Got nommed on by my corn today. Since I adopted it a while back, I was a little concerned about getting bit; I hadn't been bit by a snake since I was probably 13 and I didn't know what to expect. My snake seems to be exceptionally smart and learned within his first two weeks here that saying "Hi Bandit!" and pulling the weights from the top of the enclosure and opening it means either food or an intruder haha.
Bandit always comes out of his hide quite quickly to investigate, and I am always very sure to wash my hands, not come from above, let him investigate my hand for a while, and only pick him up when he's ready. It's usually a 3-5 minute ordeal of talking to him and being very patient. However... Today, I didn't wash my hands, didn't give him much of any time to investigate, and was in a bit of a rush as I needed to clean his tank today. He shed on Thursday night, and this was his first handling in a week. Hadn't eaten in 16 days and get's fed every 10-14. So he was pretty pissed and smacked me in the pinkie. Three little pin pricks. I was almost disappointed.
Totally not surprised though. Lots of variables and lots of things that I did wrong. I felt like a bad snake owner
Learning experience I guess.
Handled him long enough to let him calm down, and then handed him off to my other snake-friendly friend to hold him while I cleaned the tank. I've heard that cornsnakes tend to want to keep moving when handled, but not this guy. After 5 minutes or so he just gets bored and as long as he has something warm to sit on, he just hangs out. He might move about in your lap a little, but that's about it.
-Travis