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Corn snakes make excellent pets for first time herp keepers.  They usually have a terrific temperament, stay relatively small and are easy to maintain.  Also, corn snakes have been bred to come in a variety of colors way beyond any other snake.  These snakes are also less costly to buy than most other snakes although adopting a rescued one, if available, is even a better choice.

Currently I have 5 corn snakes residing in my house, and not a one is aggressive.  I have rescued dozens of corn snakes with only one being defensive inside his tank.  Once taken out of his habitat he was perfectly fine.



The maximum size for a corn snake is about 5 feet long and less thick than say the cardboard round inside a roll of paper towels.  Most corns are smaller than this with most females being bigger than males.

Maintaining a corn snake is really comes down to snake keeping basics.  The corns that tend to grow to the maximum size would do fine in a 40 gallon terrarium, and the smaller corns could easily be housed in a 20 gallon terrarium.   My preferences for substrate(bedding) is either newspaper(after you read it) or CareFresh.  Bark, wood shavings and the such is something I would pass on for several reasons.  If the snake is fed in the tank, the chance of ingesting the bark or shavings could result in a blockage in the digestive system of the snake resulting in a major surgery or death.  Those substrates also harbor bacteria which can lead to infection.  Heating can be accomplished with one of 2 methods.  A heat lamp with a night light bulb can be placed on one end of the tank on the top of the screen, or a human heating pad on the bottom of the tank located also on one end of the tank.  Always provide for temperature gradient so the snake can choose whether it wants the warm side or the cooler side.  Optimum temperature on the warm side should be 85 degrees.  DO NOT USE A HEAT ROCK!  I have taken in too many snakes and lizards with thermal burns due to heat rocks.  Also stick on reptile heating pads frequently get too hot as well.  I have measured temperatures as high as 108 degrees from these pads using a laser heat gun for measurement.  Frequently these pads wind up cracking the glass on the bottom of the tank.  A hide such as a half log or you can make your own out of a cardboard box should be placed in the cage.   A  bowl  of water needs to be provided for the snake to drink from and possibly soak in.  I feed all my snakes frozen/thawed prey, and I have 30 snakes.  Feeding them f/t versus live has a few benefits.  The prey cannot bite the snake if it is dead to begin with.  If a live rat, for instance, bites a snake an abscess can result along with a trip to the vet and antibiotics.  By freezing the prey some parasites are killed and cannot infect your snake.  Corns can typically be fed f/t adult mice or even small f/t small rats when the snake matures.

Corn snakes come in colors to match your sofa or drapes.  They have been bred to come in reds and oranges, yellows, lavenders, snow and many more.  The price of many corn snakes starts at about $ 30 and even less at the annual Reptile Show.  These animals live for about 15-20 years so this is a long commitment.

Hope you find this dialog helpful in your awareness of keeping this type of snake.