's water daily to start replenishing gut bacteria. Once two weeks has passed since the snake regurgitated, you can offer the HEAD ONLY of whatever sized food item your snake had been eating, rolled in nutribac to your snake. If the snake keeps the head down, offer half of a mouse to him again in 10 days, also rolled in nutribac. If they keep this down, you can offer another half mouse in 7 days, again with the nutribac. 

You can return to a normal feeding schedule with cut open mice and nutribac if the third feeding was successful. You will need to continue using nutribac on the food for 4-6 months.