General Corn snake questions

I just got a couple of cornsnakes about a month ago. They are both just a few months old. They just shed their skin the other day for the first time that I have had them. One is a male and one a female. The female is MUCH larger than the male, and I think she is just a few weeks older than the male. I have a couple of questions.....
My female eats really well, recently she stopped eating the frozen pinkies, but tears into the live ones as soon as I put them in her tank. The male on the other hand has not eaten in like two weeks (I will assume that this is because he was getting ready to shed). I am going to try to feed him again soon sometime. But the female is eating 2 every week. (one right after the other) When should I get her fuzzies? and when should I start worrying if the male doesn't eat?
Also, is it normal for them to shed at the exact same time? They have always been living together. They had been nesting together up to the last could of weeks when the male stopped eating. Then they seperated. Now since they shed, they wont be seperated. I move the female and the male follows. They haven't been by themselves AT ALL in the last couple of days. Just wondering if this is all normal. Also, I was told that eventually these will breed. When should I start looking for that and what do I look for? Thank you so much for your help!!!

(They are both snow corn snakes)

As to your questions regarding when to start feeding your corn fuzzies, judge that by the girth of your snake. You want to feed your snake prey that is no bigger than the biggest part of your snake. That being said, feeding a number smaller items as opposed to one big item is never a bad thing.

As to frozen versus live prey, all but two of my corns will eat both frozen and live prey without hesitation. The other two will only eat live. If you want your female to start eating frozen again, don't feed her for 10-14 days, by that time she should be hungry enough to take the frozen prey.

As to your male, I am assuming he does not have some type of parasite. If that is a possibility, try and get a fecal sample and have a smear done to rule out that possibility. Otherwise, I would separate the male from the female for a couple of days and try feeding under those conditions. Most authorities on cornsnakes suggest raising them in separate cages.

In addition to the above, the Cornsnake Manual by Kathy Love will answer most if not all of your questions and provide a good outline for raising cornsnakes.



Larry D. Stassin

One thing that it seems not many people think about is that you can scent frozen/thawed pinkies with live pinkies for those snakes that prefer live. Most live pinks will urinate when handled with tweezers and such, so just smear the urine on the frozen/thawed pink.

I agree with Larry's comments.

Bear in mind that some corn snakes are just very sensitive about eating around their shed cycle. I have found that quite a few of them simply regurgitate if you feed them while they are in the blue, so generally as a rule I do not even offer them food.

One other thing to consider is that most animals seem to establish a pecking order. Often, low man on the totem pole can become stressed enough where he won't feed. As a rule, we keep all of our corn snakes in separate cages.

Check the temps as well. Even though one snake apparently has an appetite, the other one just might not be comfortable at the temperature you have him. If you can, put a heating pad or something similar underneath one end of the tank to provide a thermocline. That way each snake can select the temperature it wants to be at by how near or far it is from the warmer end of the cage. Generally I would recommend a thermocline from 76 degrees to 85 degrees.

Very good. Thank you for your advice. I will try those things to see if that helps. Also, any ideas on the nesting together? When and why they do and do not? Thanks again!!!!!

Hi. I know its been awhile since you posted this, but thought I would jump in.
I am one of those people who has her snakes all together. I have 2 that I got at the same time. They are 34" and 21". They were caged together when I got them, so I kept them together. I am not positive on the sex, but we are pretty sure they are females. I have also another one that I rescued who is 17" and is a female. After a quarentine period, she was added to the cage. My tank is a 55 g aquarium with 4 hides, 1 humid, aspen bedding, md. water dish and a couple of climbing branches. Everyone has room to stretch out and be private but .....I could easily remove 2 hides and they would never miss it! Why? Because they are like one big long snake. When one leaves a hide, the other two follow like puppies. They tend to spend all their time curled into a snake ball. The only time they are seperated is when they eat. I start with the largest one, put her in the "cafeteria", and then put her back at the opposite end of the cage. Then start all over again. Feeding takes about 1 to 1/2 hrs. since I wait about 15 min. after feeding to place them back in. I think alot of it will depend on the snakes to whether you can house them together. These are just pets for me, with no plans to breed either.

I think you need to throw a male into that cage.

Hi Christina,

It sounds like the situation that you have works for you. I have found that keeping snakes in individual enclosures is more convenient in numerous ways. The feeding regime for my 15 cornsnakes is about 1/3 of the time that you have listed. It is easier and quicker for me to clean 15 smaller enclosures(rack systems supplied by Casey Hulse of Nature Spirit Reptiles) than tear down one big enclosure and clean. With three snakes in one enclosure it would be very difficult to monitor feces and know whos' was whos'. I believe it is also easier to regulate heat and humidity in multiple smaller enclosures than one big one. But hey, that's what works for me.

There are numerous other reasons to house individually other than breeding, but the one thing that I have learned is do what works best for you and your animals. At 17 to 20 inches, your snakes are far from full grown. In another year or so that 55 gallon tank may not be as accomodating.


Larry D. Stassin