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Your opinion PLEASE(handling*)

B

BobM

New member
Background:
I just got a baby corn about 3 weeks ago. I at first gave it a few days to get accustomed to its new home before handling it(1-2 times a week.) Towards the end of those days it started getting really curious...(it would follow me around the room from its cage.) However, after i started handling it, it only moves around its tnak when it thinks i'm not around. It still likes to check me out but only from the safety of tis log, and if I start to move anywhere close to its tank it jerks its head back in.

***What makes my case unique is that I think I might have been born an exceptionally terrible snake handler. I didn't think about this when I bought it, but I have a tremor and my hands get sweaty/sticky when the air temperature is anywhere above 50 degrees (just a little though.) When I say I have a tremor I mean that my hands shake (not a lot but noticeably). I think these problems will be less of a problem as the snake gets larger and stronger, but I'm not sure what to do know as a hatcchling.

Question: Should I try to refrain from handling my snake or should I handle it more often?

By the way, I want to handle it really REALLY badly.
 
I have problems with my hands getting sweaty as well as a slight tremor in my hands. Sometimes I can hold them still while handling my snakes, other times there is a slight shake - not very noticeable. But the sweaty hands thing is almost constant. Neither one seems to bother the snakes (although with the sweaty hands they have to work a little harder so move around), so it doesn't dissuade me at all from handling them.
I think you should be perfectly find handling your hatchling. The more you handle it, the more used to you it will get (regardless of any tremor or sweaty hands)! :)
 
I've had my corn for almost 2 months, and she still pullsher head in anytime I come near the cage, or even walk into the room. However, when I lift whatever hide she is in to pick her up, she is very easy-going about getting handled.

I also "suffer" from sweaty palms and a slight tremble of the hands, though the trembling is usually from too much caffeine. It never seems to bother my snakes. I say...handle your snake. The more it is handled, the more use to each other you will get, and even the heaviest of "tremors" will become "known" to the snake as nothing to fear.
 
That's exactly what I wanted to hear guys thanks! that's definately a load off my chest. Lately I've been so paranoid about not handling too much that I only handle it for 1-2 three or four minute sessions a week.
 
Hi Bob,

How does your snake react to handling? Is she relaxed and calm, or jumpy? I have one snake who I enjoy so much I'll keep him out for a couple hours, but the others are usually 30 minutes to an hour or so. (I gradually increased the length of handling time.)

Nanci
 
Don't worry, you'll be fine. I don't think your snake is going to know the difference if it is not accustomed to someone that doesn't tremble. It just won't know the difference.
 
Nanci-

Well, it really really REALLY hates it when i pick it up, i'm pretty much sure of that. And I don't think it's ever stopped moving while in its in my hands. It always seems to be trying to move up my forearm or down towards the ground. I actually have to make sure I have a free hand underneath the other because it will drop from my hands to my bed...regardless of the distance of the drop. It doesn't seem to be necessarily uncomfortable around me just my hands though.

ex. The other day I was laying on my bed handling my snake and I decided to let crawl down from my hands onto the bed. Once it got down it decided to slither right up to my face on the pillow to check me out and then burrowed its way between the back of my neck and the pillow. Felt pretty weird.
 
Bob, my three adult siblings all prefer to be anywhere but in hand and I have an adult and some younger corns who just don't (and have never) bother being held, in hand or on head lol...

As long as your comfortable and not tense or nervous when holding yours, the tremble wont be felt by the snake as stress, which do make them hard to hold...
 
On the occasions when I've had some sweat while handling Clyde, it has definitely been 1) more work for him to move around, and 2) easier for him to hold on, so I'd say the benefits of sweating kind of offset the problems. His response to handling has not been noticably different either way.

In general, he may very well hate handling, as most of them do when they start out. They would rather have control over their placement and movement - this is why they escape vivariums. However, with regular handling they learn to adjust to the lifestyle, or almost all do. I think they are known for their docility not because they are docile out of the egg but because they adapt to handling so well. So, however he responds, just keep it up and he should get used to it.

(Un)fortunately, I have no experience with the shaking thing, but I guess others here do (and tyflier, we know why you shake - zap! zap! :grin01: )

-Sean
 
I've started this thing with Inez, my super wild one, where instead of holding her by her body, I'll keep her curled in a ball and just hold her up against my chest and talk to her. Two out of three times she hasn't musked me, and she ALWAYS musks.

It's normal to not stop moving. And I'd say _most_ of mine will drop off into mid-air rather than hanging on. I'd just keep handling daily except when digesting, for a short period of time, say 15-20 minutes, and only put the baby back when he's been relatively calm, or at least not wild and flailing, for a couple minutes.

When I put my guys back, I put them by their water bowl so they for sure know where it is and can get a drink.

Nanci
 
Hey, you know what else, this _might_ work for you. I've taken Inez outside once, and put her in a small tree that she couldn't get away from me in, and she had a great time climbing. She didn't try to fly off the tree, either. So she got to be out and interact with me, but without me having to touch her much. I think she had a great time exploring. But you have to be confident that you can catch the snake if it gets down to the ground.

Nanci
 
Nanci, wouldn't you have to be concerned about introducing parasites if you have your snake outside on a real tree?
 
Yeah, the more i think about the less i think i should be worried. After all, my snake has never musked me, rattled its tail or bitten me. And I suppose the extra grip the snake gets from sweaty hands kinda does help to offset it's difficulties maneuvering. Also, regardless of how much it gets stressed out by being handled, it has never affected its appetite.

As far as holding my snake in a ball close to my chest...it works great when i can get it to coil up in a ball(which has only happened once), but most of the time my snake refuses to sit still at all.


By the way I was wondering about that whole parasite thing too.
 
Markey said:
Nanci, wouldn't you have to be concerned about introducing parasites if you have your snake outside on a real tree?
Click to expand...

Like what?

No, I'm not worried about that. All of us Florida people have a great time photographing our snakes outside! (Arpeggio Angel and Susan, for example! to name people with millions more snakes than I have!)

Snake mites come from other snakes that have mites. Ticks- they live in long grass. Worms? First, the snake has to ingest something that is carrying worm eggs.

Nanci
 
Markey said:
Nanci, wouldn't you have to be concerned about introducing parasites if you have your snake outside on a real tree?
Click to expand...

There might be cause for concern if the snake is eating something that was wild, like wild mice or rat pups, or if she was letting the snake crawl through dead leaf litter, which might contain microbacteria and/or mold spores. But I don't think letting her interact with a living tree for a few minutes is any cause for worry...

Now...letting your snake crawl around on a dead tree stump full of termites, ticks, microbacteria, and all other manner of nasty "unseeables"...that would be a different story...IMO.
 
BobM said:
As far as holding my snake in a ball close to my chest...it works great when i can get it to coil up in a ball(which has only happened once), but most of the time my snake refuses to sit still at all.
Click to expand...

Luckily, Inez usually sleeps as far from her heat mat as possible, so when I pick up the fake rock thing, she's up on a little ledge in it and she slides half an inch to the aspen, curled up, and I just pick her up in a clump and keep her that way!

Nanci
 

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yeah, that makes sense when you put it that way. I was just a little paranoid i guess. Probably due to the fact that while i was doing my prepurchase research everyother page said something about parasites. I also read a lot of "if you capture a wild snake it will have parasites" I suppose i should have realized that there is a differrence between "the wild" and my backyard.
 
I think they mean if you capture a wild snake it will have worms. So give it Panacur.

Nanci
 
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