Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Corn snakes can live to be over 20 years old, but I rarely see or hear anyone talk about corns more than several years old. Its kind of depressing if you think about it. I hope to still have my little baby around when I turn 50 (I'll be 27 in about a week). So post some pictures and/or stories about your old corns. If you have other snakes or other long lived herps too, I'd like to hear about them as well.
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My Pictures

Don't have any pictures right now, but I've got an anerythristic female that I got as a baby in 1992, makes her 15 going on 16. I retired her from breeding, but she still eats well and seems to be doing fine. An amel female I got at the same time just passed a year or two ago.

Todd

They don't usually live to be 20. There could be a number of reasons for this. I've seen a heck of a lot of overweight corns and I'm sure that's not very healthy.

There is a zoo that holds a number of snake longevity records, and they're philosophy is to keep their snakes thin.

In addition, breeding is very stressful to snakes. It would be interesting to know if wild corn snakes breed every year and if they routinely double clutch.

Also, there's a heck of a lot of inbreeding going on with corns to refine traits. We really don't know if it affects their long term health and/or future generations.

I have found corns not to be as "sturdy" as rat, king and milk snakes. The Honduran Milk pictured below will be 20 next Summer. I raised her from a hatchling and she's still going strong.

Tim

Third Eye

>>Corn snakes can live to be over 20 years old, but I rarely see or hear anyone talk about corns more than several years old. Its kind of depressing if you think about it. I hope to still have my little baby around when I turn 50 (I'll be 27 in about a week). So post some pictures and/or stories about your old corns. If you have other snakes or other long lived herps too, I'd like to hear about them as well.
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At work we have a corn snake that will be 20 years old next year. She was bred a few times during the mid-90's and after 5 clutches we stopped as the babies always had problems of one type or another and we figured there were some genetic issues she was passing on. We took in another corn snake this summer that is already 9 years old (as we don't know how much longer the older one will be around and the new one would help take a lot of the burden off her for program use).

We have a copperhead at work as well that is at least 27 years old - likely much older (he was wild caught and got him in 1984 and already full grown so we estimate he was at least 3-5 years of age back then).

We had an eastern kingsnake at work that passed away this spring from an infection in the oviduct causing her to become egg bound. She was probably around 12-15 years old when she passed away. We got her back in 1999 and a few dozen other snakes from animal control from a confiscation situation they had (guy was a small time breeder). We have no idea how old she was, but she was certainly full grown.

At home I have an emory rat snake. I got her in 1994 from a petstore (within 2 days of them getting her in) and she was already full grown. For her size, I estimated her age to be between 3-5 years so that puts her at around 16-18 years of age this year.

I also had an amel corn that passed away in 2001 at just under 11 years of age. He had been powerfed pretty heavily during the first 3 years of his life before I knew that it could potentially cause future problems (he was my first rodent eating snake). Once I found out from others that he was being fed too much, he went on a diet. He did well and slimmed down and lost his obese look. Then one winter he started wasting away and died 6 months later - even though he kept eating normally up until that last month and parasites were not an issue. The vet at the time thought maybe it was cancer, but back then I couldn't afford to have lab tests sent off.
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PHWyvern

My oldest corn is about 15 years old. My brother got her when we were in middle school as a rescue.. my aunt worked at the nc vet hospital and there was a 3 foot long snake that needed a home before christmas. i was in 7th grade then when my brother stopped feeding and taking care of her i took her in. Shes about 4 1/2 to 5 feet maybe a lil more and still going strong. i have had her 12 years but since she was an adult when we got her i can only assume she is at least 15 years old. right now shes brumating...just shed last week...i have a terrible picture of her from a few years ago but as soon as i get my computer fixed i'll put up more...
~kin

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~Sober Serpents~
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle

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~Sober Serpents~
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle