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Corn snake

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Corn Snake
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Sauropsida
Order:
Squamata
Suborder:
Serpentes
Family:
Colubridae
Genus:
Pantherophis
Species:
P. guttata
Binomial name
Pantherophis guttata
Linnaeus, 1766

The Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttata guttata), or Red Rat Snake, is a North American species of rat snake. The name "corn snake" comes from the fact that it is often found in corn silos, usually in order to prey upon rodents, which it subdues with constriction[1]. The Oxford English Dictionary cites this usage as far back as 1676.[citation needed] Corn Snakes are found throughout the south-eastern and central United States. Their docile nature, reluctance to bite, moderate adult size (1.2- 1.8 metres or 4–6 ft), attractive pattern, and comparatively simple care make them excellent and popular pet snakes. In captivity, they can live up to 15-25 years. Like all rat snakes, corn snakes are non-venomous.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies of Pantherophis guttata:

  • Common Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttata guttata) are in the southeastern United States and is distinguished by having brownish orenge skin and orange blotches, the blotches having black borders.
  • Great Plains Rat Snake or Emory's Rat Snake (Elaphe guttata emoryi) is found in the United States from Nebraska to Texas, and into northern Mexico

Taxonomy

In 2002, all North American rat snakes of the genus Elaphe were suggested for reclassification into the genus Pantherophis. However, in 2003 the Herpetological Review rejected the change on the basis that further research was needed. Furthermore, the International Committee for Zoological Nomenclature has not ruled on the change. Taxonomic changes do not become official until they are approved by the ICZN; until such time, any published articles with reclassification of the taxonomic names are regarded as taxonomic suggestions only.

Natural habitat

Wild Corn Snakes prefer habitats such as overgrown fields, forest openings, trees, and abandoned or seldom-used buildings and farms, from sea level to as high as 6,000 feet. They can be found in the southeastern United States ranging from New Jersey to the Florida keys and as far west as Texas.

Habits

In the wild, Corn Snakes are diurnal, as is easily ascertained by their round pupils. In colder regions, snakes hibernate during winter. However, in the more temperate climate along the coast they shelter in rock crevices and logs during cold weather and come out on warm days to soak up the heat of the sun, a process known as brumation. During cold weather, snakes are less active and therefore hunt less.

Diet

A Corn Snake swallowing a small mouse

Corn Snakes have a diet primarily consisting of rodents, mostly mice and rats which they kill via constriction. They are proficient climbers and may scale trees in search of birds and bats. As litters of infant mice are difficult to find in nature, many neonate Corn Snakes are known to eat small lizards as their first meals, and anoles are the preferred choice.[citation needed] Some individuals retain these dietary tendencies well into adulthood.

Pet Corn Snakes are usually fed by their owners on a diet of commercially available rodents, predominantly mice, while younger and smaller specimens may eat live or dead rat or mouse pups of various sizes. Frozen mice are usually preferable, as live prey can possibly carry disease or injure the snake if it has not been raised on live prey. Frozen newborn rat and mouse pups intended for snakefood are known as "pinkies" in the pet food trade; the larger pups with some white downy hair are known as "fuzzies" or "fluffs".

As pets

Corn Snakes hatching from their eggs

The Corn Snake was one of the first snakes to be kept in captivity of humans, and remain one of the most popular.[2] Large numbers are bred annually to ensure that there is a large captive-bred population, and lowering the need to collect specimens from the wild.

Cohabitation is inadvisable in captivity, as these are naturally solitary animals.

It is very important to have a housing with absolutely no chance of escape. These snakes are excellent escape artists and will often escape from any enclosure not properly fastened. More beginners lose their snakes to escapes than death. [3] Corn snakes are very good at climbing, squeezing out of very small holes, and can also use their bodies to push the screen top off of a poorly-fitted aquarium, or push a temporarily-placed top off a feeding container.

A hatchling Corn Snake being handled

Hatchling Corn Snakes are often kept in a 5 to 10 gallon (19 to 38 L) aquarium or similar-sized plastic tub. As the snake grows, it requires more space. The minimum recommended size of housing for an adult is a 20 gallon (76 liter) tank. A 40 gallon (152 L) is a good recommended size and will provide the adult snake room to move. Corn Snakes become stressed in too large a cage with no hiding places; it is a good idea to use plants and many hiding spots in a large tank so that the snake will feel secure.

Since Corn Snakes, like all reptiles, cannot produce internal body heat, it is very important to have proper heating. A heat gradient from 70–75 °F (21–24 °C) on one end of the housing to 80–85 °F (26–29 °C) on the other, is optimal to allow the snake to regulate its body temperature. Insufficient heat can lead to poor digestion, respiratory infections, and death, while excessive heat can cause neurological damage. Heat can be provided by a number of measures, including an under-tank heating pad (use at one end of the tank only), or one or more heat lamp(s), which should be attached to a thermostat or rheostat to control temperature. Lights should be turned off at night to allow a natural light and darkness cycle, though dim red or blue lights can be used at night. Ceramic heat emitters may also be used in place of light bulbs.

Aspen or cypress shavings make ideal substrate, allowing the snake to burrow if it wishes; reptile carpet, newsprint, or paper towel also work. Cedar is toxic, so wood shavings containing Cedar should not be used. Feces should be removed by spot cleaning regularly, and periodically the whole tank should be washed, disinfected, and have the substrate replaced.

Juveniles can be fed newborn mice every 5 to 7 days; adults do well on large mice once every 2 weeks but can be fed weekly. A general rule for food size is that up to 1+1⁄2 the snake's body girth is acceptable. Corn snakes also readily take a larger number of smaller meals, and have been observed to swallow up to four smaller-size rodent pups (less than the snake's girth), in succession over less than 30 minutes. Thus, as a Corn Snake grows, smaller food items are not necessarily outgrown.

As a matter of good practice, feeding of large prey and handling should be separated as much as possible in snakes. Rapidity of feeding is facilitated if the snake is handled minimally so as not to be upset, before being transferred to the feeding container. After a snake swallows, its prey must pass its thorax and lung, along to its stomach in the mid-portion of its body (ordinarily less than a minute), and handling should be completely avoided while this happens. After feeding and swallowing has been completed, all but minimal handling should be avoided for a full 48 hours and no lump can be seen in the snake's belly, to ensure proper digestion.

If substrates such as aspen or cypress mulch are used, the snake should be fed in a separate empty container, to prevent ingestion of chunks of substrate, which may lead to internal injury. Snakes do not require live prey (which may injure the snake, and which is considered animal cruelty in the UK [4]), and many corn snakes feed readily on pre-killed rodents which can be purchased as frozen from commercial suppliers, then completely thawed in warm water, prior to feeding. The food is not required to be warm (above room temperature) for the snake to eat it, but it must be thawed, and it is sometimes helpful to the snake if it is wet.

Non-feeders, snakes that have refused to feed more than 2 times, can be enticed into feeding by having the pray item slightly warmed, either by a heat lamp or soaked in water warm to the touch a few minutes before feeding. Microwaving pray items is not advisable as they can explode. Another technique called "Braining" where the skull of the pray item is punctured with a very clean needle and liquid from the skull expressed with forceps or tweezers. The smell of the liquid causes most snakes to feed.

Corn Snakes need a water dish and ideally will have access to clean water at all times. Corn Snakes swim well but generally do not seek water, or swim in their water dishes. For cleaning purposes, some owners find it convenient to place a bit of room-temperature water (a depth less than the snake's girth) on the floor of the separate clean feeding chamber at feeding time, along with a thawed rodent meal, during the time it takes the snake to feed. This water lubricates the food and allows the snake to drink and bathe at least as often as it eats. Corn snakes drink by dipping the end of their snouts in water and sucking up fluid with their cheeks, but they do this infrequently and it is uncommon for them to be observed drinking.

Reproduction

Corn snakes usually breed shortly after the winter cooling. The male courts the female primarily with tactile and chemical cues, then everts one of his hemipenes, inserts it into the female, and ejaculates his sperm. If the female was ovulating, the eggs will be fertilized, and she will begin sequesting nutrients into the eggs, then secreting a shell. Egg-laying occurs slightly more than a month after mating, with 12 to 24 eggs deposited into a warm, moist, hidden location. Each egg is oblong with a leathery, flexible shell. Aproximately 10 weeks after laying, the young snakes use a specialized scale called an egg tooth to slice slits in the egg shell, from which they emerge.

Variations

After many generations of selective breeding, domesticated Corn Snakes are found in a wide variety of different colors and patterns. These result from recombining the dominant and recessive genes that code for proteins involved in chromatophore development, maintenance, or function. New and interesting variations, or morphs become available every year as breeders gain a better understanding of the genetics involved.

Color morphs

  • Normal or Wildtype Corn Snakes are orange with black lines around red colored saddle markings going down their back with black and white checkered bellies. Regional diversity is found wild caught Corn Snakes, most popular are Miami and Okeetee.
  • Miami Phase (Florida wildtype) These are usually a smallish Corn Snake with better specimens having high contrasting light silver to gray ground color with orange blotches surrounded in black. Selective breeding has lightened the ground color and darkened the blotches. The "Miami" name, coined by Rich Zuchowski, now is considered an appearance trait. Many Miami Corn Snakes are difficult to start feeding as hatchlings, as they prefer lizards. Miami corns, unlike other varieties, will often readily accept anoles as food for life. This can simplify feeding for residents of Florida, but care should be taken to avoid introducing parasites from wild caught food.
  • Okeetee Corns (classic corns, South Carolina wildtype) These snakes are characterized by deep red dorsal blotches surrounded by very black borders. The ground color varies with bright orange being the most desirable. As with the Miami phase, selective breeding has changed the term "Okeetee" to an appearance rather than a locality. Some on the market originate solely from selectively breeding corns from the Okeetee Hunt Club.
  • Candycane(selectively bred Amelanistic) These are amelanistic corns bred toward the ideal of red blotches on a white background. Some were produced using light creamsicle (emory/albino corn hybrids x corn) bred with Miami phase corns. Most candy canes develop orange coloration around the neck region as they mature and many labeled as candycanes later develop significant amounts of yellow or orange in the ground color. Their contrats they have as hatchlings often fades with maturity.
  • Reverse Okeetee (Selectively bred Amelanistic) an amelanistic okeetee Corn Snake which has the normal black rings around blotches replaced with wide white rings. Most are high contrast snakes with light orange to yellow background and dark orangish/red saddles. Note: Albino Okeetees are not locale-specific okeetees, they are selectively bred amelanistics
  • Fluorescent orange (Selectively bred Amelanistic) develop white borders around bright red blotches as adults on an orange background.
  • Sunglow (selectively bred Amelanistic) another designer albino corn that lacks the usual white speckling that often appears in most albinos, and selected for exceptionally bright ground color. The orange background surrounds dark orange blotches.
  • Bloodred (selectively bred Diffused) Corn Snakes carry a recessive trait (known as diffused) that eliminates ventral checkered patterns. These originated from a somewhat unicolor Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida strain of Corn Snake. Through selective breeding, an almost solid ground color has been produced. Hatchlings have a visible pattern that can fade as they mature into a solid orange red to ash red colored snake. The earlier bloodreds tend to have large clutches of smaller than average eggs that produce hard to feed offspring. Through out crossing with amelanistic and anerythristic corns hatchlings tend to be larger with fewer feeding problems.
  • Crimson (hypomelanistic + Miami) are very light high contrast snakes with a light background and dark reddish/orange blotches.
  • Anerythristic (Anerythristic A, Sometimes called black albino) are the compliment to amelanism. The inherited recessive mutation of lacking erythrin (red, yellow, and orange) pigments produces a snake that is mostly black and gray and browns. When mature, many type A anerythristic Corn Snakes develop yellow on their neck regions. In 1984 a wild caught Type B anerythristic Corn Snake was caught which is the ancestor of anerythristics missing the yellow neck regions. Similar snakes include: stonewashed -- copper or light brown blotches; charcoal (aka muted anerythristic, Pine Island anerythristic)-- type B anerythristic, very low contrast with shades of gray on white and black background.
    Anerythristic A Corn Snake
  • Charcoal These snakes (sometimes known as Anerythristic type 'B') can lack the yellow color pigment usually found in all Corn Snakes. They are a more muted contrast compared to Anerythristics.
  • Caramel corns are another Rich Zuchowski engineered Corn Snake. The background is varying shades of yellow to yellow brown. Dorsal blotches vary from caramel yellow, brown, and rich chocolate brown.
  • Lavender Corn Snakes contain a light pink background with darker purple gray markings and burgundy eyes or lavender gray blotches on an orangish background. Variation with this same genetic strain are arguably called: mocha, cocoa, and chocolate.
  • Cinder reduced red pigment which becomes more like an anerythristic as they become adults.
  • Kastanie This gene was first discovered in Germany. Kastanies hatch out looking nearly anerythristic but gain some color as they mature, to eventually take on a chestnut coloration.
  • Hypomelanistic or rosy Corn Snakes carry a recessive trait that reduces the dark pigments causing the reds, whites, and oranges to become more vivid. Their eyes remain dark. These snakes range in appearance between amelanistic corns snakes to normals with greatly reduced melanin.
  • Ultra Ultra is a hypomelanistic like gene that is an allele to the Amelanistic gene. Ultra Corn Snakes have light grey lines in place of black.
  • Ultramel (Ultra + Amelanistic) Ultramel appear a lot like Amels and Ultras but because they are heterozygous, two bred together will produce Amels, Ultras and Ultramels.
  • Dilute is another melanin-reducing gene.
  • Sunkissed is a hypo like gene which was first found in Kathy Love's colony.
  • Lava is an extreme hypo like gene which was discovered by Joe Pierce and named by Jeff Mohr.
  • Stargazing is caused by a simple-recessive genetic defect and is considered deleterious.[5]

Pattern morphs

  • Aztec: blotches and spots are exhibited in various sizes
  • Zigzag (zipper): dorsal blotches connected forming a "zigzag" type pattern
  • Milksnake phase: banded blotches resembling coastal plains milk snake.
  • Motley: exhibiting a line of light colored spots or fused blotches
  • Striped phase: several clean stripes running longitudinally from head to tail
  • Terrazzo a pattern gene that causes a broken pattern and checkerless belly
  • Diffused: a recessive gene that eliminates ventral checkering and causes diffusion of the black on the dorsal pattern, with the effect being most mild on the top and most extreme on the sides.
  • Pied-sided is a genetic variation within bloodreds where white areas connect from the belly up to the sides.

Compound morphs

There are tens of thousands of possible compound morphs, listed are some of the most popular.

  • Snow (Amelanistic + Anerythristic A) As hatchlings this color variation is composed of white and pink blotches. These predominantly white snakes tend to have yellow neck and throat regions when mature. Light blotches and background colors have subtle shades of beige, ivory, pink, green, or yellow.
  • Blizzard (Amelanistic + Anerythristic B) corns resulted from a type B anerythristic corn caught in 1984. Blizzards are a totally white snake with very little to no visible pattern.
  • Ghost (Hypomelanistic + Anerythristic A) Corn Snakes are a hypomelanistic anerythristic (type A) snakes. They exhibit varying shades of grays, browns, and blacks on a lighter background. These often create pastel colors in: lavenders, pinks, oranges, and browns.
  • Phantom These are a combination of charcoal and Hypomelanistic.
  • Pewter (Charcoal + Diffused) are silvery lavender with very slight blotches as adults.
  • Butter (Amelanistic + Caramel) A two tone yellow Corn Snake with bits of white between markings.
  • Amber (Hypomelanistic + Caramel) corns are a hypomelanistic caramel snake with amber markings on a brownish background.
"Opal" phase Corn Snake
  • Gold Dust (Ultramel + Caramel) Gold dust corns often have a more golden yellow than butters mixed with the grey lines rather than white.
  • Plasma (Diffused + Lavander) Hatch out in varying shade of purple.
  • Opal (Amelanistic + Lavender) look like blizzard corns once mature with pink to purple highlights.

Intergrades

  • Root Beer are intergrades between a normal Corn Snake and a Great Plains Rat Snake (Emory's Rat Snake). Root Beer snakes look much like a sepia toned Corn Snake.
  • Creamsicle are intergrades between an albino Corn Snake and an emory's rat snake/common corn cross. These snakes bring out the yellow and downplay the reds of the Corn Snake. Most are varying shades of yellow with darker yellow to orangish blotches. Clutches are generally smaller in number but produce larger more vigorous hatchlings. Creamsicle with less emory background and increased amelanistic corn generally have lighter backgrounds and red to orange saddles(red creamsicle).
  • Cinnamon is the hypomelanistic phase of the corn snake x Great Plains Rat Snake

Hybrids

  • Jungle corns are hybrids using the Corn Snake and California Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula californiae). These show extreme pattern variations taking markings from both parents -- sometimes looking very similar to one parent or the other. Although they are hybrids of different species, these attractive snakes are not sterile.

References

  1. ^ Animal Information
  2. ^ http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/Biolab/wlhcornsnake.html Lawrence Hall of Science Biology Lab: Corn Snakes]
  3. ^ The ubiquitous Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata guttata) by Petra Spiess of Rocky Mountain Herpetoculture
  4. ^ http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/environment/or-06/ra.htm
  5. ^ CCCorns - Corn Snake Star Gazer Information Page
  • Pantherophis replaces Elaphe. Utiger, Helfenberger, Schatti, Schmidtkutrjytdf(2002) Russian Journal of Herpetology 9(2): 105-124.
  • Taxonomy citation
  • Animal Facts: CORN SNAKE
  • Taxonomy Citation - Herpetological Review [1]
  • Stargazing Information Sheet [2]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pantherophis guttatus.
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