How to set up a Corn snake Enclosure

Basic background
Corns snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) are commonly found around the southeastern parts of north America. They can be found from parts of New jersey, the Florida keys to Texas.
Their natural habitat is forests but they can be found in abandoned farmhouses, overgrown fields, forest openings, trees or seldom-used buildings. In the colder regions they hibernate during the winter and in more temperate climate along the coasts, they shelter in rock crevices and logs during the cold weather and come out in the warm weather to soak up the sun.

Basic enclosure needs
It is not usually recommended
to house corn snakes together, because cannibalism can occur but from
personal experience at uni, college and at our reptile shop we have
never had a problem with housing 4 corn snakes together.
It is very affordable and easy to house corn snakes. Babies (8-10 inches) and juveniles (10-20 inches) are able to be housed in 5.5gallon glass aquariums (16”x8”x10”).


Adults can be housed in 10gallon glass aquariums (20”x10”12”) as they can grow up to 20” to 36” inches long. Wooden vivariums are also a great choice.

It is very important that you provide a place for the corn snake to hide and shelter in, good examples of hides are:-

• Pre-built rock crevices.
  
• Half a log.
  
• Cardboard box.
  
• Cork-bark.
  

They need a hide because they can get stressed out, to hot or even just want a dark place to sleep. It’s a good idea to have two hides in warm spots of the enclosure and one in a cooler spot of the enclosure.
Wooden branches and plastic plants are also good at provided hides but also help enrich the snake with climbing opportunities but with also hides.
The enclosure needs a large bowl of water (a dog dish is good), and it will help with the overall humidity and it also helps provide the snake with water it needs to survive.



Substrate is very important in the corn snake’s enclosure. Its always debateable on which substrate is the right one to use, but using newspaper and paper towels is a cheap option. Wood chips are recommended if you having your corn snake on display. Wood shavings are acceptable as long as it is not it is not fir, pine or cedar as these contain chemicals that are poisonous to corn snakes.


Heating requirements is a very important part of the enclosure design.The hot end of the enclosure should be about 85°-88°F and the cooler end of the enclosure should be about 5°-10°F cooler than the hot end. To each these temperatures correctly is recommended to use an under-tank UTH, basking lights or even a ceramic heat emitter, basking lights usually the more popular of the three.

It is important that there is a thermostat or dimmer attached to the heat source and thermometre on both ends of the enclosure to make sure the temperature is correct.


Cleaning and maintenance.
The enclosure should be spot-checked every other day to keep the enclosure clean and the substrate should be changed atleast weekly. Water should be changed daily and any uneaten food must been taken out asap.
During the substrate change, this is a good time to thoroughly clean the enclosure with either hot soapy water or a reptile-friendly disinfectant. All accessories need to be cleaned and dried before putting back into the enclosure.