What do snakes eat at home? Common snake (non-venomous snake)

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 bring them closer natural conditions It is entirely within the capabilities 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.

Special attention pay attention to your 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 living conditions allow snakes to live in captivity for more than 20 years.

The common snake is distributed almost throughout Europe, in North-West Africa, Western Asia to North-West Mongolia, south Eastern Siberia and areas of Northern China in the east and Southwestern Iran in the south. It lives in various wet biotopes - along river banks, meadows, reed thickets, and forests. The color is the same - the general color is from gray to black, characteristic feature There are yellow or white spots behind the head, however, in some individuals they may be absent. The common one is very popular among beginner terrarium keepers, and its maintenance is not difficult. He needs a horizontal type terrarium, quite spacious, since the snake is quite mobile, with a large reservoir and several shelters. It is advisable to use hygroscopic soil - sphagnum moss, peat, a mixture of gravel and earth. The lighting should be powerful enough. Daytime temperature is 24-26 C, night temperature is about 18 C. The main food is frogs, and it is often possible to train snakes to take not only live frogs, but also pre-killed frogs, which is especially important in winter time. Sometimes you can offer fish. To stimulate reproduction, snakes can be placed in an artificial winter hut for 2-3 months at 8-10C, which, however, is not necessary. You can get 2 or more clutches per year. Mating usually occurs in the spring, in April-May; after a few weeks, eggs are laid, up to 50 eggs. Incubation at 29C - 23-30 days. The young independently begin to feed on small frogs and live fish. Interestingly, snake clutches are extremely viable and can withstand short-term temperature changes from 10C to 55C.

Description and distribution

This harmless snake, well known to many Russians, reaches 120 (occasionally 150) cm in length. It has a dark, often black, coloration on the back and white spots on the belly. To understand that this snake is just an ordinary snake and should not be feared, you need to take a good look at the head. A characteristic feature its color is the presence of yellow or white temporal spots.

The range of the snake is very wide. It can be found throughout almost all of Europe, North-West Africa, Western Asia, the south of Eastern Siberia and the adjacent regions of Northern China.

Features of biology

It lives in places one way or another connected with water - along the banks of rivers, lakes, ponds, in floodplain meadows, in reed thickets, swamps, near mountain streams and springs. He swims and dives well, and indulges in this activity with pleasure. You may have seen a snake in nature more than once. And not only in the forest, but also in the immediate vicinity of your home - in the garden, in the basement, in the barn or in a haystack.

During the winter, these snakes hibernate. To do this, they crawl into rodent holes, under tree roots and other shelters. Snakes emerge from wintering from March to May, depending on latitudinal conditions.

In the wild, snakes feed on frogs, toads, fish, lizards, as well as small rodents, birds and insects. In July-August, the female lays from 6 to 35 eggs in heaps of rotten leaves or manure, in rodent burrows, in soil cracks and other shelters with high humidity. Egg incubation lasts approximately 60 days. Babies appear in late July - early September.

To distinguish a male from a female, you need to pay attention to the tail. In males it is long and with a characteristic thickening at the base, and in females it is short, without thickening.

Content Features

To keep these reptiles you need a terrarium no smaller than 100 50 60 cm in size. To make the snake feel good, install a heating lamp in one corner of the terrarium, and in the other make a ventilation hole covered with a strong mesh. The temperature in a warm corner during the day should be up to 30°C. It would be nice to put some kind of stone under the lamp so that the snake can warm up. At night the heating must be turned off.

To make the snake feel comfortable, place some kind of random-shaped shelter in the terrarium: a snag, a shelf, a piece of bark. Be sure to install a ditch with water in your home, where it can calmly swim and soak during the molting period. And also put a ditch with peat or sphagnum or use them as soil. After all, snakes always choose damp places for their place of residence, and peat and sphagnum retain moisture well. To better retain moisture, periodically spray the soil with a spray bottle.

Feeding

Snakes in captivity are fed mainly with live frogs and fish. It must be remembered that it is especially difficult to provide snakes with live food in winter if the snakes are not hibernated. We can only recommend keeping a solid supply of frogs in the refrigerator. You can feed the snake approximately once every three days, after the snake has digested the previous food. For variety, you can offer him mice, but, in general, they are reluctant to take such food.

To ensure that you can drink fresh water, you should change it regularly. artificial reservoir terrarium. Along with the feed, it is necessary to give various mineral supplements: crushed eggshells, calcium gluconate or glycerophosphate. You can add to the drinker mineral water("Borjomi"). Powdered vitamins can be offered with food no more than once a month. Once a month, it is necessary to conduct a course of irradiation of the snake with ultraviolet radiation, using household appliances such as UV rays, from 1 to 5 minutes during the week from a distance of 50 cm. The substrate and skin of the animal must be dry. In summer you can take the snakes out into the sun.

Wintering

With constant feeding, especially for young snakes, wintering is not required. If the snakes refuse winter season eat food, or if you want to prepare it for reproduction, it is necessary to arrange wintering with strict adherence to following conditions. The snake should be placed in a light-proof, ventilated cage filled with sphagnum moss. The wintering temperature should be approximately 5-9°C. . Over the course of two weeks, you should gradually lower the temperature, making sure to first make sure that the snake has completely digested the food from the last feeding. When removing a snake from wintering, you need, on the contrary, to gradually increase the temperature. To maintain moisture, the soil in the cage must be sprayed periodically. The duration of wintering in the normal condition of the animal is about 2 months.

After being removed from wintering, the snake is irradiated with ultraviolet light and fed, adding preparations containing vitamin “E” to the food. Then the males and females are placed next to each other.

Reproduction

Approximately 50-60 days after mating, the females lay eggs, for which a ditch with sphagnum should be prepared, where they will lay their eggs. The clutch is removed and, together with the cage, placed in an incubator at a temperature of 27-29°C. . After 50-60 days, the eggs hatch and begin to feed after the first molt.

We emphasize that in the conditions of a home terrarium all this is easier to describe than to do, since the risk of losing the snake when putting it away for the winter is too great. In general, it is much easier to keep tropical snakes at home, which do not hibernate in their homeland, than any reptiles of the temperate zone.

Water snake

The water snake is colored in olive or brownish tones with dark spots in a checkerboard pattern. Occasionally, completely black individuals are found. The belly is yellow or red, with black spots.

This one is more heat-loving and moisture-loving. It lives in Russia and Ukraine in the lower reaches of rivers flowing into the Caspian and Black Seas.

The main food in nature is small fish, also eats tadpoles and frogs. Keeping a water snake in captivity is almost no different from keeping common snake. However, it requires that there be twice as much water in the aquaterrarium as there is land.

You will need

• - spacious terrarium;
• - cuvette for water;
• - soil;
• - driftwood for landscape decoration;
• - moss;
• - incandescent lamp;
• - live food.

Instructions

For the snake, it is necessary to prepare a terrarium that is sufficiently spacious and high - after all, an adult individual, depending on the size, can reach a length of 1 - 1.5 m. Make sure that the terrarium is tightly closed with a mesh lid. The bottom can be covered with sand or peat. Required condition for snakes - the presence of a pond in the terrarium. The size of the reservoir should be such that it can curl up there entirely. Place one or two pieces of driftwood in the terrarium, on which your pet can climb in the same way as he would do. Try to arrange them so that the snake can use them as a shelter. Areas lined with moss will also be a pleasant addition to the landscape - it will help retain moisture that is comfortable for the snake.

Install an incandescent lamp above the terrarium, preferably with a mirror reflector. This will allow the snake to receive a sufficient amount of light and heat even on rainy days. Remember also that it is better to place the terrarium in the sunniest part of the room. Because to create already safe conditions For not so easy, it is better not to allow him to plunge into this state. Hibernation can be avoided by providing the snake with sufficient heat, light and live food throughout the year.

One of the peculiarities of keeping snakes is that they need live, moving food. It can be frogs, tadpoles, and small fish for the snake. As a last resort, if in winter it is not possible to get live food, the snake can be accustomed to frozen food. But then the food will have to be put into the snake’s mouth by force, since it will not perceive motionless pieces of meat or fish as food. This method of feeding can cause injury to the snake due to the fragility of its jaws. The snake needs to be fed approximately once every three days.

If he is losing mobility, and his coat is losing color and shine, he may be about to shed. It is important not to confuse this condition with a disease. Another sign that a snake is about to shed is its desire to stay in the water as long and as often as possible. Perhaps you will be able to see how the snake gets out of its old skin. After molting, your pet will appear with fresh scales, bright and shiny. Old skins can be preserved by observing the growth dynamics of the grass snake.

In the spring, they often sell those that have just emerged from hibernation. water or common (land) snakes. Awakening from hibernation occurs in March-April. In nature, with the onset of warm spring days, snakes crawl out of their wintering places and begin to live more active image life, bask in sunny places. Enterprising people catch them and sell them at the Bird Market under the guise of specially bred snakes raised in captivity. Inexperienced terrarium owners often die. The snake family has about 2000 species. Common, land and water snakes are not poisonous and are completely safe for humans. For those who wish keep a snake in a terrarium It is best to buy it at a pet store.

The name "terrarium" is similar to the name "aquarium". The name aquarium comes from Latin word"aqua" - water. An aquarium is used to keep fish and aquatic species animals. The name terrarium comes from the word "terra", which means earth. A terrarium is used for keeping land animals at home.
Keeping snakes at home allows an animal lover to observe the life and behavior of his pet, care for him, trying to create ideal conditions for a long life.

The terrarium should be placed in a bright and sunny place in the apartment. The home you have equipped for your pet should be as spacious and well ventilated as possible. To keep a land snake, place small driftwood or branches in the terrarium and arrange secluded places. A water snake needs a large reservoir in a terrarium. Shelters can be made from broken flower pots. The bottom should be lined with moisture-retaining material, such as moss, which can be purchased at a pet store. The lighting of the terrarium should correspond in intensity and daily rhythm to natural lighting. Powerful heating should ensure a constant temperature of 24-26 degrees during the day and about 18 degrees at night.

You can buy a ready-made terrarium or make it yourself using a large old aquarium of at least 100 liters. One side glass should be replaced with plywood, in which small holes with a diameter of 3-4 mm must first be drilled to ensure good ventilation so that damp air does not stagnate. On top you need to make a lid from a very fine mesh, so that the snake cannot get out. You can install an incandescent lamp or a special heater on the plywood wall for heating. The heating device must be protected with a fine plastic mesh so that the snake does not get burned. A metal mesh is not suitable in this case, as it will heat up. You need to attach a thermometer to the side wall. You should also take care of the stability of the water container and to facilitate the annual molting of the grass snake. For pulling off old skin the snake should be able to rub against specially placed large stones.

A beginner who likes to keep snakes in the house should find out in advance what to feed the snake. Water snakes eat mainly frogs, sometimes small ones live fish. Land snakes also eat mice. Previously, in Ukrainian and Belarusian villages, some owners kept snakes in the house to kill mice. Snakes live well in captivity, quickly begin to take food offered to them and soon become completely tame.
Snake food can be bought at a pet store or at the Bird Market. But buying food at the market is risky, as you can infect the snake with helminths. Snakes need to be fed once every three to four days. Feeding frogs should not be too large, otherwise the digestive tract may become blocked and the snake may die. For a thirty-centimeter snake, you need one frog about 4 cm long or two smaller ones at a time. You can feed the snake with both live and thawed food, but thawed fish can be given only occasionally, and only whole. You will have to deal with live food yourself, but you will have to take the defrosted food with tweezers, bring it to the pet head first and shake it slightly - the snake only reacts to moving objects. Snakes drink a lot.

A hobbyist keeping a snake at home must be prepared for the moment of annual molting. A sign that shedding is approaching is when the snake's eyes become cloudy. At the moment of molting, due to the cloudy dead scales in front of the eyes, the snake sees very poorly. At this time, you can photograph the snake without harm to its health (in normal times, flash photography is very harmful for snakes), however, during the molting period, the snake becomes more aggressive and may confuse your hand with food or an enemy and bite. Common land and water snakes are not poisonous, but a bite can cause the wound to become inflamed. Therefore, if you have been bitten, widen the wound and let the blood drain.
The snake may not be able to shed all of its old skin. If rags appear on the skin, this is an alarming sign. This means that the owner has already made mistakes in his maintenance and nutrition. We need to help the snake shed its skin: give it a warm (not hot) bath, and when the skin gets wet, remove it with gentle rotational movements. If, when removing the skin from the head, the keratinized scales are not removed from the eyes, they must be carefully removed with tweezers. Subsequently, you need to contact a specialist for advice.

In nature, snakes fall into hibernation, and therefore it is worth providing the snake with wintering in captivity. To do this, it is necessary to lower the temperature in the terrarium to two to fifteen degrees for four to five months, that is, turn off the internal heater and, perhaps, move the terrarium to a cooler room (on the loggia) or place it on the windowsill. During wintering, make sure that the temperature in the terrarium drops gradually and does not fall below plus two degrees.
You can meet a water snake not only at the market or in a pet store, but also near swampy ponds. True snakes are relatively small snakes. The common land snake differs from other snakes in the presence of yellow or yellow spots behind the ears. orange color, less often white. Its dimensions are usually no more than a meter. Color ranges from gray to black. The water snake is olive-yellow in color, has no behind-the-ear spots, and has dark spots on its back in a checkerboard pattern, similar to the pattern of a viper. Although the viper's pattern is a zigzag. Many people mistakenly consider the snake to be poisonous and cannot distinguish it from a viper. In a snake, the head smoothly merges into the body, while venomous snakes have wide, protruding cheekbones due to the presence of poisonous glands. The body of the grass snake smoothly transitions into the tail, and poisonous snake with visible narrowing. The pupils of the water snake, like those of the land snake, are round, while those of the viper are narrowed vertically.

In any case, do not rush, when you meet a snake in the forest or on the shore of a reservoir, to pick it up in your hands to examine it, believing that it is a land snake or a water snake. Also, do not hit a snake with a stick, thinking that it

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 are 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 the snake 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.