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New Corn Snake Owner...questions

BLKsteeda

BLKsteeda

Elmo & Molly's Daddy
My girlfriend and I bought our first snake and we have a couple of behavioral questions. First the snake is only a month and half old. We bought him on Sunday afternoon and took him straight home and started handling him and he was fine, the next morning we took him out of the cage and he was fine again. At lunchtime I came home to handle him a little bit and I picked him out of the cage and set him on the table and he was a little fiesty, didn't strike. After about 10 mins of him watching my every move he started to move around on his own. Once he started to move I picked him up and he started to move extremely fast trying to get away but I moved him back and forth in my hands for a couple of mins and he calmed down completely. That night my girlfriend went to pick him up out of the cage and he struck at her and bit her...he looked a little pissed...I made a little hook with a rubber tip on the hook and lifted him out gently and layed him on a bunched up shirt and set him in the middle of the table on the shirt and he sat there for about ten mins all coiled up ready to strike. Once again, once he started to move on his own and started to crawl, we picked him up with our hands and he tried to get away but eventually calmed down and didn't pay attention to us at all...was very easy to handle. Is this him just being a young scared snake and will he eventually grow out of this behavior of striking when he learns that we mean him no harm? Once he is calm, he is great to handle. Thanks for any info.
 
It sounds like you're handling him right off the bat is this correct? If so give him a few days to adjust to his new surroundings without handling to help minimize stress. Once you leave him alone for a bit (think a week or so with only changing water) then you can start handling him for shorter periods of time. Some snakes will strike, especially when they're young. My boyfriend's first snake, Sparks, was a biter. Once we started handling him with leather gloves and he bit them a few times he calmed down. If he does start to strike at you while handling after you've left him alone, don't put him back in the cage. If you put him back he'll learn that biting gets him his hide and do it more often. All in all, just give him some time to relax and not stress as much. Good luck and let us know how he's doing. Oh yeah...pics are always fun too. :)

~Katie
 
We did handle him immediately the day that we bought him...generally we have been handling him first thing in the morning, lunch and also in the evening for a longer period of time. We have only had him since Sunday evening...he started to get fiesty at lunchtime on monday...and he was a little bit fiesty that evening and this morning as well. He only struck once which was monday evening when my girlfriend went to pick him up out of his cage. All the other times it looked like he was coiled to strike but never did but we also never tried to touch him when he was like that. I tried to pay attention to his breathing...seems to breathe much harder when he is all coiled up...I guess a little scared.
 
BLKsteeda said:
I have some posted in the picture forum under new snake owner...
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Yeah...I saw that after I made my way down to that forum - nice pics though. Remind me of Sparks...anywho...your snake is probably scared. Give him a few days to settle in (as hard as it is) and then handle him a bit at a time. Time is your friend...unfortunately if you're like me a few days won't go by fast enough...

~Katie
 
Yeah, we want to handle him as much as possible...he is so cool. This is my first experience with a snake as a pet...It's growing on my pretty quick. I'm just so nervous about injuring him because he is so tiny.
 
I know it's hard, but I think you need to ease up on the handling a bit.
Excessive handling of a hatchling is very stressful.
Try to set up a time convienient to your schedule for handling once a day, except for 2 days after feeding. Try and limit the handling to about 15-20 minutes. This will pay off in the long run. As your snake matures, you'll be able to take it out whenever the mood hits you. Just my 2 cents. :cheers:
 
mbdorfer said:
I know it's hard, but I think you need to ease up on the handling a bit.
Excessive handling of a hatchling is very stressful.
Try to set up a time convienient to your schedule for handling once a day, except for 2 days after feeding. Try and limit the handling to about 15-20 minutes. This will pay off in the long run. As your snake matures, you'll be able to take it out whenever the mood hits you. Just my 2 cents. :cheers:
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Again, you need to leave your snake alone for a good 3 days. It's hard, but try to forget about him and get accustomed to it's new home.

A lot of times any snake will be fiesty after a change of address but then settle down when left alone for a few days.
 
I shall leave him alone and see what happens...I just had him out at lunch time and he is supposed to be fed thursday evening so I wont touch him till then. Another question...he doesn't look like he has defecated from his last meal...which was last thursday...we can still see some black areas running along his belly starting at least 2" behind his head, maybe a little more and running maybe about 2" along the bottom of his body sould this be a concern?
 
BLKsteeda said:
I shall leave him alone and see what happens...I just had him out at lunch time and he is supposed to be fed thursday evening so I wont touch him till then. Another question...he doesn't look like he has defecated from his last meal...which was last thursday...we can still see some black areas running along his belly starting at least 2" behind his head, maybe a little more and running maybe about 2" along the bottom of his body sould this be a concern?
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Naw, nothing to worry about. He will 'go' when he 'goes'. Also, they usually won't clean out their entire systems in one poo(in my experience) it usually takes a few to make all the dark spots disappear.

Oh...and if anyone mentions putting him in water to make him poo...don't listen to them ;)
 
i handled my snake from the day i got him at 1 month and a week and ive had him 4 about a year now and never been bit.
 
I don't plan on touching him till Thursday evening or night...that's when he gets fed...the last time I handled him was Tuesday at lunch, if he is still a little annoyed when I go to take him out for his feeding should I leave him alone or get him out and feed him anyway? If he does get fed on Thursday night I didn't plan on handling him again till Saturday morning, should that be enough time?
 
Please try to put yourself in his place...just imagine...

You were hatched at a breeder's facility and maybe spent all of your time your WHOLE YOUNG LIFE so far in one cage with a particular routine. Then suddenly your whole world changed. You went to an expo or pet shop, new cage, new everything. Then some big monsters hundreds of times bigger than you take you to ANOTHER new home. Another new cage, new routine, new sights, smells, even the temps and lighting have changed. And these giant monsters keep acting like they want to eat you! (At least the last giant monsters just tossed food in and only moved you about once in a while.) But they never do actually eat you, they just keep pretending that they will. Eventually, you will figure out that they aren't going to eat you after all. And you will figure out that no matter how you try to escape their grip, or to defend yourself, they won't put you back in that nice quiet cage. (Of course, if the monsters DO give in when you defend yourself, and put you back where it is quiet, then you will have learned what to do to get to that quiet place!) So eventually you will give up the defensive tactics, get to know your new home and new routine and maybe even grow to tolerate / enjoy the warm, gentle hands, especially if the air is cool. But it sure wasn't easy to get to that point! Hopefully the new owners (aka "monsters") will realize what you have been going through and try to make the transition as easy as possible.

Of course, in some cases, the new baby already got used to some of this in the old surroundings, or the hatchling may just be one of those animals that is not prone to stress and just naturally adapts quickly to new situations. But not every animal (or human) can adapt so quickly. So please take these possibilities into consideration when setting up a new pet.
 
thanks for your information. when we go to take him out again, if he is still agressive and striking should we still try to lift him out or leave him alone?
 
If he strikes and you leave him alone, then you are teaching him to strike whenever he wants to be left alone.
 
My snake is older (about 2 years), but he was still a little nervous when I first got him. If he was out in his viv and I wanted to handle him, he'd always freak out whenever I started undoing the lid. What I started doing was getting him out while he was in his hide and just setting the whole thing (hide and all) on my lap. Usually after a few minutes he'd come out on his own and he didn't seem nervous (didn't notice any quick breathing anyway). I don't know if that would be any different in your situation since it's a hatchling, but it might be worth a shot.
 
let me get the stupid question out of the way first...what is a viv?


he's ok when we take the lid of, but when we touch him with our hands he freaks out alot...what we have been doing is gently lifting him with a small hook (this doesn't bother him at all) and placing him on a shirt. We will sit fairly close to him and he will stay coiled up for about 5 mins watching our every move then he will wander on his own and we can pick him up and he is fine. the next time he is exploring his cage I want to place my hand on the ground in his cage away from him and see what he does when he comes across my hand on his own. Even after we handle him and he is nice and calm, as soon as we put him away and try to pick him up again, he is aggressive. I appreciate all the input, this is all new to me and I want the best experience for the snake. Thanks again
 
BLKsteeda said:
let me get the stupid question out of the way first...what is a viv?


he's ok when we take the lid of, but when we touch him with our hands he freaks out alot...what we have been doing is gently lifting him with a small hook (this doesn't bother him at all) and placing him on a shirt. We will sit fairly close to him and he will stay coiled up for about 5 mins watching our every move then he will wander on his own and we can pick him up and he is fine. the next time he is exploring his cage I want to place my hand on the ground in his cage away from him and see what he does when he comes across my hand on his own. Even after we handle him and he is nice and calm, as soon as we put him away and try to pick him up again, he is aggressive. I appreciate all the input, this is all new to me and I want the best experience for the snake. Thanks again
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Look, these questions are probably moot if you just leave the snake alone for 3 days.

If after being left TOTALLY alone for 3 days, he's still flighty, he will eventually calm down. I just got a pair of yearlings about a month ago from Kathy and they were flighty after their adjustment period. When I came back after spring break and tried to hold the caramel, she got all pissy with me and started rattling her tail. I simply laughed at her and picked her up--and she was fine. Your snake will eventually understand you're not a threat and you're not trying to eat it, but you gotta let it adjust and then handle it slowly and work your way up to longer periods of times.

Also, lose the hook--it's not needed.
 
I asked the owner of the reptile store where we bought him and he said when he is fiesty and in his strike mode to just go ahead and snatch him up and he will calm down in a few days.
 
BLKsteeda said:
I asked the owner of the reptile store where we bought him and he said when he is fiesty and in his strike mode to just go ahead and snatch him up and he will calm down in a few days.
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I'm sorry, but have you decided not to allow you snake the 3 day adjustment period?
 
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