What Is A Corn Snake?

The corn snake (Elaphe Guttata) is a brightly coloured constricting (non venomous) species of snake found in the eastern United States. Corn snakes are from the family of snakes called "Colubridae", this is the largest family of snakes in the World and contains about 78% of the snake population. Other colubrids include garter snakes, milk snakes and king snakes. Corn snakes live in a whole range of habitats including woods, rocky terrain, road sides and farm land. 

The corn snake is also known as a "red rat snake". They have obtained these names because of their diet (largely mice & rats) and their habitat (often near corn fields).

In the wild corn snakes grow to between 3' and 6'. In captivity you can expect a corn to grow to between 4' and 5'. It will take a corn about 3 years to reach their full adult size. They live for about 15-25 years which strongly depends on how well they are looked after.

Corn snakes are an ovipatous species meaning that they lay eggs. A female will typically lay between 10 and 25 eggs in one clutch

In the wild corn snakes feed on mice, rats and sometimes small lizards. They constrict their prey until it suffocates then swallow it whole. In captivity corn snakes usually eat dead mice. These are bought frozen from pet shops and just need to be thawed out and gently heated in warm water before feeding.