Caring For Pet Gopher Snakes
Here’s an article all about how to give the best care possible to your pet gopher snake, by Don A Levy.
The Best Ways to Care for & Feed Your Pet Gopher Snake
By Don A Levy
Learn All About Feeding & Caring for Your Pet Gopher Snake
The Gopher Snakes Home
Gopher snakes do not need an elaborate place to live. Probably the main consideration is to make sure the enclosure can be well secured. If you don’t secure it the snake can push if up enough to get out. All it needs is for an opening that its head can fit through and they are gone. This snake is a good escape artist so make sure you don’t have to search the house for it as all members of the family may not like snakes as much as your do.
If you often take your snake out to handle it or let it exercise you can keep it an enclosure as small as 10 gallons. If you keep it enclosed most of the time you will need at least a 20 gallon tank or enclosure for it to be happy. There have been reports of a gopher snake getting up to 8 feet long so make sure you have a large enough enclosure for the future. The length of the enclosure needs to be at least two thirds the length of the snake to give them room to stretch out.
Substrate Needs
Gopher snakes do not need special substrates. As long as it can provide warmth and comfort to the snake then it is good to go. However, there are some important things to note in their substrate needs. Shavings such as aspen are good substrate but don’t use cedar as it could cause problems with their breathing. Potting soil is good as it is easy to clean up after them. Sand or gravel is not recommended because it is not a good absorber. The use of these will just promote growth of bacteria. Shredded paper is fine as long as it doesn’t have ink on it. A product call Repti-turf is very good as well as indoor/outdoor carpet and Astro-Turf.
Right Temperature for a Gopher Snake
Like most snakes your pet snake needs to have the proper heating in their enclosure. A good way to do this is with a heating pad under half of the enclosure. This way they will have a warm area and a cooler one. The warm area should be kept at seventy five to eighty five degrees Fahrenheit. This is a necessity since it is needed in digesting their food. At night time, the temperature may drop so the temperature must be regulated.
Feeding the Gopher Snake
Gopher snakes are very easy to feed as they will eat frozen and thawed mice or rats and they only need to be fed about every 10 days. The good thing about this is that you can keep a good supply of food in your freezer. Although in the wild these snakes prey on live creatures don’t feed them live ones in captivity. They could at times turn on the snake and could bite it causing injury.
Water is a must for Gopher snakes
Your pet gopher snake requires clean fresh water at all times. The container must be big enough for him to get its body into as they occasionally like to bath. Snakes often defecate in their water, in which case it should be immediately cleaned and disinfected.
Handling Your Pet Snake
When you handle your pet snake you must be delicate but at the same time unyielding. A baby gopher snake can be picked up with one hand, but an adult snake needs to be picked up with both hands. They won’t coil around your arm like a python but will try to take off. To control it just gently turn it head in the direction you want it to go
At some time in having a pet gopher snake you will probably get bit. There are 2 types of snake bites associated with your pet. The strike is one where they are not happy with you. They don’t hang on. While this does hurt the bite is not poisonous and only needs to be disinfected. The other kind is the feeding bite and is a little more serious. The reason being is that it’s trying to eat whatever part of you that it has its teeth in. The more you try to get away the more it holds on. A little bit of grain (not rubbing) alcohol in its mouth will make it let go almost immediately. Listerine will also work. Be sure not to get it into its nose. Biting is rare so don’t let this deter you from getting a gopher snake for a pet.
The Gopher Snake As A Pet
While Corn Snakes and Ball Pythons are probably more popular as pets you should consider a gopher snake. They probably have the best overall temperament of this type of snake. They are very similar to the Corn Snake in their housing and feeding needs. They are easy to feed as they will eat frozen mice and need to be fed only every 10 days or so. They don’t mind being handled and will only bite when provoked or hungry. Even strangers will be able to handle a trained pet snake. Before you determine what type of snake to get as a pet read up on the Gopher Snake and you just might decide this is the pet snake for you.
If you are a pet owner or thinking about becoming one you should go to the website at Natural Pets Health to get more information on natural pets health foods, products & cures. You will also find general information such as the pros & cons of owning along with the caring for & feeding of all types of pets from dogs to snakes to fish to exotics.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Don_A_Levy
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Best-Ways-to-Care-for-and-Feed-Your-Pet-Gopher-Snake&id=5098347
Thank you Don. If you have any questions on this topic or about gopher snakes in general, leave a comment, and one of our dedicated admin will try to answer it as soon as possible.
December 2, 2010
В· 
Maddia (Admin) В· 
7 Comments
Tags: caring for gopher snakes, caring for pet gopher snakes, caring for snakes, gopher snake В· Posted in: Snake Care
7 Responses
I have found that corn snakes and ball pythons are the easiest to care for. Gopher Snakes are just meh imo.
Hi,
Thank you for the nice article.
We took a baby gopher snake back home from a nature walk today, as it looked weak and dehydrated (my boyfriend is a biology teacher).
My question is: Did we do the right thing?
We put it in a plastic animal container, provided a hiding spot, some water and are heating half of the container. Additionally we put a baby mouse for food.
What do you think?
thank you for your reply.
Best
Erika
Hi Erika,
Firstly I’d just like to say that I’m not a snake specialist so I can’t really give you any proffessional advice or information.
In answer to your question ‘Did we do the right thing?’ I cannot give a yes or no answer; taking in wild animals has caused a lot of controversy among experts as some believe you should intervene whereas other say that you should let nature take it’s place.
It is possible that the snake was abandoned; its mother could have been killed or maybe she thought this snake was ill and she thought it best to leave – you said the snake looked weak.
What are you planning on doing with this snake? Release it into the wild? Or keep it as a pet?
Having just done a little research I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of wild snakes find it hard to adjust to their new life. On the other hand, if the snake had been abandoned by its mother, then she is less likely to take him/her back if she can smell humans on him or her; if you do reintroduce him/her into his natural habitat my advice is to wait until your snake can fend for itself.
If you are worried about the health of your new snake in any way I’d advise phoning your local vet for advice, or taking your snake too them.
http://www.allexperts.com/el/Snakes/ This link takes you to a list of snake experts whom you can ask questions.
http://www.justanswer.com/sip/pets?ofid=66&r=ppc This site allows you to ask questions about pets; I’ve just taken a look and it seems this website gives proffesional answers from trained Veterinarians.
These websites give general infromation on caring for gopher snakes:
http://www.anapsid.org/gopher.html
http://www.reptileknowledge.com/news/gopher-snakes-care-keeping-san-diego-gopher-snakes-as-pets/
Sorry I couldn’t have been of any more help.
Thankyou very much for teh article. its hel[ped me alot, but i think that you should put in a bit about taking snakes in from teh wild
Thank you for your suggestion – we will think about making such a post very soon, and post a link on this page to it if we do. Thanks.
Hi, I’m glad to have found information about snakes. I found a baby snake tonight and was concerned what kind of snake it is. I live in California. The snake was redish flesh colored. There were not any rattles. It was about 8in. I didn’t realize baby snakes remained near their mother. The snake was near where my dogs and I walk. Too close for comfort since type is unknown. I
moved it 70ft away, by shovel. It didn’t
try to rattle it’s tail or be aggressive. Could it be venomous? I don’t know any other than Rattlesnake in
California.
behave aggressive or coil or try to rattle . The color stumps me. Will I be expecting to see additional babies and mom? Do you know the breed? Poisonous? Will baby be ok? I had a scare withrattle snake walk
Hi, it is impossible to know this snake’s exact situation or species/breed, and whether its mum or siblings are about, but often young snakes have a different colour skin to what they’ll have as an adult.
If you do see other similar snakes, I’d suggest leaving them there as the mother may see you attempting to move, and attack. You say that the baby you moved was about 8 inches long – this sounds like it could be quite an old baby, so it should be ok. Also, as it appeared to be on its own, that suggests that it’s ild enough to have left the mother for short ventures, so it should, in theory, be able to survive, certaintly for some time, on its own.
Now, I’m not a snake expert, and I don’t live in the USA, so I don’t know whether it’s venomous, but I’d suggest contacting a snake expert. Most regions have animal advice charities or departments, so it may be worth contacting them. You could also report this sighting, as many wildlife conservation groups currently monitor the number of snakes, and would be interested.
Sorry I couldn’t be of much help.