If you are a snake lover or just merely curious, you may wonder what green snakes eat?
Fortunately, if you own a green snake, you don’t need to be concerned about observing your snake swallowing a live mouse, which can be slightly traumatic for some people.
While green snakes are carnivorous, they prefer a pallet of smaller creatures.
Although rough green snakes are naturally found in the wilderness, these brightly colored non-venomous snakes are also commonly kept as household pets.
If you are the proud owner of a green snake, you may be relieved to discover that your pet’s dietary needs are fairly simple.
What Green Snakes Eat
Green snakes mainly feed upon insects, including crickets and grasshoppers. However, they’re also known to occasionally feed on frogs, caterpillars, and snails. While you can feed them mealworms, this should be done sparingly. Green snakes prefer to drink drops of water off leaves rather than from a bowl.
Green Snakes Love Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Caterpillars
Although green snakes are carnivorous, they feed primarily on insects, which makes them one of the few snake breeds that are technically classified as insectivores.
Rough and smooth green snakes make excellent household pets, but they don’t enjoy loud noises or frequent handling. However, they are ideal as view-only pets.
When feeding your green snake, it’s best to stick with soft-bodied insects, but crickets and grasshoppers are dietary staples for the green snake while in its natural habitat. While it’s recommended to feed caterpillars to green snakes in captivity, their diet should remain as diverse as possible.
Green snakes are extremely shy, so they may be reluctant to accept the food that is offered. If your green snake isn’t showing any interest in meals, you can try moving the tank to a quieter area of the house.
Green Snakes should be Fed a Variety of Soft-Bodied Insects
While it’s fine for a green snake to occasionally enjoy a dish of mealworms, crickets, or grasshoppers, they should only receive these types of insects sparingly, as the tougher exoskeletons can place your green snake at a higher risk of impaction.
Sure, a green snake would love to devour a large grasshopper, but this insect type isn’t the healthiest choice for a green snake.
Ideally, you should stick to feeding your green snake a diet that consists primarily of caterpillars, but mix it up occasionally by offering spiders, moths, wax worms, or flies.
Although green snakes aren’t too concerned with vitamins and minerals while in the wilderness, it is recommended to only feed green snakes gut-loaded prey, while in captivity.
Green Snakes Prefer to Drink Water Droplets
Although owners of green snakes should still place a shallow bowl of water in the tank, as green snakes do occasionally enjoy a good soak, it is unlikely that the snake will actually drink the water from the bowl, regardless of how thirsty it gets.
Sure, it may sound as though these beautiful snakes are being a little too picky, but it’s only natural for green snakes to drink water droplets from plants.
Since the tank would need to be equipped with sufficient greenery anyway for your snake to thrive, you should use a water bottle to mist the plants daily, so that your snake receives the type of water source that it prefers.
While it’s still important to make sure that the tank is as close to the natural habitat as possible, regardless, it’s strongly advised for potential green snake owners to only take in pet green snakes that are captivity bred.
Green Snakes Hunt for Food during the Day
Just as green snakes are unique in their preferred diet, they are also amongst the few snake breeds that hunt for food during daylight hours. When hunting for food in the wild, green snakes use their stellar vision to locate and track potential prey.
Once they have found an ideal source of prey, they will coil their body like a spring before using their head to suddenly pounce on the prey.
In captivity, their feeding habits differ. They tend to be most receptive to food in the early morning or evening hours.
If you own a green snake, you should set a feeding schedule of once or twice a week and offer food two or three times over the span of twenty minutes.
Due to the shy nature of green snakes, it’s essential to create an environment that they are comfortable in to encourage them to feed and thrive in captivity. Green snakes are docile pets that do not bite, and their natural form of defense is their ability to blend into their environment.
They are most comfortable in tanks with plenty of greenery, and their peaceful temperament enables them to be housed together with other green snakes.
Frequently Asked Questions about What Green Snakes Eat
How Long Can Green Snakes Go Without Eating?
Most green snakes can make it for a few weeks without food and not experience any issues. However, some breeds of snakes have been known to go months or even years without a food source before beginning to starve.
How Often Does a Green Snake Eat?
Green snakes need to eat more often than the majority of common pet snakes. Ideally, green snakes should be fed at least two to three times per week and be offered a few insects each time that they are fed.
Do Green Snakes Eat Mice?
Although green snakes are meat-eaters, they thrive on insects and occasionally frogs, but they do not eat any type of rodent or small animal.
Conclusion
While the answer to what green snakes eat is simple, it’s still good information for snake lovers to know, given that a green snake’s diet differs from that of most snakes.
Rough and smooth green snakes are excellent view-only pets, but their shy nature and habitat preferences make them slightly high-maintenance when compared to other snakes.
Fortunately, you have no reason to worry if you encounter a green snake in the wild. These docile reptiles don’t bite and, if you’re lucky, their presence may even help keep the insects at bay.