Hello all! Noob here - I have been keeping herps for 30+ years but amazingly enough, had never kept a corn snake until just recently. I got a nice juvenile female about 2 weeks ago and have a question about her behavior.
As we all know, juvenile snakes are usually much more jittery and hyper than adults. But this little girl is exceptionally calm! She is quite healthy, has good weight and is an excellent eater so no problems there. Its just that I'm surprised at her calmness. When I pick her up she just curls her tail around one finger and gently explores my hand for awhile before settling down.
Obviously I am NOT complaining about this. But I am curious to see how many others have had this experience with a youngster. What percent of corn snake juveniles would be calm? It will be interesting to see what she is like when she matures given that she is so mellow already at such a young age!
Hi there Cornpone! Or Noob, that is. How ya been?
:welcome:
(I love to be the first one to use that new emoji in a thread, BTW! But it sure says it all, no?). Congrats on your new acquisition! Glad to hear she has a great temperament. Maybe her previous owner did you the favor of assimilating her towards humans? Hope so, anyway, because a calm & cool hatchling or juvie WITHOUT having been conditioned is not a sign of an optimal response to its environment. If most or all snakes were "sweethearts" from the time they were hatched, they most probably would not have survived long nor had their respective place within the animal kingdom's food chain! A skittish and jumpy hatchling is a good sign that it possesses the survival skills necessary for at least one or two hatchlings to survive out of each clutch produced in the wild. However, in captivity, now that we're on the topic, I WONDER whether or not that this particular trait is a liability (?). Food for thought, at the very least!
But back to your little sneaky one, once a hatchling or juvenile - or even an adult, for that matter - is conditioned to handling by its owner or humans, in general, they become pretty calm. Well, MOST of them, anyway. Out of my 3 adult corns, the two males (Bozo & Chili-Pepper) are extremely docile and Chili even likes it when I rub the back of his head and neck! But the female, Lilly, can be skittish, jerky, or even totally evasive, depending upon a number of variables. She even sometimes rattles her tail, especially if I have to go after her by going under a hide or if I'm trying to remove her from her viv when she just doesn't wanna come out to play! This may just be a part of her character or "animality" (still nowhere NEAR used to that word yet daddio!), but also may have to do with the fact that she was cohabitated with Bozo & Chili for the first 8 years of her life (I just recently separated all of my adult corns back in April of this year as per the advice of daddio and a couple of other members here who provoked me - politely and not like bulls in a china shop! - to conduct some research on cohabbing corns where I discovered that what I always believed, based upon what I was told when they were sold to me, was not necessarily the truth nor was it in the best interests of my animals who I have always loved dearly. Since that time, they all seem fine, even noticeably gaining some weight. In retrospect, Lilly was probably harassed, especially during mating season but I mistakenly thought she was okay when she hid in a log the other ones couldn't fit into (I know I'm not the SHARPEST knife in the DISWASHER but as many of you may know, it doesn't take me an HOUR & A HALF to watch 60 Minutes!). Also, I would have SWORN they were "cuddling" together, due to the availability of multiple places to go in the large cage I had for them which Lilly occupies solo presently, until I discovered what one herpetologist reported as them possibly competing for the most optimal spot in the enclosure! Self-reflection isn't worth a damn if you can't be honest with YOURSELF! Being one who always encourages others to be open-minded, I had to practice what I preached and do the right thing, thereby separating all of them, where they now all appear to be doing just fine!
To get back to your question, I have never had a hatchling that wasn't jumpy or skittish from the very beginning of handling them. For the most part, they have ALL tried to dart or jump out of my hand during the first few sessions of handling them! You wouldn't have even FATHOMED that they would have become the docile, extremely calm animals that they have eventually become as adults (speaking about my adult males). As I said before, Lilly will probably always be jumpier than her male counterparts, but even SHE eventually becomes somewhat comfortable during handling sessions after the initial shock of her being removed from her enclosure. Ozzy, my yearling, is jumpy at the start, but quickly calms down and as he is still youthful, will occasionally be much more energetic as he flicks his tongue and sees how far out of my hands he can get. None of my corns just sit there, as ball pythons tend to do. But that's just a part of their nature.
Hope this answered your question somewhat. I'm not one to economize on words! LOL! :shrugs:
