CHARACTERISTICS
Northern Water Snakes can be somewhat nervous, and jumpy.
They will prefer to escape rather than bite, but if cornered, they will strike and bite viciously and repeatedly.
Their saliva contains anticoagulant properties that make the lacerations bleed profusely.
Northern Water Snakes are medium-sized non-venomous snakes that eat their prey live.
They do not constrict, but grab it and start swallowing.
They are diurnal, even on the hottest summer days.
They are live bearers, they do not lay eggs
DESCRIPTION & LIFE SPAN
Northern Water Snakes are very variable in pattern depending on locality.
Generally, they have light brown or reddish markings on a brown or grayish ground color.
The markings are bands on the neck and become blotches on the back.
There are smaller alternating spots on the sides and the ones closest to the ventral scales have a tendency to be red.
The tail is ringed in the same color as the dorsal markings.
The belly is white with brown or red half-moon shaped markings.
These markings are sparse or absent anteriorly and become much more numerous posteriorly.
Sometimes there is a yellow, orange, or pink stripe running longitudinally down the center of the vent.
The crescent shaped markings may still be present with this stripe,
but if they are not, there may be very small gray or brown dots scattered randomly about the belly.
Larger adults may be a solid brown or black when they are dry.
Newborn northern water snakes have a gray or very light brown ground color with striking black or dark brown bands
and blotches.
The crescents on the belly usually have no red but are solid black or brown instead.
Subadults are quite reddish in overall appearance.
Northern Water Snakes are heavy bodied snakes, built much like rattlesnakes,
that average 3-4.5' in length.
DIFFICULTY
Northern Water Snakes are easy-to-keep snakes that are forgiving in keeper mistakes.
RANGE & STATUS IN THE WILD
Northern Water Snakes range from Maine and S. Quebec (Canada) to N. North Carolina and adjacent portions of Tenn.
and VA. They range as far west as E. Colorado.
A resident of virtually every swamp, marsh, or bog, every stream, pond or lake border within it's range.
Quiet waters are preferred.
They are regularly killed while being mistaken for the venomous
cottonmouth (or water moccasin).
HOUSING
Northern Water Snakes, or Nerodia Sipedon Sipedon, are a mid-sized species of colubrids which average 3-4.5'.
Keep this size in consideration when choosing a cage.
A cage's width should be 1/2 the length of your snake and the cage's depth should be 2/3 their length.
In nature, Northern Water Snaked are often found basking in branches over water,
which they will promptly drop into if alarmed.
Baby Northern Water Snakes can be kept in 10
gal. glass aquariums.
It is up to you to purchase a larger enclosure every time your snake outgrows the older one.
It would be more economical to buy an enclosure that will suit an adult size snake for a hatchling
and allow them to grow up in such an enclosure. However, snakes love small spaces.
Large spaces, especially those w/ no cover stress out small snakes and may cause them to refuse food.
Keep in mind when considering the entry to the cage. Overhead entryways, such as in glass tanks work well,
but they may mistake you for a predator coming from above. This is why moving slowly and deliberately,
as well as hide boxes for the snake are important.
FURNITURE
Snakes in general are hiders.
Therefore, they need a place where they can be relatively out of site to feel secure.
Part of this sense of security comes from a snug fit in their hiding place.
They need to feel contact on at least two sides, be it left and right, top and bottom or some combination.
I use a piece of 3/4" thick board of appropriate width,
like 1x6 or 1x8 from a lumber/hardware store and just raise one end a little higher than the girth of the snake.
You can also use hides from petstores as well. A raised branch with plastic leaves lashed to it can
constitute a hide as well.
Water Snakes should not be kept in a total water environment!!!
They use water to find their food and as a security escape, but they're not contantly in water.
You’ll need to provide a heat gradient to allow the water snake to thermo regulate.
I’ll explain that in the heating section below.
But, you’ll want at least one hide box on the warm side and the cool side of the cage.
This way, the snake can warm up or cool off and remain hidden. Don’t force them to choose between hiding
and changing their body temperature.
Obviously, a water bowl is a necessity since all living things need water.
I use the water bowl to try and duplicate what the snake considers safe haven in the wild.
In the wild, they bask on branches overhanging water so I try to duplicate this in their enclosure.
To make this appealing, I've secured plastic leaves to the branch. I've observed mine basking in this way.
See below on treating wood you get from outdoors. Water snakes will almost always poop in the water,
so check the water dish frequently for feces/urates.
I use a very large waterbowl, in fact a cat litter pan from Walmart, 12"x8".
Water snakes, even babies, are at home in the water and can remain under water for up to an hour and a half (!),
so unlike other baby snakes, the danger of them drowning is much less.
Just the same, I do not put more than 3/4" of water in the dish. Even a 10"
baby can climb out of a litter pan pretty easily.
As a minimum, make sure the snake can completely curl up in the water vessel of your choice.
The bowl should be filled about halfway, if the bowl is kept full, displacement from the snake coiling
inside the bowl will cause the water to overflow.
If you don't drink the water from the faucet at your residence,
I would caution against using that water for a snake.
I use bottled spring water myself, it isn't that pricey.
If you get wild-caught wood, you will want to treat it for
mites and other parasites
that could hurt your snake, or destroy your house, i.e. termites.
First, strip off loose bark and all leaves and undesired twigs.
Second, soak in bleach/water solution (1/2 cup bleach per
gal of water) for 24 hours.
Next, rinse the wood thoroughly and soak in frequently refreshed fresh water
for 24 hours to remove the bleach from the wood.
Dry the wood in the sun for 2-3 days,
keeping it away from direct contact with the ground to reduce the chance of it being re-infested.
Or, strip the smaller pieces of wood as stated above, then 'bake' it in an oven for 2-3 hours at 200-250°F (93-121°C).
Make sure it is NOT cedar, redwood, or pine, since these are fatal to reptiles.
A final, but important, thing is something weighty that the snake cannot move with rough edges.
This is to assist the snake in shedding. A good sized rock (NOT a hot rock!!!)
treated similarly to the wood above works well, and can double as a basking spot as the rock will hold heat longer.
It also helps to have a narrow "tunnel" or someplace they can crawl through snugly to help pull the shed off once
they've got the snout started.
SUBSTRATE
The debate on what substrate to use for reptiles is always an ongoing debate.
The general consensus for these substrates are as follows:
Newspaper -
pros: allows for easy cleaning, cheap, safe and practical,
your snake can hide under these
cons:doesn’t look natural and appealing, not a good absorbent of waste fluids,
when wet, fluids cause the ink to be come wet,
and possibly stick to your snake giving it a dirty look,
color ink has been suspected to be toxic when wet
Old cotton bed sheets -
pros: allows for easy cleaning, cheap, safe and practical,
your snake can hide under these,
good absorbent of waste fluids, can be thrown into the washer and re-used
cons:looks appealing, but not natural
Aspen shavings -
pros: spot cleaning of wastes is easy, fairly cheap, safe, looks natural and appealing,
absorbs waste fluids, and seems to help cover up the smell of wastes
cons:can cause mouth rot if ingested during feeding, feeding outside of the enclosure easily prevents this
AVOID cedar, redwood, or pine at all costs because they are toxic to reptiles!
The fumes from cedar and redwood cause respiratory infections that will kill them. Pine is toxic when ingested.
Feeding
Northern Water snakes are primarily fish eaters.
They will however eat pretty much anything they can catch, like baby turtles, leeches, mammals, worms,
crayfish, most anything associated with water.
In captivity, fish is the easiest. You can get feeder fish from the pet stores,
but these are usually kept in pretty wretched conditions.
I prefer minnows etc from bait shops.
Most water snakes will accept fish fillet as well. This is, however, an incomplete food
and should be supplemented with vitamins.
However, most water snakes will spit out fillet dusted with vitamins,
so I usually make a cut into the piece of fillet I'm going to feed and put the vitamins in there.
And I still feed them live fish once or twice a month, just to get that whole prey item nutrition.
Water snakes do NOT constrict their prey, they grab it and start swallowing alive.
In the wild they eat on a very regular basis by patrolling the water.
They will eat every day or every other day. I feed babies/juveniles about once every 5 days.
I prefer to feed them in a separate dish, but you can also drop live fish in their waterbowl or
put a plate with appropriately sized chunks of fillet on it.
Size the fillet chunks based on the biggest point on the snakes body.
DON'T cut the pieces too long. I've had mine literally fold a piece in 1/2 and try to swallow it,
and it's very stressful to watch and a pain to remove if they get it to the
back of their throat and can't get it down.
TEMPERATURE
Northern Water snakes are cold-blooded animals. This means the temperature surrounding
them directly affects their body temperature unlike humans, whose warm blood keeps their body
temperatures at an even 98.6°F.
Thus, they need to thermo regulate by moving from place to place to adjust their body temperature.
For example, if they feel they need to warm up,
they’ll move into the sunlight where it’s warmer and bask.
When they need to cool off, they’ll just move into the shade where the temperatures are cooler or head for the water.
It’s best to imitate that environment as closely as possible for your northern water snake.
Fortunately, they have such a large natural range, they're very adaptable.
They need the heat to help digest their food.
The daytime basking spot directly under the light or on top of the pad should be around 82-85°F,
the warm side of the cage around the basking spot should be around 75-80°F.
The heat source should be at one end of the cage to provide a gradient so the snake can move
to both sides of the cage to thermo regulate.
The cool side of the cage should be around 70°F.
At night, the temps should drop around 5-10 degrees.
Northern water snakes tolerate a wide range of temperatures,
but they cannot tolerate temperature of 90 or high for very long.
THIS WILL KILL THEM.
The best way to provide the basking spot is with a heat lamp, a regular incandescent household bulb will do.
You can also use an under-tank heating pad from the pet store,
or a human heating pad from Wal-Mart or other large discount stores.
The heating pad should take up only 1/3 of the width of the cage to allow the snake to move on and off
the area above the heating pad.
To allow the temperature changes, what you can do is have both the heating pad and bulb on during the daytime,
then at night, turn off the bulb but leave the heating pad on.
It’s important to make sure the bulb and pad are on the same side of the cage,
or the snake will never have a gradient to benefit from.
At night, you can use the black incandescent bulbs for heat and your visibility.
Also, don’t use fluorescent black lights because these can hurt your snake's eyes.
Try staring at one for a few seconds then blinking,
there’s an annoying shadow where the light was that doesn’t go away for a few seconds.
Now imagine what it’s like if you can’t blink.
Also, don’t use any bright lights in the cage at night because this will throw off your snake,
and they won’t know when to sleep.
In turn, this will cause stress from not being able to sleep under bright light.
Make sure there is a screen barrier so that the snake cannot touch the bulbs or the
pads and burn themselves.
As for humidity, it should be kept anywhere from 30-60%.
Most likely, even in winter, the humidity in your house is probably acceptable.
When it rains outside, I mist the cage, heavily if it's been/is raining all day,
lighter if just a little. A little dose of fresh air (open window) never hurts,
but NEVER open the window and leave for any period of time.
If it's cold, you lower their temperature dangerous low;
if it's hot, they can overheat. You heat sources should be controlled with a thermostat optimally.
Much thanks to my pal Telefrag for the feeding tips!
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