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Let her bite me?

Baller99k

Baller99k

New member
I don't handle my corn as often as I should.

She's about a year n a half.

When I go to grab her, I go slowly towards her face and slowly grab her mid body.

She sometimes looks very aggressive, tail rattle and all. I normally retreat or wait for her to mellow.

When I do finally hold her, she's fine.

My question is, when she seems mad, should i just go in and see if she'll bite me? will she even? I know it won't hurt but I'm afraid I'll flinch and fling her..ya know?
 
Usually faster is better when picking up a snake. It may or may not hurt, but you don't want to teach her to bite either. Sometimes I'll just put something on top of them, say a small cloth or something, then pick them up. Like you say, they are usually a lot calmer while actually being held. A hide box may also help.
 
Really? It's hard to imagine going in and grabbing her at regular speed wouldn't get her to snap at me. I'n not saying you're wrong..just sayin

Also, I used to hold the hopper by the tail when feeding her, could this be a bad habit because she thinks my hand represents food?
 
I'm not saying she won't bite, I'm saying you're often better off going faster rather than slower. Yes, your hand can certainly be confused with food or at least she knows that's the direction to strike. I used to feed all live and when I switched to FT my snakes seemed to calm down a lot. I figure it's cause they don't associate me with food as much as before.
 
Usually the slow approach is when you start rethinking yourself, and that's usually when you start making hesitant, small jerking motions. Usually the best thing to do is to just go in and get it over with. If you place your hand over the snake, or cover them with a cloth or something as suggested above, it could make it easier as well.
 
If I ever get nervous that a snake is going to bite me I sometimes put on a wussy glove. I know that a bite doesn't hurt but I can't help but to jerk and I don't want the snake to think they can scare me and that biting makes me go away. The gloe just helps me keep my hand steady and usually they don't bite anyway.
 
Yeah, and flinging the animal across the room isn't a great idea either. I haven't really had that with snakes, but I remember a hermit crab that pinched me (those things sure can fly).
 
jesserca said:
If I ever get nervous that a snake is going to bite me I sometimes put on a wussy glove. I know that a bite doesn't hurt but I can't help but to jerk and I don't want the snake to think they can scare me and that biting makes me go away. The gloe just helps me keep my hand steady and usually they don't bite anyway.
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Same ^ My giant Amel male has been VERY grumpy these past few months :uhoh: to where if I even pass my arm over his tank BLAM he smashes his face against the screen trying to strike at me :shrugs: I take off the lid for cleaning... feeding, handling, she sproings right out at me :eek1: mouth agape *sigh* he USED to be the friendliest snakity, my 4 kiddos would handle him all the time (under supervison obviously...) ANYWHO... even with him nomming me many a time... yep he clamps on good... I've been constricted to pink in the hand, I bleed :punch: even still... its ONLY like being attacked by ANGRY VELCRO ;)

When I feed/water/handle him do I WANT to be attacked by angry velcro??? Course not... so sure I have my super thick winter gloves sitting by his enclosure after being nommed on several times. :grabbit:
 
It could also be because they see this giant hand coming for their face. I'd get upset to if I was that size and saw that. Maybe try a different angle of approach and see how that goes.
 
Stormy said:
It could also be because they see this giant hand coming for their face. I'd get upset to if I was that size and saw that. Maybe try a different angle of approach and see how that goes.
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EsotericForest said:
Approaching from behind and tailing him a bit might help as well.
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I agree with both of them. Get them from a different angle. And yes, if the snake does bite you, dont put him back. Keep holding him so he wont bite you every time he doesnt want to be held.
 
I spent the first 5 months of my yearling's life with my hand by the opening to his breeder viv. I was "Being the tree".

Why? I was waiting for him to come out on my hand, of his own accord. It worked, too. He's the most manageable snake I own. I don't think he's ever struck me.

As an amel, I know he is likely to be blind. I make plenty of noise speaking to him so he knows I'm coming, I place my hand about 3 inches in front of his nose, so he can recognise me. I give this 4 or 5 seconds. Then, both hands in and pull him out while supporting him at 1/3 and 2/3 body length.

Jerky, tentative, or slow movements look like a dying dinner (eat mode!) or the next step up the food chain (run mode!).
 
PrincessPurple said:
As an amel, I know he is likely to be blind.

Jerky, tentative, or slow movements look like a dying dinner (eat mode!) or the next step up the food chain (run mode!).
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???? Amels aren't likely to be blind. It's true that the UV components of sunlight will damage the retinas of an amel snake, but captive snakes aren't exposed to loads of sunlight and don't generally go blind. An argument can also be made that a wild amel isn't likely to go blind either as they're crepuscular to nocturnal in nature. Many animals have an amelanistic phase, and they don't common go blind.

As for picking up your snake, just do it gently and without lots of hesitation. PrincessPurple put it well.

It's easy for little snakes interpret the dangling of a large hand as a predator trying to decide whether or not to eat them. The head and the tail are common places to be grabbed by a predator, and aren't the best place to approach your uncertain snake. Scoop your baby up midbody smoothly and gently. The more often you handle him/her, and the less uncertainty you show, the more confident your snake will become about the whole process.
 
Lore said:
I bleed :punch: even still... its ONLY like being attacked by ANGRY VELCRO ;)

When I feed/water/handle him do I WANT to be attacked by angry velcro??? Course not... so sure I have my super thick winter gloves sitting by his enclosure after being nommed on several times. :grabbit:
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I'm sorry that is by far the funniest description of a snake bite, ever. :bowdown:

I have a big female that is edgy when I go to take her out of the viv. I've started to use a snake hook with her and that seems to do the trick. She has stuck at me a few times, but never connected.
 
PrincessPurple said:
I spent the first 5 months of my yearling's life with my hand by the opening to his breeder viv. I was "Being the tree".

Why? I was waiting for him to come out on my hand, of his own accord. It worked, too. He's the most manageable snake I own. I don't think he's ever struck me.

As an amel, I know he is likely to be blind. I make plenty of noise speaking to him so he knows I'm coming, I place my hand about 3 inches in front of his nose, so he can recognise me. I give this 4 or 5 seconds. Then, both hands in and pull him out while supporting him at 1/3 and 2/3 body length.

Jerky, tentative, or slow movements look like a dying dinner (eat mode!) or the next step up the food chain (run mode!).
Click to expand...

sorry to dissappoint you, but snakes don't have ears they can't hear you speak to them :spinner:
 
Blutengel said:
sorry to dissappoint you, but snakes don't have ears they can't hear you speak to them :spinner:
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That's not true, actually, though it's what most of us were taught. Corns (and other snakes) have internal ears, though they lack external aural openings. They can in fact hear. There have been several discussions here, and you can find some rather interesting scientific studies about the topic. For example:

Shhh! The snake may hear you
by John Carson

Snake Hearing is Connected To The Jawbone
Scientific American
 
I say just go in and pick it up, if it bites you try not to jerk to hard for you might hurt the snake just ask the hermit crab from the earlier story(lmao). (I have danced many of bite dances down the hallwway with a snake attached to my hand.) If it bites you take a photo and join the bite club.... :)

We love seeing how little damage a bite (from a corn) really can do.:dancer:
 
Caryl said:
That's not true, actually, though it's what most of us were taught. Corns (and other snakes) have internal ears, though they lack external aural openings. They can in fact hear. There have been several discussions here, and you can find some rather interesting scientific studies about the topic. For example:

Shhh! The snake may hear you
by John Carson

Snake Hearing is Connected To The Jawbone
Scientific American
Click to expand...

I know this, but I did not want to complicate things. As far as I know, they can hear only through vibrations transferred directly to their body (like from the floor), right?
 
Ok, read it: they can hear airborn sound through a bone in their head, but only in a very low frequency range, e.g. not a human voice.
 
You're correct that they do hear airborne sounds and they hear best in low frequencies. However, they can hear the human voice, as well. http://www.anapsid.org/reptilehearing.html is an interesting article about herp hearing, though not limited to snakes. It makes the point that snakes' hearing is superior to cats' hearing at the 200-300 Hz frequency spectrum.

Humans have a wide vocal spectrum. Any human speech produces multiple frequencies simultaneously. That said, the vocal range of the speaking voice of most adult male humans has a fundamental frequency range of 85-180 Hz. The average adult female speech runs from 165-255 Hz. Quoting the above cited article, "most snakes can hear a person speaking in a normal tone of voice in a quiet room at a distance of about 10 feet (3 m). So, if you think your snakes recognize their names, you are probably right."

Pretty cool, huh?
 
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