The Eastern Indigo Snake is a smooth-scaled snake native to the United States. It gets its name from its iridescent ventral scales which reflect a blackish-purple light.
They are often considered the largest snake that is native to the United States. This refers to the snake’s overall length and the build or weight of the snake as they are rather slender.
Taxonomy
The Eastern Indigo Snake belongs to the colubrid family of snakes. This is the largest family of snakes in the world with roughly 250 different recognised genera.
The genera that this species belongs to is called Drymarchon. This genus is a grouping of Indigo Snakes and contains species such as the Texas Indigo Snake and the Blacktail Cribo.
The Eastern Indigo snake was once considered a sub-species of Yellowtail Cribo and given the name Drymarchon corais couperi.
However, in 1842, the snake was upgraded to full species status under the name Drymarchon couperi.
Eastern Indigo Snake Description
The Eastern Indigo Snake is a smooth-scaled snake that us black in color. Some of them have a reddish-orange or tan color on their throat, cheeks, and chin.
The dorsal and lateral scales of the snake are uniform while the ventral scales reflect a purple tint in bright light. This is similar to how a Brazilian Rainbow Boa reflects light.
It is the largest species of snake native to the United States in terms of length, growing to lengths of up to 8 feet. There are a number of invasive species such as the Burmese Python which are much larger in length.
Natural Habitat and Distribution
The Eastern Indigo Snake is native to the South-Eastern United States. They can be found throughout the state of Florida and up into Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. It shares much of its range with the Rough Green Snake and the Pine Snake.
They like to live in pine flatwoods, hardwood forests, moist hammocks, and areas that surround cypress swamps. They also like to live around the sandy banks of rivers and streams.
Feeding an Eastern Indigo Snake
The Eastern Indigo Snake is an aggressive feeder that will eat just about anything it can overpower. In the wild, they will eat rodents, small mammals, birds, lizards and even other snakes.
These snakes do not constrict their prey. They have extremely powerful jaws that are designed to crush their prey.
In captivity, the Eastern Indigo Snake can be fed a diet consisting primarily of rodents. As they are an active species, you can feed them a meal every week, even as adults.
Their jaws don’t open as large as other species so meal sizes shouldn’t be too large. Ensure each meal is smaller than the girth of the snake, at the snake’s largest point.
The bulk of your snakes’ diet should consist of frozen-thawed rats. However, as these snakes eat a varied diet in the wild, you should try to offer them other food occasionally.
These snakes will generally eat just about anything. You can offer them chicks, quail, rabbits and even feeder snakes. Simply offer them whatever alternative food source your local reptile store supplies.
Eastern Indigo Snake Housing
A hatchling Eastern Indigo Snake will do well in a plastic tub with ventilation holes. This type of enclosure, fitted with a number of hiding spaces will help the snake to feel secure.
As the snake grows you will need to increase the size of the enclosure. Once they reach around 6 months old, you can move them into an enclosure measuring around 2ft x 1ft x 1ft.
Keep in mind that this is an active species that grows to a good length so you will need to provide them with the appropriate amount of space. An adult will do well in an enclosure measuring 6ft x 3ft x 2ft.
Cages should be heavily furnished with branches, hides, a water bowl and so on. This is an active, intelligent snake that will utilise whatever you give them in their enclosure.
These snakes need some bit of humidity. They tend to do well with a damp hide box as opposed to keeping the humidity in their entire enclosure high.
Light and Heat
Like all snakes, you need to provide your Eastern Indigo Snake with a thermal gradient inside their enclosure so they can regulate their body temperature.
You should provide your snake with a hot spot of around 85F. Excessive amounts of heat without the ability to cool down can be fatal to these snakes so a cool spot is very important.
The cool end of your snake’s enclosure should be around 70-75F. It generally isn’t difficult to create a thermal gradient in a large enclosure. Just ensure the temperature of the room itself doesn’t get too cold.
The Eastern Indigo Snake doesn’t need any special kind of lighting such as UVB. They do however, need to be exposed to a proper day/night cycle. This can be as simple as keeping your snake in a room with a window.
Substrate
The choice of substrate for an Eastern Indigo Snake is completely a matter of personal preference as they will do well on a wide variety of substrates.
If you want to keep things basic, newspaper or paper towel work well. These substrates are sanitary, quick to replace and easy to know when they are soiled.
If you want to go for a more naturalistic substrate, you have a number of good options. Aspen, Coco Fibre and Cypress Mulch will all work well for an Eastern Indigo Snake.
A damp hide box is also important for these snakes. This can be as simple as a plastic storage box with a hole cut in the lid. The box can be filled with damp sphagnum moss.
Handling an Eastern Indigo Snake
The Eastern Indigo Snake is a fast and active snake which will give you a very different handling experience than many other species such as the Ball Python.
These snakes are generally not aggressive and usually wont bite due to being defensive. They do however, have a very aggressive feeding response so this is what you need to watch out for.
The best way to counteract this is to use a snake hook while removing your snake from its enclosure. This is usually enough for the snakes feeding response to switch off.
Sticking your hand straight into a snakes enclosure that has an aggressive feeding response will often end in a bite. This isn’t something you want from a large Eastern Indigo Snake with powerful jaws
