Where is the corn snake legal?

By Georgia Law, most native species of wildlife cannot be held without permits or licenses. These licenses are not issued for the purpose of holding native wildlife as pets. These restrictions apply to the various species of animal, regardless of the origin or morphology. ... The following list of species native to Georgia may not be held as a pet regardless of its origin or morphology.

Georgia handles its own wildlife separately from the wild animal rule, and the sentence that matters is "These restrictions apply to the various species of animal, regardless of the origin or morphology." A captive-bred animal from an out-of-state breeder is in the same position as one caught in a Georgia yard, and a colour morph is too. The corn snake is on DNR's list of native species that may not be held as a pet. Licences exist under O.C.G.A. § 27-5-4 and DNR says in terms that they "are not issued for the purpose of holding native wildlife as pets". Georgia is the state on this map where the corn snake, the archetypal beginner pet snake, cannot be kept at all, and the origin-and-morphology sentence is what makes captive-bred and morph animals no different.

How this rule works: The agency page that answers the native half of Georgia, which the wild animal rule does not reach. It states the operative rule in one line, "By Georgia Law, most native species of wildlife cannot be held without permits or licenses. These licenses are not issued for the purpose of holding native wildlife as pets", and adds the sentence that closes the captive-bred argument: "These restrictions apply to the various species of animal, regardless of the origin or morphology." It then lists native species that may not be held as a pet, among them the corn snake, milksnake, garter snake, green anole, both hognose snakes, all four box turtles and the flying squirrel. Two limits are worth carrying: the list says of itself that it "does not include all native wildlife that is prohibited", and a separate paragraph names the natives Georgia does allow to be taken, "rats, mice, armadillos, coyotes, groundhogs, beaver, freshwater turtles, venomous snakes, frogs, spring lizards, fiddler crabs, freshwater crayfish, freshwater mussels, and nutria".

Serpentes (all species)

Hawaii bans the entire snake suborder by name.

How this rule works: Also carries the default rule: introduction is 'prohibited except for those animals on the lists' incorporated in § 4-71-6.5.

The take or possession of any native West Virginia reptile or amphibian species not listed hereafter is prohibited pursuant to W. Va. Code 20-2-4.

West Virginia bars its own reptiles rather than exotic ones, which is the opposite of how most states are built and the reason this reads as banned while a bearded dragon here is legal. 58-73-1.1 prohibits taking or possessing any native species not listed later in the rule, and section 4 lists ten salamanders for bait, two frogs, and two turtles, the snapping turtle and the eastern spiny softshell. No snake and no lizard is anywhere in it. The DNR summary of the rule opens by saying West Virginia herp regulations prohibit the possession of 80 species of reptiles and amphibians. The DNR checklist names the Cornsnake (Pantherophis guttatus) among the state twenty-two snakes, which is easy to miss because West Virginia is at the northern edge of its range.

How this rule works: A closed list for natives. Section 4 names ten salamanders for bait, two frogs, and exactly two turtles. No lizard and no snake appears anywhere in it, and 58-73-1.1 says possession of any native species not listed is prohibited. The DNR summary of this rule opens by saying West Virginia herp regulations prohibit the possession of 80 species of reptiles and amphibians.

Any captive-bred species from the genus Pantherophis (cornsnakes, ratsnakes, and foxsnakes) except the Great Plains ratsnake (Pantherophis emoryi)

Two conditions, both real. The animal must be captive-bred, and § 703(B) requires documentation that reasonably identifies it, a receipt or bill of sale, a donation certificate, an importation health certificate or proof it was bred from lawfully possessed parents. No licence and no fee, but a wild-caught corn snake and an undocumented one are both outside the exemption. Colorado carved the Great Plains ratsnake out of the genus because it is a native species. Anyone who held a Pantherophis on 1 May 2026 could satisfy the documentation requirement instead by filing a CPW Legacy Report under § 703(C). CPW tells keepers to check their city or county as well, so a local ordinance can still be the binding rule.

How this rule works: Secretary of State's official text of the new herpetofauna chapter, effective 1 May 2026. A closed-list scheme: #701 makes possession of any live reptile or amphibian unlawful unless the chapter allows it, Appendix A is free possession, Appendix B is free possession with documentation, Appendix C is wild collection under a resident licence, and anything on none of them is regulated wildlife.

Corrected from legal. The previous entry cleared this snake against a banned list that does not exist in the form described. The real point is that the corn snake is native to Delaware, so it is not exotic, the Agriculture permit chapter does not reach it, and DNREC's native wildlife rules do. Those rules do not make native wildlife available as pets, with one carve-out that matters here: a captive-bred native snake in an aberrant colour morph may be held under permit. Since the pet trade in this species is almost entirely captive-bred colour morphs, most animals offered for sale can qualify where a wild-type one cannot. Hence conditional rather than banned, which is where the garter snake sits.

How this rule works: Delaware Code Online's game and fish possession chapter administered by DNREC, paired with a separate exotic species permit chapter at Del. Code tit. 3, c. 72.

Any hybrid, intergrade, cross, or morphological variation of any listed herptile shall be treated as an endangered or threatened herptile under this Part. Examples of these include, but are not limited to: scaleless corn snakes, root beer corn snakes, creamsicle/dreamsicle corn snakes, and Slowinski/Kisatchie rat snakes.

This entry previously read the corn snake as an Illinois native subject to the possession cap. It is not: Pantherophis guttatus is absent from the § 885.40 native taxa list, which carries emoryi, obsoletus and ramspotti/vulpinus but not guttatus, so an ordinary corn snake is a non-native herptile and needs no licence. What does reach it is newer and narrower. Illinois lists the Great Plains ratsnake, Pantherophis emoryi, as endangered, and this subsection, added effective 31 July 2025, treats any hybrid, cross or morphological variation of a listed herptile as endangered too, then names the common pet-trade lines that carry emoryi ancestry: creamsicle, dreamsicle, root beer and scaleless corn snakes. Those need an endangered species possession permit; a normal corn snake does not. It is an unusually specific rule, and a keeper is unlikely to find it by looking up the species. Illinois is a home rule state, so a municipal ordinance can be stricter than anything above and is often the rule that actually decides this.

How this rule works: Official Joint Committee on Administrative Rules text, amended effective 31 July 2025. § 885.40 is the list of Illinois native herptile taxa, which decides whether the possession cap applies to a species at all; § 885.20 sets the seasons and limits; § 885.80 sets the $50 Herpetoculture Permit; and § 885.105(j), new in 2025, sweeps named corn snake morph lines into the endangered species regime.

All Species in Genus Pantherophis (North American Ratsnakes) Except for: Pantherophis gloydi

A captive-bred corn snake needs no importation, possession, exhibition, propagation or research permit. The whole Reptilia section of the list sits under the heading "Captive Bred Origin Only", which is the condition on the clearance: a wild-caught animal of the same species is not unrestricted and falls back to § 7.06(4), under which an uncategorised animal may not be possessed at all. The one excepted species, the eastern fox snake, is Category 2 at 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.18(3)(D). The genus entry carries the asterisk that removes anything USFWS-listed as injurious or as threatened or endangered, anything in CITES Appendix I, and anything the IUCN rates Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild; Pantherophis guttatus is Least Concern and on none of the others.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

Except as provided in §§D—F of this regulation, a person without a reptile and amphibian permit may not possess more than four of each individual reptile or salamander, live or dead, listed in Regulation .03A of this chapter. The individual reptiles or salamanders may have been: (1) Obtained from the wild; (2) Captively produced; or (3) Legally obtained outside of Maryland.

The cornsnake, which Maryland lists as Elaphe guttata guttata is on Maryland's first tier of native species, which means no permit but a hard cap of four. Read the second sentence: the cap applies whether the animal came from the wild, from captive breeding, or lawfully from outside Maryland, so buying a captive-bred one out of state does not lift it. Above four, or to breed or sell at all, a reptile and amphibian permit is needed. Colour mutations bred in captivity are exempt from the cap under Regulation .04E, with the burden of proving the mutation on the owner, and Regulation .16 bars using any listed species in a competition. This entry previously read as unrestricted on the strength of the venomous snake clause in the criminal statute. That clause is accurate and is not the rule: the corn snake is a Maryland native and the possession chapter is where it is answered. Subsection (e) of § 10-621 preserves stricter county and municipal rules, and Maryland counties use that power, so the local ordinance is worth checking before the state list.

How this rule works: Maryland's native reptile and amphibian chapter, adopted 1993 and amended through 2016, renumbered from 08.03.09. It works off three lists in Regulation .03: .03A species may be kept four per species without a permit, .03B species one only, and .03C species not at all outside a scientific collection or endangered species permit. A species on none of the three lists is not native to Maryland and the chapter does not reach it. Regulation .03D provides that where both names are given, the scientific name controls.

The commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue permits to breed, propagate, and sell snakes, lizards, and salamanders. A snake, lizard, or salamander that is obtained from a permitted breeder or that was possessed before August 1, 2021, may be possessed as a pet.

Minnesota gets here in three steps, and the surprise is that none of them turns on the species being native. Section 97A.015, subd. 55 defines wild animals as creatures wild by nature and includes reptiles, with no geographic limit. Subd. 39 makes snakes, lizards and salamanders protected wild animals as whole categories. Section 97A.501, subd. 1 then bars possessing a protected wild animal unless the game and fish laws allow it, and this subdivision is the allowance. A corn snake is a snake, so it needs to have come from a permitted breeder or to have been held before 1 August 2021. Two things to know about how firm this is. The statute says the commissioner "must" prescribe conditions, but there is no snake, lizard or salamander breeder permit on the DNR's permits page, Minnesota Rules chapter 6256 covers only frogs and turtles, and no rule chapter implements the subdivision. And the DNR's own pet-trade page describes the change as reaching "wild collected Minnesota snakes, lizards, and/or salamanders", which is narrower than the statute's words and does not mention the breeder permit at all. So the condition is real on paper and its machinery is not visibly in place.

How this rule works: Subd. 8, added in 2021, is the pet reptile rule: the commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue breeder permits, and a snake, lizard or salamander is possessable as a pet if it came from a permitted breeder or was held before 1 August 2021. Subd. 3 is the older, broader route, allowing special permits without a fee to possess wild animals as pets.

Wild phase corn snakes are classified as endangered in the State of New Jersey and may not be possessed as pets or for hobby purposes, nor may they be sold, for any reason. The only corn snake color morphs that are legal to possess as pets and/or sold in New Jersey include the following: red albino (amelanistic), butter, blizzard, candy cane, creamsicle, lavender, pearl, snow, and sun glow.

New Jersey is the state where the corn snake is endangered. 4.13(b)7 lists the corn snake, Elaphe guttata guttata, on the state endangered list, which under 4.10(a) means no permit may issue for it and under 4.15(b) means it may not be kept as a pet. The Division then carves out captive colour morphs, because a morph is visibly not a wild phase animal and so cannot be laundered from the Pine Barrens population. Its notice names nine that may be kept and sold: red albino, butter, blizzard, candy cane, creamsicle, lavender, pearl, snow and sun glow. That makes this conditional rather than a permit: a normal-looking corn snake is barred outright, one of the nine named morphs is allowed, and anything else in a trade that has produced hundreds of morph names is not addressed by the list. Previously recorded here as a plain permit under 4.5, which missed the endangered listing entirely.

How this rule works: The Division's restricted species notice. It reproduces the 4.8(a) table and then adds things that are nowhere in the rule text: that it treats an IUCN Red List entry as an endangered listing, that only nine named corn snake morphs may be kept, and that axolotls and larval salamanders may not be kept at all.

Corn snakes reproduced in captivity and under 20 inches in total length are allowed

South Carolina's 2021 native-reptile law (Act 177) generally bars sale/possession of native reptiles, but carves out captive-bred corn snakes under 20 inches total length as an allowed pet-trade exception. We could not confirm the exact regulation subsection number for this specific size cutoff beyond the Chapter 123-150s series; the substance is corroborated by SCDNR's own herp regulations page describing the general native-species possession scheme.

How this rule works: Official codified text implementing 2021 Act 177; §123-151.3 carves out captive-bred corn snakes under 20 inches and eastern milksnakes under 10 inches from the general native-reptile sale/possession ban.

Domesticated morphs of red cornsnake (Pantherophis guttatus) visibly distinguishable from native red cornsnakes based on their unique colors and patterns.

Virginia runs two schemes and 4VAC15-20-50 decides which one an animal is in, so the exotic permit table is the wrong rule for anything Virginia already has. A nonnative (exotic) animal is one "not naturally occurring in Virginia, excluding domestic and naturalized species", which puts every native and every naturalized species outside 4VAC15-30-40 and inside 4VAC15-360-10. Native and naturalized status is not a judgment call here: it is fixed by a document incorporated by reference, the department’s 2024 List of Native and Naturalized Fauna of Virginia, where an asterisk marks a naturalized species and two asterisks one native in some areas and naturalized in others. That list carries the red cornsnake, Pantherophis guttatus, with no asterisk, so it is a Virginia native and the exotic permit table never reached it. What makes this the most useful cell in the state is that the corn snake is the one reptile Virginia writes into its closed domestic animal list, and it does it by appearance: domesticated morphs of red cornsnake visibly distinguishable from native red cornsnakes based on their unique colors and patterns are domestic animals, and a domestic animal is not a wild animal under 4VAC15-20-50 at all. So the condition here is about which snake you own. A snow, amel, lavender or any other morph a warden could tell from a wild Virginia cornsnake at sight is outside the whole scheme, with no cap and no limit. A normal-phase or wild-type cornsnake is a native reptile and 4VAC15-360-10(A) caps it at one individual per physical address, live, for private use and not for sale or export. The cornsnake is on neither the red-eared slider bar nor the Species of Greatest Conservation Need list that 4VAC15-360-10(A)(6) closes possession on.

How this rule works: The rule the exotic permit table does not reach, and the one that answers a Virginia native or naturalized herp: one individual of any native or naturalized species of amphibian or reptile per physical address, live, for private use and not for sale or export. It covers aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles and nongame fish, and no mammal.