Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just picked up a baby corn snake last night. Right now it is a baby, not sure the date of hatching, but it is about pencil thick and 6"-8" (really rough guess on that). We already had a wood snake enclosure that is 22"L x 15.5" W x 15" tall (approximately 22 gallons) that had housed a ball python in it a long time ago. It has a ceramic lamp heater that is caged in so a snake "can't" get in and touch the lamp.

We figured that the corn snake could go in there, but I'm not sure if it is too big for a baby. Would this stress out the baby too much? Will it be ok if we provide a bunch of hides for it? I couldn't find any care sheets that address this specific issue. Usually they just say how small an enclosure can be, not how big.

We weren't sure about this so what we have right now is a snall plastic container with paper substrate (plenty of room for the snake), a hide, and water placed into the larger wood enclosure. We did this so we could utilize the ceramic heater to heat the smaller plastic enclosure.

If having the snake inside the wood enclosure without the plastic container would stress out the snake too much, how big should we wait for the snake to get before moving it into the wood enclosure?

I know I should have asked about this before getting the snake, but it was a fairly impulse buy. Please don't flame me for that.

Thank you for any help.
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-Scott

Hail, Hail, the gang's all here
Leave your worries at the door boy, they're not going anywhere.
Hail, Hail, the gang's all here
When the going gets tough I know my friends will still be there.
-Dropkick Murphy's

Most corn snakes hatch in the summer, so chances are your snake is several months old. A number of people start out by putting a hatchling corn in a ten gallon tank. The works some of the time, but certainly not all of the time. In my experience snakes seem to feel more secure and feed more consistantly when kept in smaller enclosures.

Having said that, I don't see any harm in putting the snake in the enclosure you have for it and seeing how it does. It may feed well and not have any problems. If it is an inconsistant feeder in the large cage, then I'd set a smaller cage inside it and go that route until the snake is 18-24 inches long.

All snakes are different and there's no "magic formula" as to what size snake will do well in a particular size of enclosure.

Tim

Third Eye