Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We caught a young Northern Brown Snake in our yard and are keeping it as a pet for a while. I've read that they eat earthworms, small insects, etc. but I've had no luck getting her to eat. She's in a cage with astroturf, a small rock/house, and a water dish/rock. She's only about 7" in length. I've put small worms, small caterpillars and even a baby grasshopper in there to no avail. We've had her about 2 weeks now. Any suggestions?

BearBear11

>>We caught a young Northern Brown Snake in our yard and are keeping it as a pet for a while. I've read that they eat earthworms, small insects, etc. but I've had no luck getting her to eat. She's in a cage with astroturf, a small rock/house, and a water dish/rock. She's only about 7" in length. I've put small worms, small caterpillars and even a baby grasshopper in there to no avail. We've had her about 2 weeks now. Any suggestions?
>>
>>BearBear11

First, unless you are confident that you can keep her alive all winter I would let her go where you found her. By the time she acclimates (if she does) it will be winter time and she will not be releasable and or she will shut down and die in the warm house.
Astroturf sucks and a couple inches of soft dirt would work much better. Leaf litter. Drop in some small earthworms. They need humidity, secrecy and you aren't likely to see much of her if she is set up correctly. Not set up right and she will fail to thrive and die.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Sonya,

I'm willing to try and keep her hopefully not at the expense of her life. How should I provide the humidity she needs? I have a large water dish in her cage and I have a light for heat over one side of her cage. I had her in a mulch bedding to begin with but then read that was a bad thing due to snakes ingesting materials when they eat. . .? So I switched to astroturf. You think I should switch back? I have a nice compost pile out back and therefore have a good resource for earthworms. I tried putting a few small ones in her cage but they just dried up and died - she didn't eat them.

I've never really kept northern brown snakes before, but I have caught some over the past couple years.

The large water dish is good for humidity, but if you keep the snake in mulch (orchid bark works too) then you can pour some water directly into the substrate. The easiest way to feed a snake worms (or any other animal for that matter) is to put them on a plate inside the cage. Redworms are a little smaller if your snake doesn't like earthworms and are sold at bait stores.
-----
Current Collection:
0.1 Antherystic elaphe guttata guttata - Corn Snake
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi - Eastern Fox Snake
0.1 Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta - Black Rat Snake
0.1 Leucistic elaphe obsoleta linheimeri - Texas Ratsnake
1.1 Morelia spilotac cheyni - Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Tiliqua scincoides intermedia - Northern Blue Tongue Skink

>>Sonya,
>>
>>I'm willing to try and keep her hopefully not at the expense of her life. How should I provide the humidity she needs? I have a large water dish in her cage and I have a light for heat over one side of her cage. I had her in a mulch bedding to begin with but then read that was a bad thing due to snakes ingesting materials when they eat. . .? So I switched to astroturf. You think I should switch back? I have a nice compost pile out back and therefore have a good resource for earthworms. I tried putting a few small ones in her cage but they just dried up and died - she didn't eat them.

First, she will likely try to hibernate (brumate) and you will be stuck trying to keep her at good temps and not have her die.
I have kept browns on dirt.....couple three inches of nice dirt, not aspen, not mulch. But that is me. Others may be more help for you.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Switch to moist potting soil or dirt. What you have is no good for brown snakes, although you can keep them on turf and paper towels and stuff, they prefer moist places. You can't keep turf moist. Give it a few pieces of bark to hide under or some flat rocks. Instead of a waterbowl, you can spray the sides of the enclosure, the snake will come out and drink off the sides.

Northern brown snakes often take slugs, they love eating slugs, so I suggest you try those. After you switch up the snake's enclosure, 2 days after that, let the snake come out of hiding, or bring it out of hiding, and throw some slugs near it. The slugs will start moving and hopefully the brown will take them.

If not, try 2 days later with live worms.
Michael
Michael's Place

-----
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Michael_Fedzen@hotmail.com

I decided to let the northern brown go. I was afraid it wouldn't make it and started to feel guilty. Hopefully I didn't keep it too long (2 weeks) and it will acclimate back to the outdoor temps. Thanks for your input. I'll be a little more educated next time!

to just release it. trying to keep a WC snake in the fall is pretty iffy. If it does not acclimate and will not feed, it will die. The small terrestrial snakes are not a very hardy species, and will even die in the summer if not setup correctly and not released in time if they fail to feed.

Your best bet would be to wait until next spring and find an adult. They are fairly easy to find in the wild, and once you get one set up and it will not feed, you can release it. The problem with catching a snake in the fall is that you cannot release it after it gets too cold, and therefore it is doomed to die if it will not feed.

If you are interested in trying your luck with these small ground snakes, just about any of them will demand the same requirements:
1 substrate should be natural potting soil. Do not use Miracle- grow or any other that has chemicals in them.

2 Fairly humid, need to maintain the enclosure fairly humid and cool. They do not like really warm temps. The warm end should be no warmer than 77 or 78 and the cool end should be around 73 - 74.

3 food - they will all readily feed on small earthworms, slugs, and other soft bodied grubs/worms.

Good luck on your decision either way

-----

1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Punisher and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Eastern Yellow Belly racer "Nightcrawler" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.1 California king snake "Bandit and Moonstar" (Coastal phase)
1.0 Prairie king snake "Bishop" (KY locale)
0.1 Black king snake "Domino" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern Milk snake "Cable" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern/Red milk intergrade "Omega Red" (KY locale)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I decided to let it go. I started feeling bad that it might not make it if I kept it in captivity and I wanted it to have time to acclimate to the new lower temps outside before the really cold temps come. I hope I didn't keep it too long (about 2 weeks). Of course now I've been "bitten" so to speak and want another snake. . . and my kids were loving it too. We'll have to start thinking about what would make a good pet. Thanks for your input!

that you have decided to release it. It was probably for the best.

Now that you have been bitten, be forewarned, snakes are very addicting!!! LOL

If you want a snake that is easy to care for and wont eat you out of house and home, take a look at the corns. They are a very hardy snake, and come in around 60 or so morphs (color variations). A great place to look at color variations is south mountain reptiles. Don has some killer looking snakes!!

Do some research first, figure out what kind of snake you want, size, and color your looking for. Get the enclosure set up before you make the purchase, and you should have a happy snake!
This is my KY locale normal corn.

-----

1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Punisher and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Eastern Yellow Belly racer "Nightcrawler" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.1 California king snake "Bandit and Moonstar" (Coastal phase)
1.0 Prairie king snake "Bishop" (KY locale)
0.1 Black king snake "Domino" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern Milk snake "Cable" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern/Red milk intergrade "Omega Red" (KY locale)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I totally agree with Hotshot. Brown snakes are just hard to keep alive. You'll have a much more rewarding experience if you get a captive bred snake that eats a readily available food item like rodents.
As for South Mountain , again I agree with Hotshot. I've purchased three snakes from Don, and have been very pleased.
Cheers!