How to care for a snake at home. Common snake (non-venomous snake) How to care for snakes at home

Most often kept in captivity tiger snake, which has a beautiful color with rings different color. But some amateur serpentologists buy common and water snakes at the zoological store.

Most common grass snakes sold at bird markets or pet stores are caught in wildlife. Create conditions for home care, identical to natural ones, is an almost impossible task. But bringing them closer to natural conditions is within the power of every serpentologist.

To keep a snake you will need a long and spacious terrarium, most of which should be separated for a pool. Cover the top of the terrarium with a net to prevent the reptile from escaping. Place moistened sand or peat on the bottom. In the corner, arrange an area of ​​high-quality damp moss. He'll be able to sleep in it. Snags, a scattering of stones, branches, bark - this is what the snake will need for a comfortable stay. But the most important rule that you should not forget about is maintaining a temperature difference in the terrarium. Place a heater on the side of the corner where the moss is located and heat it to 35 degrees. On the other side of the terrarium, the temperature should not exceed 22 degrees. A special ultraviolet lamp will help create natural lighting. Turn off the lamp at night.

Pay special attention to the snake's diet. Food should only be alive. In captivity they eat the living tree frogs, rodents, small fish, snails, worms, bloodworms. All this can be bought at a zoological store.

Feed a medium-sized snake 2 times a week. If the reptile is large, it is enough to feed it once a week. Give your snake as much food as he is willing to eat at one time.

It is rational to give special feeding for snakes or crushed dried shells once a month. In addition, you can add 1 glass of alkaline mineral water to the aquarium.

Clean the terrarium once a week. Completely replace moss, sand, peat and pool water. Dip the snake into a 1% solution of potassium permanganate. This will help prevent ticks. It is not recommended to dip the reptile's head into the solution.

Comfortable conditions keeping allows snakes to live in captivity for more than 20 years.

Snakes are snakes that can be kept at home, because... they are safe, non-poisonous and quite friendly. The size of the snakes is average, but this is still a fairly decent size (there are no exact sizes, all snakes are different). Snakes are common, water snakes, viper snakes and Colchis snakes. Many people are attracted to snakes not only by their safety, but also appearance. They have beautiful round pupils and upturned nostrils. The abdomen most often already has a spotted surface, and on the scales themselves you can easily make out its characteristic features. However, it is very important to know how to care for a snake at home, where to keep it, what to feed, how to care for it, and much more. Every owner or those wishing to own a snake should know about this. Therefore, now we will consider this aspect, although many people know a certain minimum about snakes (the need for water, fish for lunch, ingestion of food and much more).

Where will he live?

1. The terrarium should be large, because most of it will be occupied by the snake’s “pond”. Since life cannot be imagined without water, your terrarium must constantly have fresh water in the pool. It will be enough in the water for a long time, he will drink it and bathe in it (the latter means that the terrarium should be roomy enough for your pet!). Snakes smart creatures, they love to constantly escape from their terrariums, so do not forget to close the terrarium all the time, but not with a thick board or lid, but with a net, so that they can breathe easily.

2. As with fish, the situation with the snake’s terrarium should be like this: soil is carefully laid out on the bottom, which can be either simple sand or peat. The soil perfectly retains moisture in the terrarium, which is important. Regardless of your choice of soil, add sand to the bottom of the pool in the terrarium.

3. Snakes love to hide in moss, so make sure that in addition to the soil, the terrarium also contains moss. This way your pet will always be calm and comfortable (they are already burying themselves in the moss).

4. Such “inhabitants” as stones, branches, bark, “snags”, etc. should find their place in the terrarium. As you understand, with their help you can restore the natural elements in which snakes usually live. Your pet will dart between the decorations you create with great pleasure.

5. Hardest to Maintain different temperatures in a terrarium for a snake. The fact is that in one place the snake should bask, in another (also warm) there will be moss, but at least one corner must be dry and cool. In a warm place it will warm up (most often from a heating lamp specially installed in that corner), the temperature here should vary from 30 to 35 degrees Celsius. The cool corner should be dry at the same time and reach a temperature of approximately 22 degrees. On average, the temperature of the terrarium is about 24-26 degrees Celsius.

6. At night, the lights and heating of the terrarium can and should be turned off so that you can sleep in your “house”. However, humidity must be maintained regularly, so constantly spray the soil and moss with water and give them sunbathing.

Feeding the pet snake.

To properly care for your snake, you must first feed it. But what do snakes eat and how do they do it? Let's start with the fact that snakes do not chew their food, but simply swallow it whole and digest it. Snake food should be alive, as they say, the freshest. Most of all, snakes will like fish, but they will not refuse such delicacies as frogs or small rodents. You can find all the food for the snake in a pet store, here you can consult with the seller and independently select fish for the snake, small mice, frogs (buy simple tree frogs), worms, snails, etc. While keeping the snake at home, you will be able to understand that it likes most and what he doesn't like. Usually people ask how to care for a snake at home from sellers in a pet store, to which they are given the answer that snakes feed only on living and moving food. However, in fact, you can train a snake (or buy one already) to eat non-living “food”. Feeding of the snake occurs only a couple of times a week or even less often, depending on the size of your snake and its preferences (usually large snakes feed less often). We must not forget about feeding the snakes with useful minerals in the form of special feed (from the pet store) or crushed egg shells. Or add mineral water to the water once a month, which will be a pleasant surprise for him. Don’t forget to regularly change the water in the terrarium, he not only swims in it, but can also stay under water for quite a long time, and he also drinks water from his pool.

If you dream of a pet that is more unusual than cats, dogs and fish, which will surprise guests, do not rush to get exotic snakes or spiders. Think about such an ordinary inhabitant of our latitudes as the snake - he is as beautiful and interesting to watch as any other snake, but at the same time does not pose an immediate threat to the life and health of his owners.

The modern animal lover can easily find all the information on how to keep a snake at home on the Internet. In turn, a competent consultant in a specialized store will help organize this knowledge and compile full list necessary.

How to keep a snake at home and what you need for this

A common or aquatic snake can also feel quite comfortable in captivity. First of all, you need to choose and arrange a terrarium (long and spacious), which would have:

• constant access to water for bathing and drinking in the form of a large, stable reservoir;
• soil that retains moisture for a long time (peat, sand, etc.);
• a large stone, which will be needed during the molting period;
• wet moss, driftwood or other objects behind which it can hide;
• a heater covered with a protective plastic mesh to protect the snake’s skin from accidental burns.

Frogs, newts, toads, fish, mice can serve as food, and sometimes bloodworms, insects, and snails may be liked. The main difficulty is that snakes prefer live food, so you will have to move the offered food until the snake pays attention to it. It is rarely possible to train a pet to eat food that has already been killed and you should not count on it. However, snakes need to be fed no more than 3-4 times a week.

How does he behave at home?

Snakes are non-aggressive, if you don’t frighten them, they bite extremely rarely. The owners recognize them, get used to them, and can even be picked up (though only for the reason that it is warm around the person). The pet's mode of activity is as follows:

• active in daytime, sleeps at night;
• already sheds once a year at home, as in natural environment;
• The approach of the molting period can be determined by the characteristic clouding of the eyes and changes in behavior.

In the cold season, in a house with central heating, you will need special shelter and maintaining a low temperature (which, like the light intensity, should be gradually reduced in advance) so that you can spend at least 2 months in a state of “hibernation.”

Care and safety rules

The home must have zones with different temperature conditions:

• a place for warming up (30-35°), where a special lamp is installed;
• a cool corner (about 22°) where the snake can hide and cool down.

In addition to feeding, the responsibilities of the owners include:

• regular cleaning and replacement of water in the “pool”;
• maintaining high level humidity (for this, soil and moss are sprayed).

Nimble snakes are distinguished by amazing tenacity and perseverance, if we're talking about about finding a loophole to escape. When ordering a terrarium, pay attention to the strength and quality of the mesh that will be used as a lid. In itself, this type of snake is safe for humans, but not everyone can immediately determine that in front of them is a harmless snake and not poisonous viper. It is better to exclude unexpected encounters by limiting the pet’s location to a terrarium.

Depending on how they are kept, snakes can live at home for quite a long time (up to 20 years). To create decent living conditions for your snake, it is recommended to order food, equipment and other supplies from specialized stores. You can save time and money by purchasing everything you need online, for example, in the online store "

The common snake and the maintenance of the snake at home are described in this material. The common snake is the most common type of snake. They live almost throughout the entire territory of Eurasia. They belong to the family of colubrids. poisonous snakes. They are distinguished from others by their “yellow ears”. These are pronounced marks on the head that are yellow and occasionally orange.

Females are larger than males and can reach a length of 1.5 meters. You can distinguish the sex of snakes by the size of their tail. In males it is long with a thickening at the base. In females, the tail is much shorter and does not have thickenings and is cone-shaped. They feed mainly on frogs, rodents and rarely fish.

Storks and others pose a danger to grass snakes predator birds. They are aggressive and run away at the sight of a person. Once in the hands, they hiss and wriggle in rings, after which they emit a smell that discourages the appetite of many animals. They can swim well and can stay underwater for about half an hour.

Their mating season begins in April. From June to August, female snakes look for a place to lay eggs (warm and humid places are suitable). Places such as humus piles, fallen leaves, and damp moss are also suitable.

The winter, starting in November, is spent in burrows and crevices.

They tolerate life well in captivity and will quickly become tamed. How to meet a snake today pet no longer uncommon.

A pond needs a container where the animal can swim freely. This is especially necessary during the molting period. Pebbles or sphagnum moss are suitable for the soil.

An ordinary snake and keeping a snake at home - a terrarium for snakes

There must be a shelter in the terrarium where it can sleep. Pieces of bark, etc. are suitable for this. Driftwood, branches, houses, etc. are suitable as decoration.

For supporting optimal humidity should be sprayed with water once a day. Such a terrarium should have two zones: wet and dry. Moist soil requires the presence of moss and plants.

There should also be a warm and cold zone. In a warm zone, place a shelter with moss. Temperature - from 30 to 35 degrees during the day, at night - from 20 to 22 degrees.

For supporting optimal temperature You can use thermal mats or thermal cords. In warm areas, heat lamps can be used. The lamp is suitable from 40 to 60 W with mirror coating. In addition to such lamps, you need to place an ultraviolet lamp. To do this, you need to use Repti Glo 5.0 lamps, in which the ultraviolet content is most suitable for keeping such an animal.

The snake's diet includes amphibians (fish, lizards, frogs). In captivity, it is also necessary to provide the pet with such food. You need to feed once every 5-7 days. During this time, his body will digest the food, and the animal will get hungry.

It is advisable to add specialized fortified supplements to regular food. It will be useful to teach your snake to eat fish fillets, but you should not completely switch to such food. Food for them should be lively and varied. They drink from a pond, so you need to keep it clean and change the water regularly.

Snakes get used to humans quite quickly. Over time, they become less aggressive towards humans. But at first they may even bite, but they do this extremely rarely.

You should not constantly carry it in your arms; it will be stressful for the snake. The first step is to consider the interests of your pet.

Create everything the necessary conditions for living snakes, and then it will please you too!

Video is too ordinary

Ordinary already - non-venomous snake, distributed throughout Europe. In Russia, in addition to the European part, grass snakes are found in the south Far East and southern Siberia.

Natural diet

The list of what the snake eats mainly includes small frogs and rodents. These snakes are excellent swimmers, capable of diving underwater for periods of more than half an hour. Therefore, sometimes small fish become their victims. The prey is swallowed completely by the snake, without prior dismemberment or chewing.

What to feed your pet snake?

The natural diet, ease of domestication and safety for humans of snakes were the reasons that in Ukraine and Belarus they were sometimes used as pets to fight mice. In addition, snakes are sometimes bred for decorative purposes. The owner of such a snake should know that snakes in most cases eat only live food.

Therefore, in order to feed such a pet, you should buy (or catch) small mice and tree frogs. Sometimes you can “pamper” your pet with small aquarium fish. It is also useful to know that small snakes eat more often than adults. Therefore, baby snakes should be fed at least 2 times a week. Large snakes You can feed 1-2 times every week.

To maintain the balance of minerals, it is necessary to feed your pet monthly. To do this, you can use crushed eggshells or a special mineral mixture for snakes. You can also sometimes add mineral water into the snake's drinking bowl.

Some domesticated representatives of the species happily swallow worms, insects and snails. Cases have been recorded where snake owners managed to teach their animal to eat killed food.