Snakes are really attractive to any exotic pet lover. Corn and rat snake which both belong to the same genus of Elaphe, where Corn snake belongs to the Elaphe guttata and Rat snake belongs to Elaphe obsoleta. From the Latin word elaphe which means deerskin and guttata means spotted, the term is used in describing both corn and rat snakes. They have very tanned-like deerskin with balck spots allowing tit to look like a pattern of the corn. There is also this another story how the corn snake got its name,according to some European settlers, corn snakes are commonly found in the corn fields and corn cribs which they tought that they eat corns. In contrary, corn snake became a useful help to the farmers in decreasing the population of rodents in their farms. Amelanistic corns are those are thos snake which do lack of brown and black skin coloring. As of now, there are two main subspecies under corn; the guttata and the meahllmorum.
Corns are native in United States in particular deciduoud forest, pine barrens, rocky hillsides and of course fam areas. There are also some reported case of appearances in Mexico and the Cayman islands. Corns are most active during night and dawn where they hunt preys such as crickets. They are mostly ground-dwellers but do have a bit characterisitc of being an arboreal. Hatchling’s size ranges from 9-14 inches and can grow up to 5 feet when the time of adulthood comes. Their average life span is over 10 years.
As for the interested people, you may consider the basic things before you buy a corn snake. Their body must be well-fleshed and have a firm skin. Clear eyes and also active with the tongue flicking thing is also preferable. Their vent should be clean and should thick-free snake. It is also preferable to if you buy a captivated hatchling since they are easily trained to get use to be with humans. Now there are this belief that a snake can actually grow ablout the size of its tank. We’ll then, to clear this thing up, it is basically not true. Snakes can go larger than the size of its tank so as the owner of your snake, you must consider their housing if it is enough for them until they grow up. As for most common, corns can perfectly suite to a 20 gallon tank. In their hiding place, you can add some sort of branches for them to climb up, but just make sure that branches from the wild are totally soaked and is virus-free. Snakes are cold-blooded animal and need to maintain their body temperature. In order to supply this need, you may put a pad heater under their tank so that your snake can somehow regulate its body temperature. In feeding them, you can supply food every ten days or so. Make sure that you will give a pre-killed prey because most snakes specially when not hungry doesn’t got attracted with live preys. Snakes are also delicate when the time of shedding comes. Proper hydration is a must so that your skin will feel fine during this period.
Reptiles such as snakes also acquired to have a fecal examinations done by reptile veterinarians to ensure that they are free from bacteria, protozoa and worms. As it is, owning a snake is like having your own child. They require attention at the very least.
