Housing

🔒 The Perfect Corn Snake Enclosure & Vivarium Setup

Choosing the right housing for your corn snake is critical for safety, health, and maintaining stable temperatures.

🐍 Essential Enclosure Safety and Security

Corn snakes are notorious escapists. Safety is the number one priority for any enclosure.

• Secure Closure: Your vivarium must have a **secure and tightly-fitting lid** (preferably locking) to prevent escape.
• Ventilation: Snakes need fresh air, but too much ventilation can lead to dangerously cool temperatures.
• Recommendation: Use top ventilation (e.g., screen tops designed for aquariums), and avoid cages with screen sides to better control thermal regulation.
• Hatchling Warning: Newly hatched (neonates) corn snakes can escape through any gap or hole the size of their snout. Inspect their first cage thoroughly!

📏 Sizing Your Corn Snake’s Cage

The required enclosure size depends on the snake's age and length.

• Starting Out: Many keepers start young snakes in a 10-gallon (37.9 L) tank and upgrade. However, there is no harm in starting a juvenile directly in a 40 gallon enclosure (or larger) for their lifetime.
• Space Needs: Corn snakes are considered "low-aerobic" pets, meaning they do not require vast space. However, a larger vivarium naturally facilitates more exercise and better muscle tone.

🔥 Heating and Enclosure Material

The material of your enclosure dictates your optimal heating choices.

Aquariums (Glass Tanks): These are the most widely used corn snake cages because:

• They offer excellent viewing.
• Glass provides the greatest number of options for safe heating.
• Transparent sides make it easier to detect feces and smudges that can harbor germs.
• Heating Safety Note: If you choose an enclosure without a glass floor, research your heating options carefully. Under-Tank (UT) heaters—the safest and most common device—are generally not safe for direct contact with many non-glass materials.

Crucial Concept: Larger enclosures are better for establishing distinct thermal zones (hot and cool areas), which are vital for proper corn snake digestion and metabolism.

❌ Housing: One Snake Per Cage

Cannibalism Risk: It is strongly recommended that each corn snake has its own cage.

Warning: While rare, cannibalism among corn snakes can happen without warning, even among siblings or similarly sized individuals.

Communal housing of corns of any size is inherently dangerous and therefore ill-advised.

Q: Guess who this newly-hatched Blizzard corn just ate?
A: His brother, Larry.