Water already at home. Already ordinary (non-venomous snake). Additional information on snake care

Author - Vasily Dyadichko.
I will tell you about my experience of keeping and breeding these snakes, maybe it will be useful to someone.

I kept and repeatedly successfully bred 2 types of real snakes - ordinary Natrix natrix(including subspecies N. n. persa) and water snake Natrix tessellata. Both species are very common (in some places - even massive) in the Odessa region, so it was not difficult to catch them.
Both species initially lived in groups of 2 males per 1 female in 70x40x40 cm terrariums, then I kept two such groups (3 snakes of each species) in a 120x45x50 terrarium, then only a couple of water snakes lived there. There were no conflicts between them, these snakes can be safely kept in groups. They often form large clusters in nature.
The largest of my snakes were about 120-130 cm long (both species).
The soil in the terrarium was fine gravel (fraction 5-10 mm) - after reading the article by A.V. Ognev about non-rhodia, I was afraid that snakes could swallow something along with food and used this particular type of soil, since in that article it was recommended as the safest. I can fully confirm the validity of this opinion, pebbles of this size are heavy enough to fall off the wet skin of a fish or amphibian during its ingestion by a snake. During the years (1996-2007) that I kept snakes, not one of them ever swallowed soil particles with food.
Spacious pools were installed in the terrariums (in those that are smaller - 35x25x10 cm, in the large one - 40x30x15 cm), snakes spend a lot of time in them. The pool has always been placed in a cold corner. Below the pools was an empty space, loosely filled with sphagnum, which the snakes used as a hiding place. Other shelters were pieces of bark and cavities under flat stones located in different parts of the terrarium (so that the snakes could choose a shelter with the right temperature and humidity). Periodically (once a day or every 2-3 days) I sprayed the terrarium with water from a spray bottle.

I used all sorts of stones and driftwood as decorative elements, at first I planted terrariums with scindapsus, syngonium, tradescantia and chlorophytum, later I refused live plants, although they grew well there. In landscaped terrariums, fluorescent lamps with a power of 20-40 watts served as a source of illumination. Heating was carried out by incandescent lamps. In terrariums without living plants, I did not put special lighting lamps, I limited myself to an incandescent heating lamp. Its power was selected so that under it there was a temperature of 30-40 degrees. In the hottest time (July-August), heating was not turned on, because. it was warm enough at my house anyway (see the description of my experience with verdigris in another topic of this forum). Under the heating on the ground lay several wide flat stones and there was a snag with spreading branches, the snakes basked either on these branches, or under them, on the stones.
Snakes are diurnal snakes, so they need UV rays, I just exposed mine to the sun in a mesh bag by an open window in the room.
Between November and March, I put my snakes for the winter in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator, in boxes of sphagnum. He began preparing for wintering in October and carried out in the following order:
The first week is the cessation of feeding, the snakes are kept under the usual mode of heating and lighting (8-12 hours a day);
The second week - a gradual reduction in the operating time of the heating and lighting (if any) lamp, by the end of the week, heating and lighting were no longer turned on;
Third week - snakes live at room temperature (18-22 degrees) and are content with the light from the window;
Fourth week - in the first 3-4 days, the snakes are in the terrarium, with the window open at night (the temperature drops to 14-15 degrees), then - in wintering boxes on the loggia with the windows constantly open (temperature is about 10-12 degrees). In the last days of October - the first days of November, I put boxes with snakes in the refrigerator.
The exit from wintering was carried out in March. At first, for 3-5 days, he took out wintering boxes to the loggia, but already with the windows closed (8-12 degrees), then he placed the snakes in an unheated terrarium, after another 3-4 days he turned on the heating and began to give food.
I used frogs and toads as food for ordinary snakes, some of them also ate fish (gobies) in small quantities. My snakes ignored the toads. My water snakes never ate frogs, but they willingly ate toads, I mainly fed them with fish (gobies, crucian carp, loach, bleak, less often - atherina and pelingas). Toad gave water snakes occasionally, more in the spring, for a change. I gave only live amphibians, fish - both live and frozen. All my water snakes easily began to take frozen fish, literally from the second or third feeding.

Feed was given every 5-7 days, depending on the size and condition of the snake and the amount of food eaten. Snakes are very voracious, especially water snakes, but their voracity is largely offset by high mobility and fertility - my females almost always brought 2 clutches a year, several times there were even 3 clutches. Therefore, I was not afraid to overfeed my snakes, although I gave the males somewhat less food than the females. On average, a male common grass snake 60-80 cm long received from me 1-2 frogs or toads 4-5 cm long or 3-4 smaller ones per week. For a female of the same size, I gave 2-3 larger amphibians or 5-6 small ones, respectively. Large female grass snakes received 2-3 large frogs or toads per week.
Male water snakes of medium size (60-80 cm) received 3-4 fish 5-8 cm long or 1-2 larger fish per week, females - 5-6 or 3-4, respectively. Large females of this species (more than a meter long) ate 3-5 fish 10-15 cm long per week.
Breeding ordinary and water snakes in my opinion is very simple. After taking out of wintering, I planted males and females in different terrariums and waited for the first molt of all individuals, then put the snakes (males to females) and they immediately began to mate. Mating was repeated many times until the second molt, then stopped. According to my (and not only mine) observations, the landing of two males on one female significantly enhances their sexual activity, they mutually stimulate each other.
Pregnancy in my conditions lasted 32-50 days; for laying eggs, I placed a flat box with a side entrance filled with wet sphagnum in a warm corner of the terrarium. The record number of eggs laid by me by a female grass snake with a body length of 130 cm at a time was 35 pieces (not counting unfertilized eggs). The largest female water snakes laid up to 25-30 eggs. It is well known that snakes can delay the laying of eggs ready for this for up to a month, hence the variation in the duration of pregnancy and the timing of incubation. I carried out the incubation in a homemade incubator from a 30-liter tank. At the bottom of the tank was poured 10 cm of water, it contained plastic boxes with eggs buried in wet sphagnum and covered with pieces of bark or plywood on top. If the moss started to dry out, I moistened it with a spray bottle. From above, the tank was closed with a home-made plywood lid with a small mesh window for ventilation and a hole for the wire, on which an incandescent lamp with a power of 25-40 W was suspended. Eggs were examined every 7-10 days. The temperature in the incubator ranged from 25 to 30 degrees, I incubated the eggs of the second clutch, which fell on the hottest time of the year, without heating, room temperature was enough. The average duration of incubation for me was about 35 days (minimum - 26, maximum - 48). Young stock yield was often 100% and never less than 50%. I released most of the young ones into the natural habitats of snakes, some I used to feed copperheads.

Repeated matings took place without any stimulation and I rarely had a chance to observe them. More often than not, I simply found that the female was pregnant again. The second and, especially, the third clutches were always smaller in size than the first, often they had more unfertilized eggs.
According to my observations, snakes are very mobile snakes, they spend a lot of time actively moving around the terrarium, swimming in a pond, crawling along snags. The negative side of this feature is the very rapid contamination of the glass of the terrarium. The snake climbs into the pond, then stands on the glass, stretches to its full length until it falls sideways, while running a wet body across the glass (in the manner of a car wiper). As a result, all glasses get dirty very quickly, they have to be washed constantly. Otherwise, in my opinion, these are very interesting and pleasant animals to keep.

The common snake is a non-venomous snake, common throughout Europe. In Russia, in addition to the European part, snakes are found in the south of the Far East and south of Siberia.

natural diet

The list of what it eats includes mainly small frogs and rodents. These snakes are excellent swimmers, able to submerge under water for time intervals exceeding half an hour. Therefore, sometimes small fish become their victims. The prey is swallowed by the snake completely, without prior dismemberment or chewing.

What to feed a house snake?

The natural diet, ease of domestication and human safety 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 be aware that in most cases snakes eat only live food.

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

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

Some domesticated representatives of the species happily swallow worms, insects and snails. Cases have been recorded when the owners of snakes managed to accustom their animal to absorb dead food.

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

All information on how to keep a snake at home, a modern animal lover can easily find on the Internet. In turn, a competent consultant in a specialized store will help streamline this knowledge and compile a complete list of what you need.

How to keep a snake at home and what is required for this

An ordinary or merman in captivity can also feel quite comfortable. First of all, you need to choose and equip a terrarium (long and spacious), which would have:

• constant access to water for bathing and drinking in the form of a large sustainable reservoir;
• soil that retains moisture for a long time (peat, sand, etc.);
• a large stone that will be required during the molting period;
• wet moss, snags or other objects behind which it can already 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, sometimes bloodworms, insects, snails can be to your taste. The main difficulty is that snakes prefer live food, so you have to move the offered food until the snake pays attention to it. Teaching a pet to eat already dead food is rarely possible and should not be counted on. However, you need to feed snakes no more than 3-4 times a week.

How does he behave at home

The snakes are non-aggressive, if they are not frightened, they bite extremely rarely. They recognize the owners, get used to them, they can even walk in their arms (albeit only for the reason that it is warm around a person). The pet's routine is as follows:

• active during the day, sleeping at night;
• sheds at home once a year, as in the 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, a house with central heating will require special shelter and maintenance of a low temperature (which, like the intensity of lighting, should be gradually lowered in advance) so that you can spend at least 2 months in a state of “hibernation”.

Care and Safety Rules

In the dwelling, there must be 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 take cover and cool off.

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

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

Nimble snakes are distinguished by amazing perseverance and perseverance when it comes to finding a loophole for escape. When ordering a terrarium, pay attention to the strength and quality of the mesh that will be used as a cover. By itself, this type of snake is safe for humans, but not everyone can immediately determine that they have a harmless snake in front of them, and not a poisonous viper. It is better to exclude unexpected meetings by limiting the location of the pet to a terrarium.

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

In the spring, they often sell just emerging from hibernation water or ordinary (land) snakes. Awakening from hibernation occurs in March-April. In nature, with the onset of warm spring days, snakes crawl out of their wintering grounds and begin to lead a more active lifestyle, basking in sunny places. Entrepreneurial people catch them and sell them at the Bird Market under the guise of specially bred snakes raised in captivity. In inexperienced terrarium owners, such snakes most often die. The family of snakes has about 2000 species. Common snakes, land snakes and water snakes are not poisonous and are completely safe for humans. wishing keep snake in a terrarium It's best to buy it from a pet store.

The name "terrarium" is similar to the name "aquarium". The name of the aquarium comes from the Latin word "aqua" - water. An aquarium is used to keep fish and aquatic animals. The name terrarium comes from the word "terra", which means earth. The terrarium is used for keeping terrestrial animals at home.
Keeping snake at home allows the 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 located in a bright and sunny place in the apartment. Your pet's home should be as spacious and well ventilated as possible. To keep the land snake, place small snags or branches in the terrarium, arrange secluded places. For a water snake in a terrarium, a large body of water is needed. Shelters can be built from broken flower pots. The bottom should be lined with a material that retains moisture, such as moss, which can be bought at a pet store. The lighting of the terrarium should correspond to the natural one in intensity and daily rhythm. Powerful heating should provide 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. In it, one side glass should be replaced with plywood, in which holes with small diameters of 3-4 mm should be pre-drilled to ensure good ventilation so that damp air does not stagnate. From above, you need to make a cover from a very fine mesh, so that the snake cannot get out. On the plywood wall, you can install an incandescent lamp or a special heater for heating. The heating device must be protected with a fine plastic mesh so that the snake does not get burned. The metal mesh is not suitable in this case, as it will heat up. Attach a thermometer to the side wall. You should also take care of the stability of the water container and facilitate the annual molting of the snake. To pull off the old skin, the snake must be able to rub against specially laid large stones.

A novice lover of keeping snakes in the house should know in advance how to feed the snake. Water snakes eat mainly frogs, sometimes small live fish. Land snakes also eat mice. Previously, in Ukrainian and Belarusian villages, some owners kept snakes in the house to kill mice. The snakes live well in captivity, quickly begin to take the food offered to them and soon become completely tame.
You can buy snake food at a pet store or at the Bird Market. But buying food on the market is risky, as you can infect snakes with helminths. You need to feed the snakes once every three to four days. Food frogs should not be too large, otherwise a blockage of the digestive tract may occur, and the snake may die. For a thirty-centimeter snake, one frog about 4 cm long or two smaller ones is needed at a time. You can feed the snake both live and thawed food, but thawed fish can only be given occasionally, and only whole. He will deal with live food himself, and thawed food will have to be taken with tweezers, brought to the pet with his head forward and slightly swayed - the snake reacts only to moving objects. The snakes drink a lot.

A lover who keeps snakes at home should be ready for the time of the annual molt. A sign of approaching molting is clouding of the snake's eyes. At the moment of molting, due to cloudy dead scales in front of the eyes, the snake sees very poorly. At this time, the snake can be photographed without harm to its health (in normal times, a flash is very harmful for snakes), but during the molting period, the snake becomes more aggressive, it can confuse your hand with food or an enemy and bite. Ordinary land and water snakes are not poisonous, but the wound can become inflamed from a bite. Therefore, if you have already been bitten, expand the wound and let the blood drain.
The snake may not be able to shed the old skin entirely. If rags appear on the skin, this is an alarming sign. This means that the owner of the snake made mistakes in its maintenance and nutrition. It is necessary to help the snake shed: make him a warm (non-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 do not come off 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 worthwhile to provide 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 a loggia) or put it on a windowsill. During wintering, make sure that the temperature in the terrarium falls gradually and does not fall below plus two degrees.
You can meet a water snake not only in the market or in a pet store, but also near swampy reservoirs. Real snakes are relatively small snakes. The common terrestrial snake differs from other snakes in the presence of behind-the-ear spots of yellow or orange, less often white. Its dimensions are usually no more than a meter. Coloration from gray to black. The water snake has an olive-yellow color, it has no behind-the-ear spots, and dark spots similar to a viper's pattern are located on the back in a checkerboard pattern. Although the viper has a zigzag pattern. Many people mistakenly consider the snake to be poisonous and cannot distinguish it from the viper. In snakes, the head smoothly passes into the body, while poisonous snakes have wide protruding cheekbones due to the presence of poisonous glands. The body of the snake passes into the tail smoothly, and in a poisonous snake with a visible narrowing. The pupils of the water snake, like those of the land snake, are round, those of the viper are narrowed vertically.

In any case, do not rush, having met a snake in the forest or on the shore of a reservoir, take it in your hands to examine it, believing that it is a land or water snake. Also, do not beat the snake with a stick, thinking that it is

A common inhabitant of wet places, swamps and river banks of our country, it is found in almost the entire European part of Russia, as well as in the south of Siberia and the Far East.

Description of the snake

Animal already ordinary belongs to the genus of real snakes and has a distinctive feature in the form of two "ears" on the head - spots of white, yellow or orange. In some individuals, spots are weakly expressed or absent. Coloring of snakes - from black to gray or brown with a lighter abdomen, the presence or absence of a pattern in the form of spots or stripes. Source:

Already leads a daily lifestyle, and its activity is subject to seasonal changes. The snakes are most active, including the breeding season, from April to September. In the morning they crawl out to warm up in the sun, and at night they cool down in shelters made of branches, under snags, foliage, etc. In winter, they hide in shelters and hibernate. Females are larger than males snake length can reach 1.5 meters.

Like other snakes, snakes shed their skin. With a normal molt, the skin comes off entirely. Before molting, it becomes more passive and refuses to feed. To molt easily, you need to maintain a sufficient level of humidity.

Generally speaking, the language does not turn out to be called a snake as a pet, and given that most snakes in the same bird market are caught in the wild, it is not very advisable to take this snake home. After all, no matter how good the conditions of detention are, they cannot be compared with the natural habitat. In addition, snakes are quite demanding on temperature and humidity, so they often die in inexperienced hands. If you do not have experience with snakes, it is better to release the snake into the wild.

Terrarium for snake

But if you decide at all costs make a home, then for home maintenance he needs a spacious long terrarium, a significant part of which will be occupied by a pool. The snake needs a pool for bathing and drinking, so choose a body of water in which your pet can fully fit.

From above, the terrarium is tightly closed with a net so that it does not escape. At the bottom of the terrarium, a well-retaining soil is laid: peat or sand. You can also put sand on the bottom of the pool. Source:

In addition to the main soil in a warm corner, they arrange a patch of wet moss in which your snake can burrow. They also place all kinds of snags, placers of stones, between which he can already crawl, shelters and shelters from well-fixed branches or bark.

In the terrarium, it is necessary to maintain a temperature difference. One corner should be warm, for warming up. A heating lamp is placed near it, under which you can put a stone or a snag, where the snake will heat its body. An area with wet moss is also best placed in a warm corner. The daily temperature here should be 30-35º.

In addition to a warm corner, there should be a cool and dry place, preferably with shelter, where it can cool down. In this place the temperature is about 22º. The average temperature of the rest of the terrarium during the day fluctuates around 22-26º. At night, the terrarium is not heated or illuminated, because. it is already active during the day, and sleeps in shelter at night. In addition to temperature, it is necessary to maintain humidity in the terrarium. To do this, the soil and moss are regularly sprayed. It is very good to purchase a special lamp with ultraviolet light, although in the summer you can limit yourself to ordinary sunbathing.

Home already and hibernation

In order to fall into hibernation, in the autumn during the month they reduce daylight hours (gradually, from 12 to 4 hours) as well as the heating period. A decrease in temperature and lighting provokes hibernation, therefore, after a complete cessation of lighting and a decrease in temperature to 10º, it is already able to hibernate for about 2 months, which favorably affects further activity and reproduction.

Feeding snakes

What do snakes eat? The snake's diet consists of live food. The snakes feed mainly on frogs and rodents, sometimes small fish. Food must move! At home, you will have to buy tree frogs, small mice, aquarium fish and feed them live. Also, some snakes eat insects, bloodworms, snails, worms.