How to Take Care of a Garden Snake

How to Take Care of a Garden Snake. Garden snakes can make good pets because they have a docile and harmless nature. They are relatively easy to find so there isn’t much expense in acquiring one. They do not get too large, just 18 to 51 inches in length, making them easy to handle. In the wild, they eat earthworms, amphibians and mice, making them advantageous to have around the yard. They may live up to 15 years so there is some time commitment to owning a garden snake. How do you care for a garden snake?

Things Needed

• Reptile cage, such as a large aquarium
• Heat lamp
• Ultraviolet light
• Bedding (sand or Aspen)
• Sunning rock and stick
• Water dish
• Food dish
• Place to hide (hollow fake rock or similar)
• Food (grubs, worms, minnows, amphibians, tadpoles)

Step 1

Turn on the heat lamp and ultraviolet light every morning when you awake. Snakes are reptiles, so they are cold-blooded and they need warmth to begin moving around.

Step 2

Give your snake fresh water each morning. Water sitting under a heat lamp can get disgusting pretty fast.

Step 3

Offer the snake some food a couple of times a week. Garden snakes enjoy minnows (put them in the water dish), amphibians (small frogs and toads), grubs and worms.

Step 4

Remove feces and uneaten food from the bedding daily when you water the snake.

Step 5

Hold the snake daily, if possible. Attention will help calm your snake as it becomes used to you and realizes you are not a danger. When garden snakes are afraid, they emit a strong odor as a defense mechanism. Holding the snake frequently should help eliminate this defense.

Step 6

Clean all of the bedding out of the reptile cage once a month or so. Clean it when it starts to smell, the bedding is more than half-gone from scooping out feces and old food, or you cannot remove the feces and old food.

Step 7

Soak the items in the habitat--food, and water dishes, sunning rock, stick, and hiding hut--in water with a little bleach when you clean the bedding out of the habitat. Wipe down the inside of the habitat with a cloth that was soaked in the bleach water as well.

Warnings

• Practice good personal hygiene after handling the snake and any of its accessories.
• Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly.

Warnings

• Pet reptiles are not recommended for households with children under five years old.
• Salmonella can be fatal, especially in a person with a weakened immune system and young children.
• Exposure to reptiles or amphibians is estimated by the CDC to cause 74,000 cases of salmonella each year.
• Salmonella usually causes nausea, cramps and diarrhea in humans.