Reptiles
Corn Snake
Pantherophis guttatus · also called corn snake, red rat snake
The corn snake is the friendly face of snakes — a slender, brightly patterned, entirely harmless rat snake from the American Southeast that earns its keep by eating rodents and has become, by a wide margin, the most kept pet snake in the world.
Overview
Corn snakes live across the southeastern and central United States, in fields, woodland edges, pine barrens, overgrown lots, and farm buildings — anywhere with cover and a supply of rodents. They are semi-arboreal and good climbers, also burrow into loose soil and rodent tunnels, and are active around dawn and dusk, shifting to nocturnal in hot weather. They are secretive and spend much of their time hidden under bark, boards, and debris.
Harmless by design
The corn snake is a colubrid with no venom. It subdues mice, rats, birds, and lizards by constriction. Its defences against predators are all bluff — tail-rattling in dry leaves, musking, and a fast mock strike — and its bite is trivial. Because its orange, black-edged blotches resemble the pattern of a copperhead, it is frequently killed by people who mistake it for one, which is unfortunate given how effectively it controls farm rodents.
The name
“Corn snake” probably comes from the maize-kernel checkerboard on its belly, or from the snakes being found in corn cribs hunting the rats drawn to stored grain — or both.
The pet snake
Corn snakes are the default beginner snake: modest size, calm temperament, simple care, long life, and, crucially, easy captive breeding. Decades of selective breeding have produced hundreds of colour and pattern morphs, and virtually all corn snakes in the trade are captive-bred.
Status
The corn snake is Least Concern and common. Local pressures are road mortality, habitat loss, and killing on sight by people confusing it with a copperhead; historically some wild populations were also dented by collection for the pet trade before captive breeding met demand.
Corn Snake: common questions
Are corn snakes dangerous or venomous?
No. The corn snake is completely non-venomous and harmless to people and pets. It kills its prey — mice, rats, birds — by coiling around them and constricting, and it is not big enough or inclined to constrict anything human-sized. A frightened corn snake may vibrate its tail tip in dry leaves (which can sound a little like a rattle), release a musky smell, or give a quick bluff strike, and a bite from a small one feels like a pinprick or a bramble scratch. It is one of the safest snakes a person can encounter.
Why is it called a "corn" snake?
There are two common explanations, and both may be true. One is that the checkered black-and-yellow pattern on the snake's belly looks like the kernels on an ear of "Indian corn" (flint maize). The other is that corn snakes were, and are, frequently found in and around corn cribs, barns, and grain stores, where they come to hunt the rats and mice attracted by the grain. Farmers historically valued them for exactly this rodent control.
How can you tell a corn snake from a copperhead?
They are often confused, and harmless corn snakes are regularly killed because of it. A corn snake has round pupils, a slender head only a little wider than its neck, a distinct pattern of bright orange or red saddle-shaped blotches edged in black on an orange-brown background, and a checkerboard belly. A copperhead is venomous, with vertical cat-like pupils, a triangular head with a heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril, and hourglass-shaped (not saddle-shaped) cross-bands that are widest on the sides. If in doubt, leave any snake alone and do not handle it.
Why are corn snakes such popular pets?
They tick almost every box for a beginner reptile. They stay a manageable size, are calm and tolerate handling well, are non-venomous, feed readily on frozen-thawed mice, do not need complex heating or lighting, and are hardy and long-lived. Above all they breed easily in captivity, and breeders have produced an enormous variety of colour and pattern morphs — snows, lavenders, motleys, stripes, and more — so essentially every corn snake sold today is captive-bred rather than wild-caught.