Looking for info on Eastern Work Snakes!

[oh.mandy]

Hello. New here and looking for a little info! Curious if anyone could share some knowledge on Eastern Worm snakes as I haven't had much luck online. He/She was given to me by a friend of a friend who quickly grew bored with him. Not sure of the sex, age, or much else honestly. Snake is about 6-8 inches, and slightly thinner than a pencil. Snake has currently been in my care for 5 days.

I currently have it in a 15 gallon aquarium. I've filled the aquarium with several inches of Eco Earth for digging and several rocks for hiding, as well as a water bowl large enough for soaking. Tank temp is currently 80 on warm side, and humidity is currently at 70-75%. My main concern is making sure it's eating. How do I monitor to make sure it is in fact eating when he spends all of his time buried underground? I have been offering earth worms and wax worms. He didn't eat the wax worms and I was only able to find one of the two earth worms I dropped in the tank, but I'm not sure if the other one is buried in the substrate? Any and all advice is appreciated!

[Herpin' Man]

I've never kept worm snakes, but I have kept other small snakes. I like your set up, although I would use bark and leaf litter for cover, rather than rocks. I would also make sure that one end of the substrate was drier than the other, to create a moisture gradient.
Earthworms are the preferred food as I understand it, although I would avoid using red wigglers, due to the bad taste and/or potential toxicity. I would also resist the temptation to dig through the substrate, either for the purpose of counting the worms or examining the snake. Doing so only stresses the snake, and increases the likelihood that it won't eat. Simply dump in a number of appropriately sized worms, and let nature take its course. If, when you do see the snake it has good body weight, and if you keep dumping in worms and the tank isn't being over run with them, that's how you can tell that the snake is probably eating.

[pet_snake_78]

I think Herpin Man is right on the $. They should have access to drier and moister areas and cover to hide on in both places. I imagine 80F at the surface on the warm side is plenty, these snakes hide under cover in nature so would not be used to overly warm temperatures anyway. I would imagine earthworms should provide most of what they need for food but you could try some isopods as I imagine they often encounter them while hiding under objects in the wild. I couldn't find any analysis of stomach contents to confirm exactly how much of what they eat in the wild.