Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some info on rat snakes, my LPS has albino rat snakes for $40, they look to be around 1ft. Is this a good price? They have very pretty markings. Now for my set-up, i have a 20gal. tall aquarium (24"Wx12"Dx16"T) will this be big ehough for now for 1 snake? I have a regular strip light, and an incandescent bulb over it, for heat. What temps, should it be at. They are being fed live crickets now, is that ok. Thanks so much, Dan

The 20 gallon tank sould work fine. A few recomendations though:
1. Use an under-tank heater for primary heat and the heat lamp for basking.
2. Make sure you have a secure screen lid - snakes like to go exploring
3. Hide areas are important
4. Crickets are not OK. Invertebrates are generally not recognized as prey items for rat snakes because they lack certain olfactory (smell) cues that the snakes pick up on. A diet of pinky mice will be a much better option by providing complete nutrition (something crickets cannot do). In the rare instance that a rat snake does eat a cricket, it is likely due to the snake reflexively striking toward movement. Additionally, crickets have been known to actually eat snakes when they are hungry and the snake is confined inside a tank.
5. You can use the fluorescent strip if you'd like to provide additional lighting, but this is generally unnecessary.
-cole

You should aim to have the warm end of the cage around 88F and the cool end around 70-75F. Place the water dish on the cool end and hide areas on both the warm and cool ends. Good luck.
-cole

thanks for replying, i plan on feeding pinkies, the store was feeding crickets for some reason, what king of under the tank heater do you suggest?

baby corns do sometimes eat crickets but for a pet store to be feeding them that tells me that they dont know what they are doing, or don't care. Don't ask them for advice. Most undertank heaters are labeled for the size tank they are intended for. When I was using them I would place the pad on one end and adjust the depth of my aspen shavings until the temp on top of the shavings was 88 degrees directly over top the pad. A swing of a few degrees one way or the other wont hurt anything through out the day. Extra lighting is not needed unless you just want to make it easier for you to see in. The snake will move from one end to the other if it gets too hot/cold, this is why you need hide boxes on either end. Send me an email and I'll tell you how I feed, frequency of feeding, etc. There are a lot of good people with good advice on this forum so just take some time and scroll down through the posts and you will find answeres to a lot of your questions.
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1.0 het albino ball
1.0 norm ball
0.2 norm ball
0.1 snow corn
1.0 butter corn
1.0 norm corn
1.0 southwestern rat
1.0 striped Cali king
1.0 western hog

Visual Morphs?....I love the normal looks. You can't improve on nature, you can only produce "interesting deviations".

Zoo-Med and Exoterra both make excellent models, but there are many others. Ideally, you want to heat 1/4-1/2 of the enclosure with the UTH. I'd recomend using a rheostat to control the temperature as opposed to depth of the bedding. Both methods work, but the rheostat is safer. Lack of education amongst pet-store employees is upsetting. It doesn't make a good impression on new herpers.

Only a few of the larger colubrids (the large family of snakes that includes rats, corns, kings, gophers, garters, racers, ground snakes, etc.) intentionally prey upon invertebrates. These include the racers, whipsnakes, and greensnakes. These animals are sight oriented predators that cue on movement. Corns, rats, milks, kings, ect. typically rely more heavily on olfactory perception when searching for food. While snakes in this last group (collectively termed the "Lampropelteni" may eat an insect on occasion, one would be hard pressed to find evidence that this is a regular occurrence. These snakes generally feed on rodents, lizards, frogs, and birds. They are vertebrate feeding specialists, as evidenced by thier constricting behavior. Smaller species of colubrid (such as ground snakes and sand snakes) often specialize in feeding on inverts.
-Cole

This has trouble wrighten all over it IMO. You would do well buying a good book on the snake before you buy it. Feeding it crickets? Are you kiding me? My Corns were under a foto when I got them and were already feeding on FT pinkies.
My Research and Collection

I'm not the one feeding crickets, the store was. He said that he alternates between pinkies, and crickets.

IMO thats just wrong. I think I have heard of a few snakes that eat crickets but they are suppose to eat them
I dont know maybe I am missing somthing here but it just dosnt sounds right. If I were in your position I would not buy that snake just because of this but I guess it just depends on if you want it
My Research and Collection

I highly recomend that you do not buy from them. Corns and rats are not made to eat crickets. You would be much better off buying from Don or Kathy.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"