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Rattling tail

M

missblackstar

New member
Today, my snake had his second feed from me.. half of his body was under the aspen and because i had been handling the fuzzy i didn't want to pick him up incase he saw my fingers as food, anyway, he took it from me straight away.

Problem is, as i have only fed him once before i was curious to see what was happening so i moved some of the aspen off his body, but when i did this he opened his mouth twice as wide as it already was and started rattling his tail!! I was really scared!! i obviously gave him the hump!! I'm just really worried i stressed him out unnessercerily...

Did he do this because i stressed him out or is there another reason for it?

(ps. i feel like a really bad mother to him now :cry: )
 
First off, I would advise not to feed your snake in the viv. If he/she ingests some of the aspen while feeding it could cause a blockage and then you really would have problems. I feed my corn in the bag the live feeder comes in from the petstore. Many on this board use seperate deli cups to feed their snakes. As far as the tail rattling goes, that is just part of their natural defense mechanism. No need to worry. Corn snakes will out grow it as they became older and more comfortable in their surroundings. As you handle your snake more, the tail rattling should go away. :cheers:
 
It sounds like you are feeding him in his viv right? try feeding him in a seperate container (rubbermaid,sterilite etc) He might associate a hand coming into the viv as food or feeding time. Also washing your hand before you put your hand in the viv is a good idea if you touched anything that smells like food to him.
 
It's kind of like a warning for predators to back off and self defense. I have one female that does this all the time and I have more and more hatchlings that do it. I think it's cute when they get all pissy and rattle their tail. The one hatchling I kept back this year is a lot like her mom - she tail rattles away as soon as food is near. It's nothing to worry about. Kind of like your snake steaking out their territory.

~Katie
 
Dminor9 said:
First off, I would advise not to feed your snake in the viv. If he/she ingests some of the aspen while feeding it could cause a blockage and then you really would have problems. I feed my corn in the bag the live feeder comes in from the petstore. Many on this board use seperate deli cups to feed their snakes. As far as the tail rattling goes, that is just part of their natural defense mechanism. No need to worry. Corn snakes will out grow it as they became older and more comfortable in their surroundings. As you handle your snake more, the tail rattling should go away. :cheers:
Click to expand...
:crazy02: hehe we posted at the same time :wavey:
 
I do feed him in his viv because he was always fed in his breeder box thing so i assumed it would be ok but from now on i will definitely feed him in a seperate container!

Thank you for your advice! i love this site!! :)

Jen.
 
The above advice is all good.

If it's a youngster you have, you can expect a bit of tail rattling every now and then. They do tend to do it less as they get older and are handled more.

:)
 
Mine rattles his tail all the time, he must think hes a rattlesnake, all big and bad, cant do much damage to my finger can he? LOL
 
I just picked up a baby corn today and he is very fiesty. He gets into the striking positon with his tail going nuts and snaps at me. It is pretty funny.
 
I use papertowel as a substrate, hemostats to feed and feed all my snakes in their containers. Thus far no one has mistakenly gone after me when I put my hands in to clean or take one out. The only ones that do go for me always do it regardless. One of these continues to strike even after having been out for handling for a while.
I have one yearling snake that will rattle his tail only when food is present and I haven't gone away fast enough after putting the food in.
 
My 3 do the tail rattling thing if I mess with them at all early in the morning. Any other time of day they don't. They are all young though so hopefully they will grow out of that.
 
kinda funny short story. I freaked out that my corn would be really mean after a 10 day trip to Colorado. When I got home he did the tail rattleing thing for the first time and really freaked me out. So I went to the petstore in Phoenix and got him some food and went ahead and fliped his hide over to feed the pinki on that. Well a few weeks ago when I was about to hold my ball python he did that exept it was so slow it looked happy(didnt fool me though) and he then bit me which kinda hurt but oh well. Theres my pointless story.
 
Many of them will tail rattle when taking food or feeding, even if they are adults. It's natural for them to want to be defensive when their mouth is full of food. They are in the most vulnerable position then with no defense.
 
My snake rattled her tail while she was on my keyboard so there was an actual rattling noise to accompany the posture, it was quite amusing. :)
 
Dminor9 said:
First off, I would advise not to feed your snake in the viv. If he/she ingests some of the aspen while feeding it could cause a blockage and then you really would have problems. I feed my corn in the bag the live feeder comes in from the petstore. Many on this board use seperate deli cups to feed their snakes. As far as the tail rattling goes, that is just part of their natural defense mechanism. No need to worry. Corn snakes will out grow it as they became older and more comfortable in their surroundings. As you handle your snake more, the tail rattling should go away. :cheers:
Click to expand...

...you could just buy edible substrate
 
entertheste said:
...you could just buy edible substrate
Click to expand...
Edible substrate isn't necessarily edible - it's just supposed to be better for your animal if they do happen to ingest it. Not to mention I haven't seen anything other than sand that advertises for this and sand isn't suitable for cornsnakes.

~Katie
 
Edible sand? Ewwwwww

Hunter rattles his tail at me everytime I open his viv.. cranky little guy.. I mean... big mean rattlesnake! LOL Scared me the first time I ever saw it... now I just think its cute hehe.
 
I have a new female, 2001. She's just over 4ft and about as fat as a toilet paper roll. The other day my wife opened her viv and she did the whole tail rattling thing. she's been hiding alot and only ate once since i got her. i've had her for about a month. My best guess is that she used to live in a rack and I put her in a 4'x3'x3' viv. too much space. :shrugs: so I bult a rack last night for her :grin01: well thats what I told my wife. Amazingly I now have room for 4 more snakes. :grin01:
 
My classic is always on edge. I have had her since she was a hatchling (rattling as a hatchling is so cute) and she has always been aggressive. Her viv has aspen substrate and 2 hides 1 on each side she is now 3 feet long and I just did an experiment with her. I put up black construction paper on 3 sides and just left the front visible to see in and she hasn't struck at me or even rattled her tail yet. I think the glass viv being see through on all sides stressed her out because she has always been a chore to try to handle now she has mellowed out alot so far.

BTW I don't think there is a such thing as edible substrate. I have seen sand that is safe to ingest but not edible. I would not use sand for my corns anyway.
 
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