Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In response to TwoSnakes post below- there are many small snakes that are tons of fun and easy to feed-

I recommend Dekay's Brown Snakes- mine eats worms and slugs voraciously, quite impressive to see a snake battling an earthworm almost it's size! They aren't rocket scientists, see picture attached of "Brownie" thinking it's hidden under a leaf...

Also rough/smooth earth snakes- they are cool they will cruise the substrate with their heads stuck up like little periscopes, eat slugs and worms.

And of course worm snakes...

I collect all of the above by putting down boards (wide ones, like 3x4 pieces of plywood) in grassy areas, I can usually count on finding one or two any warm day in my back yard and woods in North Carolina Piedmont. Last fall when I raked leaves from the yard I accidentally found/raked-up 3 or 4 in a day- most didn't survive the process.

Other easy to feed small snakes to consider might include ribbon snakes...

any one else have any suggestions/ideas?

Thanks for this post. I enjoyed reading this. I actually thought dekay snakes would be hard and would only eat slugs.
Which are easy to catch in summer but not winter in my area.

Oh yes, worms are tasty...I quit feeding storebought red wrigglers though.

Luckily here even in dead of winter, there are slugs and worms available under logs, etc, we only have a couple of snowfalls that last 2-3 days each year.

In my experience, wild-caught ones like this will either eat within a week or two, or never.They all have heavy parasite loads including subcutaneous lumps (encased worms) that are difficult to cure, so I catch new ones and let the old ones go every couple of months.

The one I have now is so eager to feed though I may try to keep it long-term and treat the parasites- I'd like to raise some babies...

Here's a pick of my kid feeding our current brown snake:

Oh I didnt know they had parasites and so many. I have heard of flagyl being used (put in the food) to cure such things.
One nice thing about the smallish snakes are the natural looking woodland habitat that is easy enough to reproduce in the terrarium.
I like the look of your set up it looks like woodland area. A friend of mine sent me a pic of a "native" snake his neighbor caught in Miami few days ago.
It was a Rosy boa lol. He caught it in his yard. The Florida "native" snakes certainly arent like the native snakes in my area lol.
Thanks for all the great info.

...like someone lost their rosy.
Found in florida you say?

Those are great looking bown snakes! If you ever have babies, let me know

-Alice