Corn snakes, sometimes called red rat snakes, are slender, usually orange or brownish-yellow snakes with a pattern of large, red blotches outlined in black down their backs.
Due to their popularity in the pet trade, there are many more colour variations of this species available in captivity. Corn snakes get their name for two reasons. Firstly, they often live near grain or cornfields where they find their favorite food: rodents. Secondly, because of the checkerboard pattern of scales on their underbelly that looks like kernels of corn.
Corn snakes are solitary creatures. They are active at night and spend most of their daytime underground in burrows or hide under logs, rocks, or loose bark.
Corn snakes have a very sharp sense of smell which they use to hunt their prey. They usually eat every few days and hunt on the ground, climbing trees or in tunnels underground.
