I recently got a baby corn about 3 weeks ago and set up its vivarium with bark bedding i bought from the pet store. At first the snake preferred to hang out above the substrate. However, lately it seems it spends all its time burrowing except for at night. I know this is normal behavior so I blew it off at first as being no big deal. My roommate, who previously owned 3 snakes, brought up an interesting point the other day. Almost everytime I have gone to feed it or handle it, I end up having to dig through the bark chips for it. My roommate thought that from a cornsnakes perspective it would feel as if a predator were searching for it and cause it to freak out.
So the question I have is whether or not I should change its bedding back to the reptiliner astroturf(which is what it wask kept in at the pet store) to prevent extra stress when I handle it, or is keeping the option of burrowing open to it more important to keeping my corn snake at ease?
By the way, my roommate also is a very strong advocate of handling snakes as often as possible when they're young and by different people too, which is kinda convenient considering he is "different people" and he wants to handle it "as often as possible" Should I take his advice or keep the handling just to myself atleast until it grows a little bigger and more comfortable with being handled.
So the question I have is whether or not I should change its bedding back to the reptiliner astroturf(which is what it wask kept in at the pet store) to prevent extra stress when I handle it, or is keeping the option of burrowing open to it more important to keeping my corn snake at ease?
By the way, my roommate also is a very strong advocate of handling snakes as often as possible when they're young and by different people too, which is kinda convenient considering he is "different people" and he wants to handle it "as often as possible" Should I take his advice or keep the handling just to myself atleast until it grows a little bigger and more comfortable with being handled.
