Exact Answer: 6 To 8 Years
Corn snakes are a North American species of rat snake and are found throughout the southeastern and central regions of the United States.
Corn snakes have a lifespan of about 6 to 8 years in general. The clear reason why corn snakes live that long is that the life cycle of corn snakes takes about a minimum of 6 years to a maximum of 8 years to get completed. However, there is one major factor that must be considered while calculating the lifespan, that is, whether the corn snake is kept in captivity or kept in the wild.
How Long Do Corn Snakes Live?
When said about keeping an animal in captivity, that means, the animal could be kept in zoos, animal sanctuaries, or even kept as pets. Keeping animals in captivity signifies that the animal has an owner whose responsibility is to take care of that animal. The corn snakes who live under captivation can live for as long as a span of 10 to 14 years. The reason behind that is because these corns have no stress to survive, they don’t have to struggle for food or fight predators. Such corn snakes are provided food and a good environment, they are far away from predators and thus, they have a huge lifespan of 10 to 14 years.
Pet corn snakes can live up to 10 to 14 years if healthy, provided needed care, and other essential needs like food and shelter are provided. Although, it is important to make sure that these pet corn snakes have equal health risks as compared to other domestic pets. If not taken care of or provided the needed diagnosis for their health problems, there is a big probability that these pet corn snakes will die due to several prominent illnesses.
Whereas on the other hand, wild corn snakes live for only about 6 to 8 years. The reason behind that is because wild corn snakes are a part of the food chain at a very low level. That means, the animals which thrive upon other animals as food for their living, make corn snakes their prey. So, as a result, corn snakes fail to live long in the wild.
| Living Conditions Of Corn Snakes | Life Expectancy |
| Living in the wild | 6 to 8 years |
| Living in captivity | 10 to 14 years |
Why Do Corn Snakes Live That Long?
With advancements in veterinary medicine and veterinary science, scientists found suitable conditions for corn snakes to survive for a longer duration of time. Moreover, with developed and improved knowledge about appropriate corn snake care, good feeding habits, and all other survival situations, the average lifespan of corn snakes can be increased from 3 years to about 4 years.
Corn snakes when kept in captivity are not more vulnerable to survival problems like predators and food shortages. When taken proper care of, provided safe and suitable shelter, a healthy diet, and an attentive owner, corn snakes can easily live up to 3 years. Generally, corn snakes living in captivity, which means in zoological gardens and sanctuaries, tend to live longer than corn snakes living in the wild.
The reason behind that is because all the conditions suitable to live for a corn snake are readily provided to corn snakes in captivity. These corn snakes don’t have to search for food or hunt for food to stay alive. Whereas, corn snakes living in the wild struggle to live longer because of shortage of food, unsuitable external conditions, fear of predators, and all other such problems as well. Corn snakes in captivity can live up to as long as 14 years.
Conclusion
Corn Snakes are found in many forms depending upon color morphs, pattern morphs, and compound morphs. Different color morphs of corn snakes are, Caroline, Miami phase, Okeetee phase, Candy cane, reverse Okeetee, Fluorescent orange, sunglow, Blood red, Crimson, anerythristic, Charcoal, caramel, lavender, cinder, kastanie, Ultra, ultramel, dilute, sunkissed, and lava.
Pattern morphs of corn snakes are, mortley, striped, diffused, sunkissed, and zigzag. Lastly, compound morphs of come snakes are snow, Blizzard, ghost, Phantom, pewter, butter, Amber, plasma, opal, granite, and fire. Apart from this, other variations of corn snakes are scale mutations and hybrids.
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