You're right there, dogs and cats don't even exist in nature they only exist as pets (of course they have cousins such as wolves and lions) and were bred specifically for that purpose. However snakes, like hamsters/mice spend their entire lives within one small area in the wild. Snakes tend to find one enclosed space which has access to water, somewhere to hide and somewhere to bask then are reluctant to move far from there and only move when they need to hunt. They'll spend all the daylight hours fairly immobile and as hidden away as they can, then so long as they're not already digesting a meal they'll seek out prey. Some snake owners have had a snake escape only to find the snake hiding in their house/garden/neighbours house over a year later - proving that snakes don't really feel the need to move about much (and the snake is more often than not bigger than last year!). Essentially then snakes don't need a lot of space. A adult cornsnake that measures 6ft long is happy in a viv only 4ft by 2ft.
I think she's as happy as a corn snake can get
most corns like to hide in tubes like toilet roll, so she has some in her viv, but she doesn't. She has never hidden in a tube of toilet roll, instead she lies on top of it! Mine also seem to think she's a mole and burrows like there's no tomorrow, there's a whole network of tunnels in the aspen substrate. It's not unheard for corns to burrow (in fact all snakes are descended from a burrowing reptile) but its not common either.
So anything below 25% is uncool? Alright then ill buy a gauge. Thanks!