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First handling

Phaedra

Phaedra

Witty phrase
Thanks all for your replies to my other thread, I took an average and left her for four days and handled her tonight.

It started out as a bit of a disaster. The only time I've ever held a snake was about 20 seconds with Elektra in the pet shop (but it was enough to know I definitely wanted her and no other snake, just like when I stroked my cat at the shelter for the first time). I was nervous about taking her out - the vivarium has sliding glass doors and so I could only get one hand in to grab her with - because I didn't want to hurt her or let her escape once she was out. We spent about five minutes playing snakey-run-away-from-hand which I know must have stressed her out, so in the end I decided to just take her out and get over my nervousness, which was probably making her nervous.

Once she was in my hand she didn't move as fast as she did in the cage, but when I put my other hand in front of the other so she could slither onto it she was very reluctant and looked for somewhere else to go. She was in my hands for about 2 minutes then I lowered my hand into her vivarium and she slithered off and into her substrate.

She's been hiding ever since (about 20 minutes) and obviously she's stressed and a little scared, but is this the way your corns have acted on their first handling? Also, do you think it's ok to do it again tomorrow (no chasing this time, I'll be straight in there and picking her up)? I'm feeding her on Wednesday so I wouldn't be able to do it until Friday night otherwise.

Thanks again. :)
 
I think it would be fine to handle her again tomorrow. Maybe instead of trying to get her to go from one hand to the other, just cuddle her in one hand. You can pin her about a third of the way down- not squish her, just keep her from moving, and let her relax and get used to seeing you move, and feeling your hand move with her in it. My Inez is still really freaky about being held, and something that is very difficult for her is for me to touch her at all with the other hand- and I suspect this is why she is reluctant to transfer from one hand to the other. For a _long_ time I would just carry her around, or sit and watch TV with her, and she would be like a little frozen statue. Every so often I would switch her position slightly, and she'd get all excited again, but would calm down if I just held her still. So with yours, I would just hold her a few minutes- five or ten, and put her back when she is in a calm, relaxed state, not if she is thrashing around or trying to get away. If she's doing that, I'd keep her out a bit longer till she calms down, _then_ put her back. Oh, and I heard on here that it is always a good idea to put babies back at their water dish, to make sure they can locate it. I don't know if that is _really_ important, or if they would just find it anyway, but it sure doesn't hurt.

Nanci
 
That's great advice. I did try the pinning thing, I sort of "pinched" her about 1/3 of the way down with my thumb and forefinger and held her still in her cage, with the intention of grabbing her 2/3 down with my other hand and lifting her out like that, but I was afraid that that would really scare her. Tomorrow I'll try keeping her in one hand like you said. :)

She just came out of hiding, I saw movement from the corner of my eye (her viv is beside the computer on my desk) and she was over by her water bowl. When she saw me looking she fled back under her bark.
 
Well, don't take it personally- I only have one snake that comes flying out of her viv to greet me- Maizey. Addy has _just_ started crawling into my hand if I put it in front of here. Funny- those are the two wild-caught ones. Choco begs to come out, but I have to pick him up. Inez is horrified that I have found her in her secret hiding place, and Zee twitches and jumps.

At least corns are inherently calm- I'm sure yours will come around soon! It's a very big change from being left in peace and quiet at the breeder's.

Here is how I hold wild Inez.



Nanci
 

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Inez did this herself- I didn't pinch her head in there. She was just ocmfortable this way:
 

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If your snake is a bit timid and "statuesque", you can cup it in the palm of one hand and gently cup your other hand over it, while still leaving an opening near the palm(this assumes your snake is a hatchling?). This gives it the feeling of "hiding", and helps it to relax. Once your snake gets used to the handling, and realizes you are not a large predator trying to eat it, it will calm down and be easier to handle.

Just remember to ALWAYS allow the head freedom of movement. If you try to stop the head from moving, it can be a sign of predation, and it will definately stress them out. Once your snake calms down and gets used to you, it will "walk" from hand to hand and exercise with you...
 
That's a lovely snake Nanci, beautiful colouring. I'm going to try these suggestions tonight, I'll let you know what happens. :)
 
Just had another handling session.

There was far less faffing about this time. She was on her vine so I touched her gently to get her to move off it, because I didn't want to pull her away as she was twisted around the vine. Then I picked her out and "pinned" her in one hand, over a soft pillow. She squirmed and I could feel her muscles working as she tried to move. When she stopped I eased up on the pressure and she started moving quite fast, trying to get away from me and onto the pillow. I was afraid she'd drop onto the floor so I kept hold of her.

I tried to "cup" her but it didn't work, mostly because she kept trying to straighten out and she'd need to be curled up to fit in my palm. I made sure she was always able to move her head and see around her. After about 15 minutes I pinned her again, waited until she was calmer and put her back.

I'm now going to put her first mouse in her viv. :D
 
Does she have aspen substrate? If so, you should not feed her in her viv, but in a separate container.

Nanci
 
Well its good you are being cautious when handling her because safe better than sorry right. Here is a tip I read somewhere, not sure really but when my girl first came home I use to not pick her up but put my hand palm up in her viv next to her so she could see it isnt going to hurt her. After about 3 or 4 days of that she was ready to come into my hand no problem. Ever since then its been not a big deal, she still gets nervous occasionally but once shes in my hand its game time. :) Take care, have fun, be safe and read read read..........one mistake can be the last.
 
I put my hand in her viv and let her smell it, but she won't move onto my hand and as soon as my hand moves towards her she gets frightened and moves away. I have to pick her up and take her out, there's no way she'd come onto my hand herself. :(

Why shouldn't she be fed in her vivarium? I've read that but didn't see the reason except she might swallow her substrate. I put the mouse on a few squares of kitchen towel and put the kitchen towel in her vivarium so there was no danger of her swallowing any wood chips. She wouldn't eat in front of me but I left it in her vivarium and when I woke up this morning it was gone (if it hadn't, I would have taken it out and thrown it away).
 
try putting your hand palm down ontop of the snake (lightly) as soon as you lift the hide off of it, this will calm your snake down.

It sounds like all your corn wanats to do is escape from you during handling. Mine was the same. One bit of advise i can give you is during handling, keep your corn (for now anyway) away from everything, apart from your hands. What i mean is, throw away the pillow and just hold him in your hands away from the floor, and furniture, and your body. Believe me when you've taken away any chance of escape corns do slow down alot.

Your corn will mature as it ages though, and to have an aggressive hatchling/yearling is nothing new, with a few more patient handling sessions then im sure it will calm down.
 
Phaedra said:
Why shouldn't she be fed in her vivarium? I've read that but didn't see the reason except she might swallow her substrate. I put the mouse on a few squares of kitchen towel and put the kitchen towel in her vivarium so there was no danger of her swallowing any wood chips. She wouldn't eat in front of me but I left it in her vivarium and when I woke up this morning it was gone (if it hadn't, I would have taken it out and thrown it away).
Click to expand...


The reason being is this. When you feed her in her vivarium she will become accustomed to the scenario where when she is located in that part of the viv. its feeding time. So say a couple days later you put your hand in where you feed her, she may think, hey its food time and go for your hand. Basically by feeding her in the viv. you are training her to know that she will be fed in a certain place, making it possibly stressful on her if no food is there or bad for you if she strikes your hand expecting food. Hope you got it!

I feed mine in a shoe box with the lid cut off. When I put her in there she smells the mice that were there before and she starts moving all sidewinder like and getting excited because she can expect food, but in her viv she does not expect to get fed so its easy when I put my hand in for her to come to me.
 
Here's another reason not to feed in the viv- even if you put the mouse on a plate or paper towels or whatever. I started feeding Inez cut pinks. She was already an excellent feeder, and she turned into an absolutely psycho feeder. I'd recently started putting the mouse in her deli cup, putting Inez in the cup, putting the open cup into the viv- so she could just crawl out at her leisure when done. Ok, so that worked fine once or twice, but then she got super excited, grabbed the pink, constricted, bounced out of the cup and went rolling about the viv, with pieces of aspen sticking to the mouse, and she didn't even _know_ that I picked her and the mouse up, carried her to the sink, washed her under the faucet, picked out all the little shards of aspen that didn't wash off, put her back in the deli cup, and put the lid on, and that whole time, she was just constricting, rolling, coiling, constricting with a death hold on the mouse. So- there's always the chance that your baby will not stay put nicely on the paper towel...

Nanci
 
Hehe, that sounds like an amusing snake Nanci. Points taken, I bought her a container for feeding today, it has a lid with air holes and if I line it with kitchen towel that should do the trick.
 
You _can_ just put her in the bare bowl...All mine just sit on bare plastic, except Inez who still has a little folded paper towel she was shipped on. Don't ask me why- the original thought is if you feed them in their shipping container/deli cup, it smells like home, so they will be more relaxed, but at this point, I doubt Inez cares!

Nanci

For some reason, all my snakes are "amusing." I guess that's a good thing.
 
To be honest the paper towel is more for my benefit, I don't want to touch the pinky and I'm afraid of dropping it if I use tongs (I have a very poor track record with tongs) so if I keep it on the paper and lower it in that'll work for me.

I'm waiting impatiently for her to wake up. Even though I can't handle her until tomorrow night I love just watching her move around. :D
 
Maybe your snake would prefer to be held like this. This is how Inez started out, kind of in a ball in my hand with her head peeking out, before she graduated to being held more loosely with her upper third free. At first, she was too wild for that and would just whip around. If I held her all compacted, she'd stay a lot more calm.

(Sorry Inez keeps being used for the example, but everyone else is calm and slow- she's the only wild one!)
 

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