She's a Thrasher....!

Unfortunately, so far my new girl hasnt calmed down much, if at all. She rattles, bites, musks, and every so often goes into thrash mode. I dont want her to believe that such behavior will result in me returning her to her viv, and i am scared that she will hurt herself the way she flails sometimes. im not a big fan of the musking either, but i would rather that than her flipping and spinning herself all over the place. Honestly, its like she does the croc roll sometimes. Well.... what can a guy do but hope she grows out of it....

How long have you been handling her? It took Shesha about 5 days of regular handling to calm down to a reasonable level. Like you, I worried she'd hurt herself with her violent thrashing. I certainly didn't feel comfortable holding her unless it was right over her viv in case she got out of my hands and fell. It was certainly unpleasant for both of us at first, but she really changed by the end of the week.

Just keep it up, about 5 minutes once a day when she's not in digestion mode, and I wish you luck. I hope she calms down soon. :awcrap:

Is it the Jungle that's throwing a wobbly?

If so... it's because kingsnakes DO that when they're little, and a Jungle is a kingsnake crossed to a corn, not just a corn. To be honest, the way I manage this with my kings is "if you don't want to be handled, I won't make you let me." But that's because I do have other snakes that don't mind being handled, and I keep the kings because I like how they look and how they behave.

Yeah its the jungle girl alright. I just hope she doesnt remain this way all her life. I expected her to calm down faster because the amel i got from him was much more agressive and he calmed down in a matter of days. Even if she never becomes the perfect snake to handle i wouldent think of getting rid of her. Fingers crossed though!

Have you tried scooping her out, not picking her up, and then just cuddling her to you, in your closed hand?

Ssthisto, is right....We have a Milk that was a handful....We just left it alone....Only a quick look over at feeding times, and no stress...A year or so later it just became calm all on it's own....Multiple snakes to hold is the answer....

Well you see what happens is, when i open her tank up and take the hide off of her she stands up like a cobra and rattles her tail. She follows my hands like a hawk and strikes repeatedly in my direction. I usually end up quickly sliding my hand under her and pulling her out, sustaining a few bites in the process, and she immediately musks and rattles against me. If she doesnt start thrashing right away it is a good day. She sometimes calms down and wraps around my hand, but shows no movement or tongue flicking. After a while she seems to lose her cool and then thrashes and musks again, rattling the whole time untill i decide its time to put her back. Like i said before, i dont want her to think that this behavior gets her what she wants, but its obvious she isnt happy when she is out.

I have another to handle, but to tell you the truth it's not enough! I can be patient though, if it's time she needs then it's time she will get. I just thought that frequent handling was the key in "taming" down a snake, but if the opposite is true i could leave her alone too.

She sounds like my Inez (Nelson's) for the first year of her life. I'd take her out, she'd thrash and musk, I'd wash her under the faucet, then she'd be good (freeze and pretend it was all a dream) until the next time. I tried handling her a lot, that didn't help much if at all. Then I eventually got enough snakes that I could leave her completely alone. now she even comes out and lounges around in plain sight. She doesn't musk on the way to her feeding bin. She has never bit me.

In my experience frequent handling only calms down animals that are already naturally pretty calm - it acclimates them to something that does not stress them out that much to begin with.

But it can seriously freak out an animal that sees it as stressful - because you're teaching it that you're going to regularly harass it whether or not it can cope.

My approach to that snake would be to handle minimally until it's a bit older (only as necessary to clean the cage), then let the SNAKE choose whether you handle it or not. Immediate defensive/threat behaviour when you approach or open the cage doesn't mean you can't touch it ever - it just means you have to leave the cage open for a while and let it realise that you AREN'T going to pick it up, and that it can go about business as normal even though the cage is open. Once it stops displaying the stress behaviours when you open the cage, you can start introducing another MILD stressor (your hand in the cage but not near her) until she stops reacting to that.

Tiny tiny baby steps, and no further forward until the last step doesn't produce the "Het for Cobra" reaction. I'm going to have fun doing this with my Radiated ratsnake... which are also known for being nervy, fast and liable to give a strong threat display.

Thanks for all of your advice. Ssthisto, i like this approach, i will definately go about things a little differently after reading this. Cheers!

Good luck! :cheers: Please keep us posted on your progress with her.

Sorry SSthito, but I would have to stress the rat...LOL They are stunning when they threaten......Put up some pics of it....

When they are young, and they thrash and flail about, I would be very worried that they will kink them selves up.. I would aire on the side of caution and let it be until it settles down on its own, when it can get to the point of tolerating you..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

snakewispera snr said:

Sorry SSthito, but I would have to stress the rat...LOL They are stunning when they threaten......Put up some pics of it....

Click to expand...

No, I'm not going to upset Fusion JUST to get him to do the full threat display - it happened the once 'for real' when he decided to shoot out of his tub like a rocket and try to zip down behind a six-by-three-by-three-foot vivarium. Scared the bejabbers out of me even though I was expecting it, and it took me another hour to clear stuff out of the way enough to get him back.

Plenty of good photos of Radiateds doing the "hate" face out there

One other trick to keep in mind, if there's a lot of S-and-striking behaviour - try waving one hand at your Jungle (from far enough away she can't reach you) and when her attention is completely on that, try a sneak in from the other side to just touch her. She might flinch, but she's less likely to whip around and strike. This is apparently very successful with Radiateds too - but I haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. I think I'll wait until I have Fusion in a space that doesn't have great whacking vivariums to shine flashlights behind in order to find the three-foot angrysnake!

How long have you had your new snake? Did you let her have a few days all alone to adjust before you started handling her? This can make a big difference.

She got 6 days i think. I cant say that she hasnt improved at all since ive gotten her, but the progress has been slow. Patience is now my approach.

My snake does not like to be "discovered" in the tank, but once picked up she is a joy to handle. I'm still figuring out the best way to find her in the tank and pick her up, she can dash away pretty fast and I worry about her getting hurt trying to hide on some of the tank decorations.

Wow. This thread makes me glad I'm sticking to straight-up corn snakes. I'm a high school teacher, and my snakes spend time in my classroom. Jungle-y behaviour would probably get me some really interesting parent phone calls...lol

My lavender corn can sometimes show the same behavior as your Jungle. He's starting to calm down now, after over a year of acting like a king cobra. LOL. He still rattles and strikes at me almost every single time I put my hand in his viv...but once I get him out, he's usually calm as a clam. On rare occasion, he starts thrashing like he used to; but I'm proud to say I've never been bitten by him.

If I ever do get bitten by a corn snake, I can pretty much bet on it being my lavender.