Snake - Colubrid

Colubridae comprises the largest family of snakes, with over one thousand species. The vast majority are harmless, although they may bite. Some colubrids are small insectivorous snakes while others can be larger predomoinantly constrictor snakes such the racer and the indigo snake. Many are colourful attractive snakes which make good relatively undemanding pets.

Corn snake

This commonly available snake, Elaphe guttata, is, naturally, a yellow to grey snake with a series of red to brown circumferential marks ('belts'). However, captive breeding has produced a range of colours including grey and red. The snake is easy to handle and adapts to captivity well. Young mice (age and size depending on size of snake) should make up the majority of the diet and a temperature of 25-30°C (77-86°F) should be maintained. Some owners like to hibernate these snakes - if this is to be done, temperatures should be lowered to 8-10°C. Corn snakes breed well in captivity with around 10-15 eggs in each clutch. Incubated at 28°C (82°F) these hatch in around 70 days and, if big enough will take newborn pinky mice straight away. After 2-3 years they reach sexual maturity.

Rat snake

A number of subspecies of Elaphe obselata are available from the dark Texas Rat Snake, the jet black Black Rat Snake with its white chin to the slender Yellow Rat Snake and the Everglades Rat Snake which is a beautiful orange colour. All these subspecies tend to take well to captivity. Being arboreal (tree dwelling) they require branches on which to climb and rest.

King snakes

These species, such as the common kingsnake Lampropeltis getulus which has several subspecies, are well marked and robust animals. They require large cages kept at around 25-30°C (77-86°F) and although they rarely climb they need hiding places. Their food in captivity should be mice. Kingsnakes are so-called as they have been known to eat other snakes - thus large and small kingsnakes should not be housed together, for fear of ending up only with a smaller number of well-fed larger snakes!

Milk snakes

Lampropeltis triangulum is a tricoloured snake with black and red circumferential rings on a yellow background. It is generally felt that they are rather more delicate than other Lampropeltis species so extra care is needed to ensure environmental conditions are maintained at optimum. Temperatures should be kept a little higher than for the Corn snake.

Garter snakes

There are many species of the genus Thamnophis, the Garter snake and generally they are easy to care for, respond well to handling and are active and diurnal (awake during the day), making them ideal snakes in captivity. Thamnophis marcianus, the Chequered Garter snake is a particularly attractive snake and while it may be found in dry regions of North and Central America it always requires water. Care must be taken that the water provided does not become stagnant and contaminated or scale rot may develop (especially if environmental temperatures are too low). The natural diet is fish. However, if fed defrosted frozen fish in captivity, Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency may develop. This takes the form of neurological signs with stargazing and failure to right themselves before death. It can be prevented by either changing to diet of fuzzy/pinky mice, by feeding fresh fish only or by defrosting fish in boiling water and adding a vitamin supplement.

Please note. It is illegal to feed live mice or fish (or anything with a spine) to another animal (eg your snake)