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How to handle hatchling properly?

J

Jitt

New member
Hello :)

Pretty new to the snakes in general, I became proud owner of three months old little bloodred (born 07/15). I have some idea how should I handle an adult snake (had opportunity to handle a 2 years old boa once and that's where my snake love started :D) but I have no idea how should I handle that little jumpy, squirmy thing :shrugs: He's settling in and I'm intent to keep him in his privacy for at least a week (he's starting to entering blue according to the breeder who I got the little critter from this sunday) to assure he won't be stressed with the new big viv and shedding as well.

I'm not afraid of the snake, I'm more afraid I'll hurt him/squeeze him too hard in order to prevent him from escape/jumping out of my hand ... :eek: any advices please? I understand slow approach is not a good idea, basically just "taking him out" works the best (from what I read) but still would appreciate any advices. Can I be bold with him or is there anything I should be aware of, except supporting the little body and not let it hang down?

Thanks in advance!
 
Well, first let him shed, of course.
When he does, reach in for him slowly but steadily. If you make weird movements he will stress more. He will probably flee from your hand at first, so anyway reach for him and pick him up from the middle of the body and then support the rest of him.
The important thing is not to restrain them, just let him slither about in your fingers and do the "treadmill" with your hands because they don't stop moving.
Handle for about 5 mins and let him rest until next day. Try to handle every day or every other. From here you slowly increase handling time up to 10,15,20 mins (depends on what snake wants).
If you are scared of him falling from your hands you can handle him over the vivarium, or you can sit on a sofa and have your legs under, just in case.

First snake handling is an awesome moment!
 
Thanks for advice :) Of course I'll leave him till he sheds. Just hope I'll be able to convice him to crawl out of the cranny in the 3D background I created for him, which he now gladly uses as his house, cause he ignored all the hides (mostly various paper rolls) spread inside :D and after he scooped his new "space" stuffed himself into that crack.

By any chance, should I (later of course!) try to "poke him gently out with my finger" when it's feeding time, or simply offer a small container with pinkey close to him and "lure" him out at least for feeding? (holding the small box with thawed pinky close to the crack so he can crawl inside)
 
You can do what you prefer. I have always fed Naga in a separate container. I used to open or take the hide in which he was, pick him up and put him on a container and offer food there. Now I have a big hide which is pretty covered and I lure him out because I don't want to empty half my setup to take him out. I offer the meal on the container, as before.
As some other user said in another thread, I don't remember if it was Tavia or Nanci, I have food-trained Naga: I always knock twice on the vivarium for feeding time, and he comes out of his hide to half-body.
 
I like the idea of "food-training" would make things easier :)

Well, my current "problem" is, he stuffed himself where I can see him, but getting him out might be difficult ... unless I cut apart half of the background T_T Will try to lure him out when the feeding time comes and hope it will work :eek: Which won't be sooner than in a week I guess :eek:
 
My youngster is pretty defensive and often tries to strike, when I try to pick her up. I have found an easy way to deal with her: I gently keep her head away with the feeding tweezers, take hold of her body near the tail and lift her up, supporting her body with the tweezers. When she's outside her cage, she's much easier to handle.
This way, she's not so scared. (I'm not afraid of getting bitten, but I don't want to stress her and this is much easier).
 
a hatchling would be a snake right out of the egg. At 3 months old, your snake is well on its way. A Typical corn snake might be between 7 and 12 inches long as a hatchling, and at 3 months should be larger.

The babies grow faster, they slow as they get older. My snake doubled in size in the 3 months that I have had him so far.

They are pretty durable and hardy. Don't pick him up by the head or the tail. Don't let him dangle, try to support his weight. Don't drop him. Don't squeeze him or step on him. Keep his temperatures right, feed him about every 5 days until he's on fuzzies or hoppers, and try not to handle him for 2 or 3 days after he eats. (Wait for the poop).

Getting bitten from a corn snake is actually more dangerous to the snake than it is to the person. Most people have a natural reaction to "Jerk their hand back" if the snake strikes or bites. This can actually yank a tooth or teeth right out of the snake. So if the snake does bite, just relax, you're not going to die. And wait for him to let go. If he won't let go, (LOL) come back here and post with a picture and we will tell you how to make him let go.
 
When my snake was tiny, I used to weave her between my fingers and sort of support her like that. I agree with the recommendations to sit with her or handle over a surface for safety. And again, if you get bit - refrain from pulling as Karl_Mcknight said.

Another thing to think about is a lot of cornsnakes have the instinct to curl their tail around something. So offer a finger for them to curl their tail tip around, its pretty cute!
 
Karl: Never seen any "proper" hatchling to be honest, I got my corn at the age of 3 months cause my viv wasn't finished in time and breeder was so kind to hold him back for me :eek: On all photos those kids looks so big and mine looks so tiny ... XD though in comparsion with the hands on photos he's probably average to his age :)

As for the bite, that's the least of my worries. When I went to pick up this little guy, he almost jumped out of breeder's hands and that's what I was worried about. Afraid I would squeeze him too hard in order to hold onto him and not let him escape (intending to do all the handling for now inside of the viv in order to limit the dropdown height and risk of escape outside of viv).

Will do my best to raise him as good as I'll be able to, already looking forward to his changes etc ... :) snakes are awesome beings!

Thank you all very much for kind advices, I'm sorry if my recent questions are sorta stupid but even after reading a lot of stuff, still there are differences in informations and some are "missing" to me almost completely (or I didn't find them).

Hope I'll get past this beginner inexperience soon :eek:
 
yeah, they can and do move fast.

When trying to hold onto them, you're right, squeezing them is not a good idea, especially when small. Their spine and ribs are fragile.

Rather, try doing a hand over hand type control. Let them squirm and wiggle and crawl through your hands. Just keep placing one hand over the other as the snake moves forward. They tend to do most of their squirming when your first pick them up. After a few minutes they will settle down a bit.

My little snake will actually come to the door of his cage now when I open the door and he will crawl right into my hands. He's very calm, and seems to love to come out and spend time with me.

With a little time, your's should act the same.
 
Further to him having wedged himself in the background - in my experience he will probably not come out until he's ready to shed. He will probably go back there often and it's unlikely that you will lure him out with food. Play the waiting game and catch him out of the hole. Evening and night is the best time to look. Take him out of the viv and plug it up with a hot glue gun. Having a space that you can't easily remove your snake from is definitely a bad thing.

With some young snakes it can take awhile to tame them and it might seem like you're getting nowhere, but gentle handling as described above will almost always result in a calm snake by about a year old. My Timmy was awful and did jump out of my hands more than once, but he's good now.
 
I'm fully intent to let him be stuffed in there till he gets out himself ... to shed hopefully. It's not like he's totally unreachable though ... that "crack" is rather sizeable but as he will grow, he will definitely grow out of it. Besides he has nowhere to escape from there and I can always see if he's in there. Hot glue gun wouldn't be enough to fix it, I would need to use PU insulation foam (from which is the entire background made) to fill it up and close.

Sort of reminds me of those tight ledges under the glass vivs I saw quite few times here in photo section, with baby snakes stuffed in them ... it's about that size in height, width and it's not "deep" for him to completely disappear even now.

Will see what I can do once I'll get him out. To be honest didn't expect him to hijack that place, but with first snake and first time making viv it was probably sort of expected some "weakpoint" will be in there :eek:

Thank you for all tips! I don't mind waiting for him to calm down or come out, but I would hate to hurt or stress him out ... I just want him to be happy with me and in his house, as much as captive snake can actually be "happy" in captivity. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a realist but hope you will get what I mean :))
 
Today he was already sticking out of his "secret hiding spot" so I took the opportunity, he's out of the blue and expecting the shed every hour by now almost (two days out of the blue) and he's such a sweet little guy! True, tried to slither away, but no hateling at all, no S shapes, no "cobras" ... in the end after a few initial seconds curiously explored my hands for a few minutes and totally wrapped me around his "little finger" :D

I had to share this joy ... :eek: Now he's resting back in his "under shelf" place but it really surprised me that he didn't try anything ... I'm sooo happy!!!
 
Karl_Mcknight said:
yeah, they can and do move fast.

When trying to hold onto them, you're right, squeezing them is not a good idea, especially when small. Their spine and ribs are fragile.

Rather, try doing a hand over hand type control. Let them squirm and wiggle and crawl through your hands. Just keep placing one hand over the other as the snake moves forward. They tend to do most of their squirming when your first pick them up. After a few minutes they will settle down a bit.

My little snake will actually come to the door of his cage now when I open the door and he will crawl right into my hands. He's very calm, and seems to love to come out and spend time with me.

With a little time, your's should act the same.
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How long of a time would you say this takes. I've had my girl since mid July and she still gets a little antsy when I go to take her out. I handle he fairly regularly and she's able to be out for 20 minutes easily. She seems fine once she's in my hands but tries to get away whenever I go to pick her up.

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Depends on snake but, as a general rule, when they turn 1 year they become calmer. Mine started calming down at 9-10 months old or so.
 
mishima25 said:
Depends on snake but, as a general rule, when they turn 1 year they become calmer. Mine started calming down at 9-10 months old or so.
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No clue what age my girl is but she's 25 inches long. However I know that doesn't always indicate age

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Yes, that doesn't indicate age and varies a lot depending on feedings, but at that lenght it might a few more months until she turns 1. (Total speculation).
 
Well ... if I would be little snake with all those dangerous giants around, I would already shit my pants long time ago :eek: Give them time ... :) right now they are basically preyed on in nature, while they are small, so it makes sense for them to be scared and hiding away. Once they grow into big and bold snakes, it will be as we want it :D
 
mishima25 said:
Yes, that doesn't indicate age and varies a lot depending on feedings, but at that lenght it might a few more months until she turns 1. (Total speculation).
Click to expand...
It's funny, after I wrote this today she was totally chill with me picking her up. I used a flat hand to lift her whole body as she was curled up and she was totally cool. We hung out for maybe 40 to 45 minutes. She curled up in the bottom of my pant leg a couple times. I think it was some good bonding time for us lol.

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Colorguardchic19 said:
How long of a time would you say this takes. I've had my girl since mid July and she still gets a little antsy when I go to take her out. I handle he fairly regularly and she's able to be out for 20 minutes easily. She seems fine once she's in my hands but tries to get away whenever I go to pick her up.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I began right away from Day 1, Tapping on the Door to the cage before I opened it. 3 taps - tap, tap, tap, and then I open the door. The tapping gets the snake's attention and lets him know I'm there. I always do it the same way, 3 taps.

I can't tell you how long it took, I'd guess 2 months maybe. But it got to the point when I'd tap he'd stick his head out and watch me. then one day I noticed when I opened the door he began moving towards me. Now he's to the point that he is always watching me. When I walk in the door from being at work all day, he immediately starts looking around. (I can see him looking at me now). He loves to come out of his cage and I really believe he likes being handled.

I still tap 3 times on his door when I open it, but he's usually already at the door by the time I open it.
 
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