Corn Snakes Hidden Beauties Fox Run Environmental Education Center
www.foxrunenvironmentaleducationcenter.org
How to feed a corn snake. In nature snakes are happy to get their food and then rest for a while. As a general rule lizards and frogs are the most important food sources for hatchling and juvenile corn snakes in the wild while rodents and birds become the most important food sources for adult corn snakes. Return the snake to its enclosure when done even if it didnt eat.
Leave it alone for 10 15 minutes. The live rodent should not be left in your corn snakes enclosure for more than 1 hour. You also might want a cardboard box to feed your snake in so the snake doesnt become accustomed to eating in its cage.
In captivity the vast majority of keepers feed their corn snake commercially reared frozen thawed rodents. This typically includes lizards frogs rodents birds and eggs but they may also consume other snakes or insects from time to time. Place the feeder mouse by the inner wall and seal the snake inside the container.
This prevents digestion problems and vomiting. The baby corn snake is very instinct driven and its instinct isnt to eat food already dead. Rodents are a healthy easily obtained food source and theyre also more affordable than some other potential food items.
However in captivity it is typically wisest to feed your corn snake a rodent based diet. Find a round container that has a lid. Feed your hatchling one to two pinkies per week.
Mice are the most popular corn snake food as they grow along with the snake. In general do not feed your corn snake anything larger than 15 times the size of its midsection. Supplies needed you of course need the snake the mice and i like to use tongs because my snake will strike at anything.
While baby corn snakes can eat frozen and thawed pinkies theyre less likely to. Corn snakes usually eat mice. So the baby corn snake diet consists of pinkie mice live preferably fed once every 5 7 days.
If your corn snake is a hatchling feed it thawed pinkies or mice that have not yet grown fur. So its mindset isnt moving cage eat look at the chart below to learn the sizes of mice. Pet stores stock them frozen in a range of sizes from newborn pinkies to extra large typically costing less than a pound around a dollar to a dollar fifty.
It wants to eat something live. It takes time for a corn snake to digest its meal and they dont need to eat often.