F.A.Q.

We are proud to use FedEx as our most reliable live animal shipper.

Exceptional Reliability: 99.9% of all packages arrive the day after shipping.

Typical Delivery Times:

• Within Large Cities: Before 10:30 AM
• Just Outside Cities: Before Noon
• Remote Locations: Before 4:30 PM

⚠️ Important Delivery Disclaimer

While highly reliable, all door-to-door carriers, including FedEx, have a disclaimer for potential delays due to unavoidable issues like:

• Adverse weather conditions.
• Mechanical difficulties (truck/plane problems).

What This Means for You:

• The tracking hyperlink emailed to you will show the expected delivery time.
• However, we recommend planning for someone to be available for the entire day in case an unpredictable delay occurs.

🏠 Alternative Delivery Options

If you cannot be home all day, consider these options:

1. FedEx Office Pickup: Have your package delivered to a FedEx office. The tracking link will advise you when it is ready for convenient pickup.
2. Alternate Location: Ship to your workplace, a neighbor, or a friend who can accept delivery.

Please let us know if an alternative option is better for you than standard home delivery.

The size of your new pet depends on the time of year you order relative to our hatching season. Unless you order a specifically advertised older snake, sizes follow this seasonal schedule:

📅 Corn Snake Hatching Schedule

• General Season: July – October
• First Wave: May – August
• Second Wave: September – October

🐍 Age & Size Classifications
We classify our snakes by age to help you estimate size:

• Hatchlings: 0 to 12 months old.
• Yearlings: 1 to 2 years old (until their second birthday).

Step 1: Set Up Early
Before your new pet arrives, your cage should be fully set up and running for days (or even weeks). This allows you to verify the equipment is working before the snake is inside.

🔥 The Most Important Factor: HEAT
Ensuring the cage is properly heated is the #1 prerequisite for the health of your snake. Because snakes cannot produce their own body heat, they rely entirely on environmental temperatures for:

• Appetite: Cold snakes often refuse to eat.
• Digestion: Without heat, a snake cannot digest its food properly.

For detailed instructions on temperatures, lamps, and mats, please read our Corn Snake Heating Guide.

We are fully committed to the safe transport of your reptile. We exclusively use FedEx live animal shipping services due to their proven procedures and unmatched reliability.

📦 Shipping Reliability & Key Metrics:

• Low D.O.A. Rate: Since 2002, we have averaged less than one D.O.A. (Dead On Arrival) snake per year across thousands of annual shipments.
• Shipping Speed: All orders are shipped for guaranteed Next Day Delivery.
• Arrival Time: Packages usually arrive before noon the next day.
• Packaging: Each box is custom-packed using specialized materials to facilitate maximum comfort and safety for the animals.

FedEx's consistent handling procedures make them the only door-to-door carrier we will use for our corn snake shipments.

The simplest way to determine if you are feeding items that are too small is by observing the stomach bulge after a meal.

📏 The 24-Hour Sizing Rule:

If the meal bulge is not obvious in the mid-section (stomach area) 24 hours after feeding, you can safely move up to the next sequential rodent size. This move should only be made if your cage conditions are optimal for digestion.

Mouse Size Progression Chart:

1. Small Pinky
2. Medium Pinky
3. Large Pinky
4. Fuzzy
5. Hopper
6. Weaned
7. Small Adult
8. Medium Adult
9. Large Adult

Based on thousands of customer testimonials, online frozen rodent suppliers located across the U.S. provide the most satisfactory and consistent sources for high-quality snake feeders.

🇺🇸 Three Highly Recommended U.S. Suppliers

Local Pet Stores vs. Online Inventory

While there is nothing inherently wrong with purchasing frozen mice from your local pet store, the key challenge is consistent inventory. It can be frustrating—or even devastating—if your local store runs out of the exact crucial size your snake needs (like small pinkies) but only has sizes that are obviously too large (like fuzzies).

🛑 Crucial Safety Rule: Skip the Meal, Don't Upsize Too Soon

If your usual source is out of stock of the correct size, the safest course of action is to let your snake skip a week of feeding. It is traditionally much safer for your snake to fast than to risk illness from regurgitating a meal that was too large to digest. Use the skipped week to purchase the proper mouse size from one of the reliable online suppliers listed above.

In the wild, corn snakes naturally consume live prey. However, for the safety and well-being of a captive snake, feeding frozen/thawed rodents is strongly recommended.

Why Live Feeding is Discouraged in Captivity

• Limited Retreat: The main distinction is that a captive corn snake has limited retreat options in a contained environment if attacked by a particularly vicious or defensive mouse.
• Unnecessary Risk: Even though healthy, captive corn snakes are powerful and their strike is often calculated and precise, there is always a risk of the prey fighting back. Historically, serious injuries from live mouse bites have been reported, even if they are rare (e.g., one or two serious injuries per 100 keepers).

The Safety Factor: If there is even a rare chance of a live mouse injuring a captive snake, the chance of such an injury with a dead, frozen/thawed mouse is effectively zero. Eliminating this risk is always the best practice.

When a snake that was previously eating vigorously suddenly refuses a meal, the number one suspect is usually the environment, specifically temperature.

🌡️ The #1 Cause: Incorrect Temperature

Corn snakes rely on external heat for all bodily functions, including appetite and digestion. If the warm hide or basking area is too hot or too cool, the snake perceives it as unsafe to eat. In both cases, the snake instinctively chooses fasting over eating a meal it cannot properly digest, which could lead to illness or regurgitation.

🔎 Common Reasons for Snake Food Refusal

Beyond temperature, many other factors can cause a corn snake to refuse food (anorexia):

• Preparing to shed (vision is impaired)
• Prey item is too large (risk of regurgitation)
• Prey item smells bad or is presented incorrectly (e.g., cold)
• Nervousness caused by recent handling or activity prior to the meal offering
• Close proximity to cage mates or other household pets during feeding time
• Adult males refusing food in proximity to adult females during breeding season
• Adult females refusing food in the final stages of egg production
• The snake is simply not hungry (often the case with older, less frequently fed snakes)

🚨 When to Seek Veterinary Help:

If you have corrected the environmental factors (especially temperature) and the snake continues to refuse meals, illness may be the cause. Do not waste too much time; seek a qualified reptile veterinarian to examine your snake immediately. More details can be found on this subject (and others) in the CARE SHEET of this web site.

🚫 Never Feed Wild-Caught Rodents

We strongly advise against feeding wild mice or wild-caught rodents to your corn snake, as the risk is too high. There are two primary dangers associated with wild-caught prey, even when frozen:

• Poisons and Toxins: Wild rodents may have ingested poisons (like rodenticides) prior to capture. While freezing efficiently kills many parasites, it will not neutralize poisons. Feeding these toxins could severely harm or kill your snake.
• Bite Injury Risk: If fed alive, naturally aggressive wild rodents pose an even greater threat than captive-bred ones, potentially causing severe bite injuries to your snake.

Due to the unknown chemical exposure and potential for disease, there is no justification for feeding wild mice when safe, captive-bred frozen feeders are readily available.

⚠️ Recommended Corn Snake Diet: Captive-Bred Rodents Only

We strongly recommend feeding your corn snake nothing other than captive-bred rodents (mice or rats of the appropriate size). There is no substitute food that offers the correct, balanced nutrition and safety profile.

Dangers of Feeding Wild-Caught or Alternate Prey

Animals that feed on the ground (such as lizards, frogs, toads, and birds) pose significant risks, even if frozen:

• Toxin Exposure: Freezing kills most parasites and pathogens, but it does not neutralize environmental toxins.
• Real-World Example: A snake keeper inadvertently poisoned his corn snake after feeding it wild-caught Anole lizards that had been exposed to chemical defoliants near a railway.
• Nutritional Balance: Alternate prey cannot guarantee the balanced nutrition found in commercially raised feeders.

🚨 Important Rule: Corn snakes of any size should NEVER be fed insects of any kind.

📏 Adult Corn Snake Size & Length

The maximum size of your corn snake is primarily determined by genetics, but proper feeding and temperature are crucial for healthy development.

• Average Female Length: 3.5 to 4.0 feet (at maturity).
• Average Male Length: 4.0 to 4.5 feet (at maturity).
• Hatchling Size: Most corns hatch between 8 and 11 inches long.
• Rare Size: Corn snakes over five feet long are considered rare.

📈 Growth Rate Factors & Projections

Growth rates depend heavily on the feeding regimen and environmental conditions (cage temperature).

• Standard Weekly Feeding (Growth-Nominal):

  If you feed one appropriately sized prey item every week (at proper cage temperatures), your snake should grow about 1/2 to 1 inch per month.

• Accelerated Growth (12–18 Inches/Year):

  Corn snakes fed every four to six days (only safe under optimal, regulated cage conditions) average 12 to 18 inches of growth per year.

✨ Growth Spurts

An obvious growth spurt results when corn snakes transition from feeding on fur-less pinky mice to larger prey items, such as fuzzies. Prey size, therefore, plays a direct role in accelerating growth projections.

🚨 Regurgitation is NOT Natural

Regurgitating (vomiting) a recently consumed meal is not a natural or normal event for a snake. It is a serious sign that points to a medical problem or, more commonly, a critical environmental failure in the enclosure.

🌡️ Most Likely Cause: Environmental Stress

In the majority of cases, the stimulus for regurgitation is an incorrect temperature in the enclosure. If the snake cannot reach the necessary high temperatures for its basking area, it is incapable of digesting the meal, and the body will expel it to prevent rotting internally.

✅ Immediate Post-Regurgitation Care Protocol

It is crucial that you follow a specific protocol after a regurgitation event to prevent serious long-term harm:

1. Correct the Stimulus: Immediately identify and fix the underlying issue (e.g., check and adjust all cage temperatures using a reliable thermometer/temp gun).
2. Withhold Food: *Do not offer another meal soon after the event.* The snake's digestive tract is inflamed and damaged. Feeding again too quickly often leads to a second, more damaging regurgitation.
3. Seek Advice: Consult a specialized reptile veterinarian or refer to reputable care sheets for detailed post-regurgitation therapies before offering the next, smaller meal.

🧼 Safe Reptile Enclosure Cleaning Agents

A simple, two-step approach using easily accessible products is highly effective for cleaning and sanitizing reptile enclosures and accessories:

1. Wash/Clean:

   Use an OTC (over-the-counter) antibacterial dishwashing liquid to wash away visible debris, waste, and organic material from all surfaces and furnishings.

2. Sanitize/Disinfect:

   Sanitize the cage and accessories using a dilute bleach/water solution. This step is critical for killing harmful bacteria and pathogens.

⚠️ Bleach Dilution Safety Guide

When using bleach, ensure you use the correct dilution, and always rinse thoroughly afterward to prevent exposing your snake to harmful chemical residue:

• Recommended Dilution: 1 part bleach to 10 parts water (1:10 ratio).
• Post-Sanitization: Follow sanitation with a thorough fresh water rinse and allow the enclosure to dry completely before returning your snake.

Even though corn snakes are extensively captive-bred, they are not instinctively trusting of animals larger than themselves. Observing specific "rules of engagement" ensures the most successful and stress-free handling.

✅ Corn Snake Handling Rules

• Approach Confidently: When reaching in, approach the snake without delay or hesitation. Being slow or making hesitant gestures can cause the snake to distrust your intentions.
• Avoid Grasping: Do not attempt to grab the snake by the neck or tail, as these are the most defensively sensitive areas.
• Lift Mid-Body: The ideal method is to pick up the snake mid-body without hesitation.
• Support, Don't Constrain: If your snake seems to resent being grasped, simply place your fingers under its body and lift it gently. Letting its body rest on your hand reduces the chance of the snake misidentifying you as a predator.

Hygiene and Environment

• Clean Hands: Always ensure your hands are clean and devoid of food or pet smells.
• Watch for Predators: Do not let other household pets (dogs, cats) near you while holding your corn until you know your snake's specific reaction to those stimuli, as a snake sensing a predator could lead to a defensive bite.

Note: These rules apply after the first few days of acclimating your new pet to its environment.

📉 Primary Cause: Low Humidity & Dehydration

When a snake fails to shed its skin in one complete piece, it is almost always due to low humidity leading to dehydration. Common household appliances that dry out the air include:

• Home Furnaces: Especially during winter, furnaces significantly dehydrate the air in your home and, consequently, your snake’s enclosure.
• Air Conditioners: Refrigeration air conditioners also lower air humidity, though typically less severely than heating systems.

✅ Solutions for Preventing Stuck Shed (Dysecdysis)

To ensure a full, healthy shed, you need to provide extra moisture and hydration:

• Proactive Hydration (Shed Box):

  During the entire ten-day shedding process (when the snake's eyes turn cloudy), place damp sphagnum moss inside the warm hide. This creates a humid microclimate that super-hydrates the old skin, making partial sheds less frequent.

• Temperature Check:

  Ensure your cage is not overheated. Excessive heat can rapidly dry out the enclosure and the snake itself.

• Reactive Treatment (Soaking):

  If a partial shed has already occurred (or if the snake seems to be struggling), it may be necessary to gently soak your snake in shallow, lukewarm water to help loosen the remaining skin.

💧 Water Quality and Safety Recommendations

Your corn snake must always have access to clean, fresh drinking water. Routine water changes are essential—at least twice a week, and immediately if the water is soiled or cloudy.

Recommended Water Source

• Filtered Drinking Water (Recommended):

  Filtered water, affordably available at most grocery stores, is recommended. City tap water often contains antibacterial chemicals (like chlorine or chloramine) in concentrations that can be relatively harmful, especially to neonates (hatchlings).

🚫 Water Sources to Avoid

• Distilled Water:

  Do NOT use distilled water. The distillation process removes valuable minerals essential for proper snake nutrition.

• Water Softeners:

  Water from home softeners is not recommended. These systems add minerals and chemicals such as sodium (or potassium) that are unnecessary or potentially harmful to your snake.

Bites from corn snakes are rare, as they are generally highly tolerant of humans. When a bite occurs, it is usually a defensive reaction triggered by one of two primary factors:

🌡️ Environmental Stress (Most Likely Cause)

Improper cage temperatures are the most likely stimulus for a snake biting a human. When a snake is too cold or too hot, it feels stressed and insecure, leading to defensive behavior.

👁️ Natural & Temporary Defenses

Other causes of nipping or striking are related to the snake's current physical or mental state:

• Impaired Vision During Shedding:

  During the shedding process (which can last ten days or more), the snake's vision is impaired by the old skin covering its eyes. The transparent scale covering the eye (spectacle) is cloudy. The snake is instinctively aggressive toward anything moving near it until its sight is restored post-shed.

• Acclimation Stress:

  Expect some distrusting and defensive behavior during the first few days after receiving your new snake as it acclimates to the new sights, sounds, and smells of its enclosure.

🔍 Escaped Snake Search Strategy

The first 48 hours offer your best chance for recovery. Corn snakes are nocturnal and move at night in search of water and comfortable temperatures.

• Initial Search Zone (First 48 Hours): Escaped snakes are usually found in the room they escaped from, or very close by.
• Extended Search Zone: After a couple of nights without finding their cage, they will typically begin searching in other rooms of the house.
• Movement Pattern: When loose, corn snakes tend to hug the walls as they search for warmth and water.

⚠️ Safety Precautions While Loose

To keep the snake safe while you search, take these steps:

• Hydration: Leave water bowls on the floor next to a wall in each room, as the snake will need access to drinking water.
• Dangers: Snakes not found within 14 days are sometimes injured by household pets or crushed under rugs/furniture.

🛠️ Most Successful Retrieval Method: The Tape Trap

A "tape trap," similar to the flypaper concept, is the most successful method for retrieval:

1. Use Painter's Tape: Use inexpensive painter's tape. Do NOT use excessively sticky tape, or you risk ripping the snake’s skin when removing it.
2. Placement: Place the tape on the floor right next to the walls (where the snake travels).
3. Application Methods:
   • Curl both ends so the tape sticks to the floor with the sticky side facing up.
   • Alternatively, just let a piece fall to the floor in a random heap so sticky surfaces face multiple directions.

Specifics for Neonates (Hatchlings): For neonatal corns, a length of tape approximately 12″ x 1/2″ (30 x 1.3 cm) will suffice, as they are usually incapable of escaping even small pieces.

Removal Safety: When removing the snake, do so very slowly and carefully. Warm water can help loosen the adhesive of the tape.