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Corn snake biting

W

wawatoosie

New member
This summer, we happened to have an extra hopper mouse and I fed it to my 2yo corn snake, live. Since then, she tends to be nippy when I reach into her cage. This is a first!

I DO put her in a seperate feeding container when she eats but I am assuming that she now associates the movement with food? I plan to stick to frozen from now on but I was wondering what the best way of handling this would be. Is this a common issue with corns? I hadn't thought so....
 
Just one live feeding is not going to change her entire disposition. I've got nippy corns and calm corns. The nippy corns get taken out with a small hook.
 
Any ideas then what may have made her change her disposition? Maybe she's overly hungry? I'm feeding her every seven days.
 
wawatoosie said:
Any ideas then what may have made her change her disposition? Maybe she's overly hungry? I'm feeding her every seven days.
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Every 7 days is fine. Have you changed anything in her cage? Added a different substrate? Added a new hide? Put her in a bigger cage?

There's all kinds of environmental factors that can play into it.
 
No, there's nothing new that I can think of. We had a boa that we sold around that time who was in a different cage. I doubt she's missing him, lol.
 
Adding and removing hides changes their behavior? Crap. I put in/remove TP rolls from tank often (depending on whether or not the snake in question used it)
 
Pepper said:
Adding and removing hides changes their behavior? Crap. I put in/remove TP rolls from tank often (depending on whether or not the snake in question used it)
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It can. Depending on how your snake reacts to change. I don't think changing out TP rolls would be that much of a change, considering they look very similar to each other, and probably have almost the same smell.
 
RobbiesCornField said:
It can. Depending on how your snake reacts to change. I don't think changing out TP rolls would be that much of a change, considering they look very similar to each other, and probably have almost the same smell.
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It's true. Not all of them react badly, or at all, but some do. My 10 year old gets noticeably upset if I don't put everything back exactly where it was after a clean out.

wawatoosie it could be that the snake smells the mice on your hands if you don't wash them thoroughly in between preparing them and moving her into her feeding tub?

How often do you handle her? It could potentially be that she associates you reaching in for her as 'feeding time' but only if you don't handle very much otherwise.

Last though, are the temperatures regulated? Too hot temps can make them snappy. Grasping at straws here!

I hope you don't have any problems switching back to f/t and hope she calms down again for you soon :)
 
Tracee, I think you may have hit on it. She hasn't been handled much. Our boa we had bit, struck, and hissed when we'd reach in the cage and it kind of freaked us all out. I'm afraid it's affected how I feel about our corn. I'm a little nervous now.

We'll just have to make a conscious effort to get her out more and see if that helps.
 
It is possible then that she could be conditioned to think that every time you enter the viv, it's feeding time, and this makes her a bit feisty. I know it's easy for me to say but you mustn't be nervous. A bite from your corn is a short sharp shock but really will not hurt. If the problem is due to lack of handling, soon after you rectify this, by handling her more often, you should notice a big difference.
 
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