How to Feed a Corn Snake

Co-authored by Clint Bartley

Last Updated: February 14, 2024 Approved

While feeding your pet corn snake might seem strange and complicated, it is actually fairly simple. Corn snakes are predators and meat-eaters, so you should consider how comfortable you are with feeding animals to your snake before taking one on as a pet. In general, thawed frozen rodents are the best food source and the easiest way of feeding your snake. Further, they are the most convenient source to buy and, unlike live rodents, they don't threaten your snake with injury or disease. If your snake isn’t eating, it could be due to feeding technique, temperature, other stressors in its environment, or it might simply be shedding.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Choosing Your Snake’s Food Source

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1
Choose between frozen and live rodents. While some people think that using live prey seems more natural, most captive bred snakes have never had live or wild-caught prey. Live prey is more expensive and less convenient to purchase and store. More importantly, live rodents can injure, or even kill, your pet by biting or scratching, and can spread diseases or parasites.
- If you caught your pet snake in the wild, it might reject thawed rodents and only want to eat live prey.
- Check with your pet store to make sure your store-bought corn snake was raised on thawed rodents. Whether a snake has been raised on live prey is typically listed on its description, or a store employee can let you know.
- If you need to feed your corn snake live prey, don’t leave the room. You’ll need to make sure the live rodent doesn’t injure your snake.^{[1]
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- If an hour or two has passed and the snake has not eaten, remove the prey, place it in another cage with a food and water source, and try again the next day.
2
Choose the right sized rodent. In general, do not feed your corn snake anything larger than 1.5 times the size of its midsection. If your corn snake is a hatchling, feed it thawed pinkies, or mice that have not yet grown fur. Feed your hatchling one to two pinkies per week. As it grows, switch to fuzzies, which are mice that have just started to grow fur. Start with one per week, and eventually progress to two as your snake matures.
- Check the size of your baby snake’s midsection to determine the size of their prey. If it’s a very small hatchling, pinky parts are also available.
- Casually observe your snake on a regular basis so you can get to know its behavior. Look for when it moves around its cage as if it were hunting, and begin to structure your feeding time by gauging when your snake looks hungry.
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When your corn snake is a baby, you will need to feed it once every five to seven days. When it’s an adult, you will need to feed it every seven to 10 days.^{[2]
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Big name pet stores tend to carry frozen rodents from good sources. Buying in bulk from a pet chain or an only reptile or snake society can save you money. You can see if your area has a local herpetologist, or reptile expert, or herpetology society. Consider consulting with them, or alternatively a local veterinarian, about local bulk frozen rodent buying options.^{[3]
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Feeding Your Snake

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Forceps and similar tools reduce the risk of snakebites by keeping your hands a safe distance from they prey and your snake's mouth. If you do touch your snake’s prey, or if you have a pet rodent, wash your hands before feeding your snake or putting your hands in its habitat. Otherwise, you’ll smell like prey and run the risk of getting bit.
2
Put a frozen mouse into a plastic baggie. If it’s not already individually bagged, put a frozen mouse into a bag. Heat up about 2 cups of water on the stove or in the microwave. Place the mouse in the bag into the water and let it sit for ten to fifteen minutes, or until thawed.^{[4]
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- Ensure that the water is not boiling, or you might melt the plastic baggie.
- Don’t thaw a mouse using a microwave or stove. If it cooks, your snake might reject it or get sick from eating it.
- To check if it's ready, poke the mouse's abdomen in a few places. If there are no hard spots, the mouse is ready for feeding.
- The time it takes for the mouse to thaw depends on its size. Smaller mice will thaw sooner than large mice.
3
Decide whether to feed your snake in its vivarium or in a feeding tub. Some snake owners prefer to feed their snakes in a special feeding tub. This will condition your snake not to expect food when you put your hands into its habitat, thus reducing the risk of bites. The feeding tub should be a container that can comfortably enclose your snake and fit into the vivarium.
- If you use a feeding tub, place your snake into the tub before feeding, feed it, then once it has swallowed the mouse place the snake and feeding tub into the vivarium.
- Let it slither out of the tub back into the vivarium on its own time instead of lifting the snake out of the feeding tub to put it back into its habitat.
4
Dangle the mouse into your snake’s vivarium or feeding tub. Whether you opt to feed your snake when it’s in its vivarium or using a feeding tub, the process is basically the same. Use your forceps or tongs to dangle the mouse by the tail about 5 inches (12.7 cm) from your snake's head. Give it a few shakes, as snakes prefer moving targets.^{[5]
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- The snake should strike within a minute or so. Once the snake grabs the mouse, let it go immediately.
5
Give your snake some privacy. Corn snakes prefer to eat in the dark and, especially with new owners, are most comfortable eating alone. Once your snake has grabbed the mouse, close the vivarium or cover the feeding tub (making sure there’s still air flow) and leave the room, closing the door behind you. After a few feeds, the snake may be comfortable eating in front of you, but make sure to leave him/her alone for the first few feeds or if it is a hatchling.
- Think about when a snake is eating in the wild: it can’t really defend itself or quickly escape danger while it’s swallowing prey.
- Because eating is such a vulnerable time, some snakes, especially hatchlings, need to get used to you and decide that you’re not a threat before they’ll eat in front of you.

Part 3

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Promoting Digestive Health

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1
Don’t handle your snake after feeding it. Give your snake time to digest its food. Handling it while it’s digesting can cause regurgitation and other problems. Make sure to wait two days after feeding time before handling your snake.
- In addition, avoid handling your snake the day that you feed it. Handling it too much just before feeding time can also stress your snake out, which will reduce its appetite.
2
Maintain warm and cool temperature zones. Snake habitats need to have a temperature gradient, which means one end needs to be warm and the other cool. This helps them maintain their body temperature, and is particularly important during digestion. Temperature imbalance can result in your snake refusing to eat or regurgitating.
- Use heat lamps and an accurate thermometer to maintain temperatures of 80 to 86 degrees on the warm side and no less than 65 degrees on the cool side.
- Make sure there are plenty of hiding places in both temperature zones. Your snake might harm itself if there’s only one hiding place and it doesn’t leave that zone to regulate its temperature.
3
Consider if your snake is shedding if it doesn’t eat. If your snake doesn’t want to eat, but doesn’t appear to be stressed and the temperature is right, it might be because it’s about to shed. Check to see if its skin is dull, eyeballs are bluish. If so, your snake is preparing to shed and will not eat during the shedding process. It will resume eating normally as soon as it’s completely shed its skin.
- If your snake refuses food but is not shedding, stressed, and the temperature is correct, consult a veterinarian.

Expert Q&A

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How do I identify the sex of corn snakes?

Clint Bartley
Herpetology Expert
Clint Bartley is a Herpetology Expert based in Chandler, Indiana. He has over 30 years of experience working with reptiles, and opened Metazotics in 2022, a large reptile breeding facility and specialty store where he oversees a breeding colony of nearly 500 reptiles. Metazotics specializes in reptiles such as colubrids, ball pythons, geckos, tortoises, and more, and serves a national audience with their state-of-the-art online merchandise platform. In particular, Clint is known as an industry leader in Asian rat snake and black rat snake mutations. Clint has successfully reproduced more than 60 species of reptiles in captivity. He was the second person in the United States to produce Archelaphe bella chapaensis (bell rat snakes), and the first person in the U.S. to produce them twice. Metazotics carries a comprehensive line of supplies and habitats, offers all bioactive enclosure needs, and works with local organizations to further their knowledge and understanding of reptiles.

Clint Bartley

Herpetology Expert

Expert Answer

There are several methods for determining the sex of corn snakes. With young snakes, a technique called "popping" is commonly used. This involves gently rolling and pushing just below the cloaca towards the tail's bottom, causing a male's hemipenes to protrude if present, while females typically show no significant response except perhaps a scent gland. It's crucial to perform this method with extreme care to avoid harm to the snake, so it's advisable to seek guidance from an experienced individual. For older snakes, probing is often employed, usually on specimens over a year old, since popping becomes less effective. In this method, a lubricated probe is inserted into the cloaca, reaching into the hemipene pocket. In females, the probe penetrates only a short distance, around two to three scales deep, while in males, it goes much further, approximately six to eight scales deep. This distinction reflects the inverted nature of hemipenes in males. Lastly, experienced individuals can discern the snake's sex by examining the tail's shape. When viewed from beneath, a female's tail appears shorter with a rapid taper towards the tip, whereas a male's tail typically exhibits a longer and less tapered appearance.

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