Learning to care for a pet snake

A snake needs proper care, just like any other pet. But since they are not like ordinary pets, we already know a lot about how to take care of them, in this case, you should make an effort to learn how to take care of a pet snake before buying one.

Snakes need all the usual pet care supplies of a safe and comfortable shelter, food, and water.

Here’s a little introduction to some of the specific needs snakes have to stay healthy and safe.

What do snakes eat?

When snakes live in the wild, they hunt and feed on small rodents and reptiles. So, you might think that you have to feed your snake live rodents like mice.

But in fact, your snake can injure itself from its food trying to defend itself from being eaten, so good pet owners feed their snakes prey that has been humanely euthanized and then frozen for convenience.

That means you only get your supply of pre-killed meals and store them in the freezer, then thaw them before feeding your snake.

How often should I feed my snake?

Like many adolescent species, young snakes tend to eat more than adults because they grow so fast.

So you need to feed them a little more frequently than when they become adults, for example young snakes are fed once every 5 days until they are 9-12 months old.

After that they need to be fed every 6 days.

Once they are 3 years old or older, you only need to feed it once every 10 to 14 days.

So once your snake is an adult, it has a lot less work and less demand on your food budget, since you only have to feed it once a fortnight.

How much should I feed it?

Obviously you also have to have an idea of ​​the amount of feed you need for your size and age.

It is normal to estimate the size of the prey item to feed by checking the girth of your snake and giving it a prey item that is about 1.5 to 1 1/2 times as large as the thickness of your snake’s body.

Are there any special requirements for water?

Your snake enclosure should always have a clean supply of warm or room temperature water, even if your snake doesn’t seem to drink it.

Snakes tend to bathe and even calmly soak in their bowl of water. Unfortunately, they also tend to poop in it, so you have to be vigilant about replacing the water every day.

You want a sturdy, heavy container that the snake can’t tip over when it climbs in, and the container should be shallow so it can soak without risk of entrapment and even drowning.

What type of snake cage is right for your home?

It is important that your snake cage is very solid and secure as some snakes are true escape artists who will head butt and push through every door and crack to test if they can get out.

Very popular options are snake terrariums (and you can buy a lovely range of affordable ones online on Amazon) or fish tanks/aquariums can be used, as long as you can secure the lid.

But make sure the tank has adequate ventilation once the bedding is attached, as your snake needs fresh air and the ability to circulate air for temperature control.

Snakes need to feel safe and be able to hide when they want to sleep in privacy, so provide them with some of the snake dens you can buy made of rock, wood, or plastic.

To allow your snake to stay fit and toned, you should also provide some tree branches for it to climb and coil on.

The snake enclosure also requires suitable bedding for the floor surface, called the substrate. Newspaper, pine bark chips, and aspen shavings are good choices.

Avoid using things like cedar shavings, corn on the cob, sand, dirt, or pine shavings. You can also purchase an Astro Tuft sheet mat that is easy to clean and recycle for floor covering.

Do snakes always need a warm environment?

Not all snakes need their enclosure to be warm. You actually need to provide a heat lamp to plug into one end of the cage so there are a variety of temperatures with hot at one end and cooler at the other end.

You can also provide a heating pad instead if an overhead light isn’t convenient…but don’t provide hot rocks or anything the snake could burn on.

These are some basic tips to help you get started, but you should learn as much as possible about how to properly care for your pet snake, so check out some snake forums and interact with other pet snake owners.

And there are some great books online you can download to learn in detail everything you need to know, including snake health topics and even how to breed your snakes if that’s what you want to do.