TAGGED

[vovalyosha]

So I went back to the pet store where I fell in love with a little corn. It happens, we all do it once. Anyways, she let me pick him up this time, the amel was a sweetheart and the anery was extremely fiesty.

So this little guy was just wirey but stayed in my hand. We went to put him back in and he latched on my hand. I didnt even know until I looked down and saw him latched on. He popped right off and went in. I fell in love even more, but they were also getting ready to feed them crickets.

This was the first time I have ever been bitten, but it was still very cute. :3 Anyways, just ti make sure I remember correctly, even though he was probably a little stressed, it was a feeding response, right? The anery was trying to strike, obviously defensively, but they could smell their dinner and that caused the corn to strike? I am sure it is probably defensive anyways, new person holding you, being pulled out, etc. Right? When I first saw him, he came to the glass, followed my finger, and so forth. Just very personable. With these factora, does it indicate any aggresiveness that could arise? Is it not worth getting him if it is an indicator for aggresiveness?

the two little dots is where he got me.

 

[Weda737]

Just a very hungry little snake. They do not eat crickets.

 

[clickbug2]

if the store is feeding the corns crickets my guess would be that the snake was malnurished, although I am definately not expert.

 

[Chip]

I doubt they were excited by the cricket smell in the air! My two cents is, print off a corn snake care sheet and bring to the folks on the store. They do need to be feeding them pinkie mice. In fact, feel free to have them come to this message board if they seem open. But I wouldn't buy one of those, as sorry as you might feel for them...

 

[vovalyosha]

Just a very hungry little snake. They do not eat crickets.

I know. I asked the girl while the guy put the little viv back on the shelf why they were feeding them crickets, and they are just instructed to drop about 15 crickets in the viv once a week. Essentially, it's just too much care for them to pull each one out when half of their staff doesn't want to touch them, feed them, and put them back in. (In addition to the cohabbing problem.)

if the store is feeding the corns crickets my guess would be that the snake was malnurished, although I am definately not expert.

Surprisingly, they did not look emaciated or dehydrated, and felt fine in my hands. Small of course, barely a month old according to their numbers, but they both felt and look physically fine. The Amel was calm in my hands, very sweet, no mites, discharge, leftover sheds, didn't bite. Only thing left would be internal parasites, but I would take them to the vet first thing anyways.

I doubt they were excited by the cricket smell in the air! My two cents is, print off a corn snake care sheet and bring to the folks on the store. They do need to be feeding them pinkie mice. In fact, feel free to have them come to this message board if they seem open. But I wouldn't buy one of those, as sorry as you might feel for them...

It's more of one of those ones you see and just pick up because you have no clue on what is going on with it, morph-wise. I know the problems store-bought snakes can have. Hell, one of my rescues was from a local Petsmart and he is very healthy, fantastic eater, and have never had a problem with me. He's never tagged me, the only time he's rattled his tail was when I was moving his light to open the lid and clean his water dish. I put it back in and held my hand out and he crawled right up.

But as I mentioned above, both the man and woman helping me know that they are supposed to be feeding on pinkies, but they are told to drop in 10-15 crickets, 5 per snake. Aside from that, do you think it's mostly a defensive bite, then? If I did get him, knowing all of the risks and so forth, do you think he'd calm down a bit?

 

[Quixotic]

I know this doesn't answer your question but: I would never patronize a business that mistreats animals. Feeding the wrong food source qualifies as mistreatment in my eyes, as they don't get the nutrition they need from crickets. Buying anything from that store will only enable them to mistreat more animals.

Back on topic: I've heard that babies/adolescents can be a bit bitey but then they calm down. But there's really no way to know for sure, as some adults remain defensive. He/she is probably starved for the proper nutrients, though, so that might be putting it off its normal behavior.

 

[vovalyosha]

I know this doesn't answer your question but: I would never patronize a business that mistreats animals. Feeding the wrong food source qualifies as mistreatment in my eyes, as they don't get the nutrition they need from crickets. Buying anything from that store will only enable them to mistreat more animals.

Back on topic: I've heard that babies/adolescents can be a bit bitey but then they calm down. But there's really no way to know for sure, as some adults remain defensive. He/she is probably starved for the proper nutrients, though, so that might be putting it off its normal behavior.

I know, I know. :shrugs: Usually it's no touching for me, only looking and waiting for the next expo, which is next weekend I think. He's only been at the store for a week and this was his first night eating crickets, I know that for sure. I'd at least like to find out what morph he is, because he sure is a stunner in person. :grin01:

This is the first time I ever saw him, on the 22nd, the day after he got to the place.

 

[Chip]

Charcoal? Maybe anery? Could be a motley or one of those but I'd need to see more than just the neck pattern to say for sure.

 

[vovalyosha]

It has diffusion on the sides, which was my first guess when I saw him. With a better look today, I'm fairly positive he has it, along with the Motley gene. I went through all of IV and found four or so he was close to, but I doubt a common pet shop would have snakes with multiple hets.

 

[Chip]

Did you happen to get a look at (and better yet a photo of) it's belly?

 

[vovalyosha]

Quick glance when she picked him up, all white. No picture though.

 

[ryoverde]

As for the tagging, I have a couple hatchlings that get really feisty if I wake them up during the day. They usually don't tag enough to draw blood, though, since they are instinctively trying to drive me away by doing the whole "I'm a rattlesnake" routine. The ones that *don't* do this are generally my older ones that have been handled more, or, the one(s) I'm having trouble getting to eat. I like feisty hatchlings, that means they're feeling good enough to defend themselves... the older ones, I try to handle enough that, while I might annoy them, they aren't afraid enough to do the rattler-routine and try to bite. And I try to handle "dinner" as absolutely little as possible. Tweezers/forceps help, and I wash my hands between handing out "dinner" and handling. I've been told these are both good practices, by those with far more experience than I -- it certainly seems to be working, since my big girl (3 yrs old) even knows the difference between my hand and dinner when she's still working on dinner. I guess if you could get disposable gloves, that would work nicely for feeding time?

 

[vovalyosha]

Yeah, mine are generally the same. My snow is nearly two years old, has played rattlesnake maybe once or twice. My ghost, a little over a year, has done it once or twice, but neither have struck at me or bit me. Obviously it was a matter of time and all, but you have a point. It shows that they are feeling good.

Today, I went back for cat food, sani chips, and him but he was sleeping under the substrate in the back. The Anery in there was perched up top, ready to strike at me again! I couldn't get to the other, but it's fine. The anery had been there since freaking June, anD I got some clarification on the crickets: the people last night fed them wrong. They are fed 1-2 pinkies, the anery takes 3 sometimes. They eat on Wednesdays, but I don't think they were fed this week because they don't have lumps or anything.

If I end up getting this little one, I might try gloves for a few weeks, just so he can learn the difference and calm down some. Granted, it doesn't hurt, but hey. It might eventually!

 

[Chip]

I don't recommend gloves, but surely not for a baby/yearling? It's hard to handle a snake with gloves, I bet you'd find it almost impossible with a tiny snake. Honestly, they don't even kind of hurt a little bit. They don't have any jaw pressure, it's really cute once you realize what they are capable of! I still don't like to get bitten by adults, hognose or any pythons, but baby corn snake teeth feel like someone tapping you with scotch tape.

 

[ryoverde]

Sorry, I was unclear, I was *thinking* healthcare-type thin nitrile gloves for use distributing thawed frozen pinkies/fuzzies, aka "dinner", which could then be quickly stripped off to allow the removal of "dinner's" scent from the hands prior to any snake handling. It was all there in my mental images, couldn't anyone else see them? Just kidding, I know, of course your could not. Wrong kind of gloves from what was previously mentioned, too, I didn't even think about causing confusion with that line of thought, double apologies.

"Snake-food handling gloves", let's call them instead, though if the snake is not too large, some not-so-thick, or doubled thin, nitrile gloves might deflect bites enough to allow "common" handling, such as picking up and changing containers for cleaning of the primary container, and/or moving to the feeding container, or perhaps even a moderate "petting" session. Assuming that fine handling is not required, of course.

I'm not *sure*, though, I've only been nailed by one of my yearlings as the biggest "bad" girl. I would offer to test it out for you myself, but... My "old lady" snake has never offered to bite, despite the occasional dirty look -- I believe she understands I "get it" off the look and will only continue if there is reason. Either she's very empathic to my tone of voice when I talk to her or she understands English... okay, well, there we are, I don't have a large enough snake to test the gloves with.

But the nitrile gloves are not as wimpy as they initially appear, and I know that my yearling's multiple strikes would probably have not scratched a single set of such gloves. I used to clean up broken lab glassware with nitrile gloves, they were a lot better than bare-handed with such sharp things. It might well be worth a try. Some hardware stores have started carrying them, I think, or pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, whatever else is local). Sometimes sporting goods places, too, for hunters when field-dressing their hunt.

Hope it's a little help.