Prairie Rattlesnake — Fact Sheet

Crotalus viridis · Prairie Rattlesnake

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• One adult: minimum 150 x 75 x 75 cm; larger for a large northern male.
• Locked primary enclosure in a restricted escape-resistant room.
• Full-body shift or two positive-lock compartments; protected-contact service only.
• 8-12 cm compactable mineral soil; paper during quarantine.
• Avoid cohabitation, unstable rock, aromatic wood and any neonate-sized gap.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Tight warm and cool refuges; at least one lockable shift.
• Anchored flat rock, cork and low robust cover.
• Local ventilated humid retreat during shed.
• Stable water bowl served through protected access.
• Clear sight line to every door and compartment for complete counts.

💡 Lighting

• Bright visible daylight; locality-based 10-14-hour seasonal photoperiod.
• Measured UVB around Ferguson Zone 2 recommended.
• Complete shade and dark shift refuge always available.
• Guard lamps, cables and probes; no coloured night lamps.
• Replace lamps according to measured output and maker schedule.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 29-32 °C

• Warm zone: 22-27 °C

• Cool zone: 18-22 °C

• Night: 14-20 °C

• Use broad guarded overhead heat on a thermostat.

• Measure air and surfaces independently; preserve a usable cool compartment.

💧 Humidity & water

• General humidity: 35-55% with good ventilation.
• Shed retreat: 55-70%, local and controllable.
• Clean stable water bowl through protected access.
• Investigate persistent soaking, condensation, wet belly scales or poor sheds.

🐁 Diet

Feed routinely:

• Appropriately sized frozen-thawed mice or rats.
• Adults commonly every 14-28 days; juveniles every 7-14 days.

In moderation:

• Larger meals only when serial weight and body condition justify them.

Avoid:

• Live rodents, oversized meals, frequent adult feeding and moving to an open feeding tub.

Supplements:

• None for complete whole prey.

💤 Brumation

• Locality-dependent breeding procedure, not routine care.
• Healthy, established, fasted northern adults: approximately 5-10 °C under a controlled plan.
• Do not apply a Canadian cycle automatically to southern stock.
• Never cool juveniles, new arrivals, thin, dehydrated, gravid or ill animals.
• Use redundant monitoring and veterinary review.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Wheeze, bubbles, open mouth or persistent raised head → respiratory disease.
• Retained shed or repeated soaking → hydration, humidity, mites or disease problem.
• Red or blistered belly scales → wet substrate or dermatitis.
• Regurgitation → prey size, temperature, disturbance or illness.
• Weight decline during cooling → unsafe brumation or disease.
• Any bite → immediate emergency care; no cutting, suction, ice, shock, massage or tourniquet.

Shift and lock the snake before veterinary assessment; never attempt hands-on home treatment.