Corn Snakes - Temperature, Humidity & Lighting

Holli Friedland: I am Holli Friedland, Program Director of the Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show and this is how to care for a corn snake. In this segment we are going to talk about lighting and temperature needs for your corn snake. First of all, you will need a thermometer in your tank. You can get these round ones. There are also some that are like a sticker and they show the temperature or you can also a get a digital thermometer. Any of these can be bought at your local pet store. Your temperature on the warmer side of the tank should be in the mid low to mid 80s and then at night it should go down maybe ten degrees.

So to help out with that, you have your under tank heater, which we already put on or on top, you can have a basking light. The corn snake doesn't need UV light like a lot of reptiles do. So you don't have to have a UV light. This is a timer and you can plug your basking lamp right into this timer and set it for whatever time it currently is and have a light come on in the morning and have it go off in the evening just like normal sunlight. This way, your snake knows whether it's day of night.

Then we are going to set up the humidity box. If these -- your corn snake doesn't have the right humidity then he won't shed properly and if he doesn't shed properly he can loose the end of his tail. So you want to get some moss which you can buy this sphagnum moss at any place that sells gardening supplies. They also have it in some pet stores. You just add water to it and this moss is very absorbent so you don't have to put too much moss in. You add water and just squish it in there.

You can use any kind of plastic container like a Tupperware or anything that's disposable, plastic containers and you just need cut a hole in the top so the snake can get in and out of the moss and you keep the moss moist all the time and that helps with its humidity and you just put that in the tank. Coming up next, we will talk about how to choose the right corn snake for you.