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Getting frustrated!

W

willameesh

New member
Hi there. I wonder if anyone can help me. :wavey:
A few months ago a good friend of mine purchased a corn snake (After seeing how fab mine was!). He is fine with it but never handles him unless I'm there. Now we live miles apart and i rarely get to see him and I'm worried that the snake will not get handled. He seemed really nervous the last time i picked him up. My mate handles him but just can't bear to pick him out of the viv, thats why he needs me to do it. He gets nervous and is scared of hurting him.
I was like that when i first got my snake but i just took a deep breath, acted confident and it was fine. I have told him all this but it doesn't seem to sink in. He doesn't have internet access so I am asking you for advice mainly so i can print it off and show it to him (Maybe i'll just hit him over the head with it!) :shrugs:
So any advice you can give would be good? Will the snake turn nasty if never handled?
thanks a lot guys!
 
Tell him he needs to handle the snake from time to time (at least once every week) to make sure it's healthy and not having any problems, check for mites, muscle tone, etc. It sounds like a good reason, whether it's absolutely true or not. Or you could take the 'stop being such a wuss' approach. Obviously he's not going to hurt the snake by picking it up. People have pet snakes SO they can handle them (that's one of the main reasons.) That's when you really notice how they are growing and changing as they grow. My snakes seem to either enjoy being handled or at the least they are indifferent to it. This does not apply to very new snakes that haven't been established in their new homes or perhaps some very difficult feeders that are easily stressed and won't eat for several days if they are handled, which is maybe 5% of Cornsnakes. Corns are generally very tame, docile, and easily handled, which is why they make good pets.
 
Sounds like he's more afraid of being bit than hurting the snake. I would say you need to up his confidence some how. Maybe he will go for the wearing gloves idea. Once he's confident tell him to ditch the gloves. Just an idea :cheers:
 
thanks for your help. I agree he's probably scared of being bit, but mine have never bit me! I'm gonna print this out and post it to him! :cheers:
 
When I first got my corn, I never just grabbed her. I used to hold my hand out in front of her, and let her come onto my hand in no time. Several times she refused to come onto my hand, but eventually she did and never looked back. I now can grab her as she is used to it, but like I say I didn't rush into grabbing her.
Make sure he holds his hand there for a little while to let him/her smell his scent. In time s/he'll get used to his scent and will be alot more relaxed when handled. :)
 
I find that if you just pick the snake up, as if you are in control, the snake will not challenge you. On the off chance it strikes at you, just ignore it and continue as though nothing happened. If I had a 4 or 5 foot crazily aggressive Corn, I might be a little more intimidated, but a bite from any Corn much smaller than that is the equivalent of a pin prick. Personally, I would never bother with gloves. Even if the snake bites you, it's likely to stop after the first or second time, since it will learn biting you has no effect. Maybe it's not the right way to do it, but I just reach right in and pick up the snake, and the snakes seem fine with that. I would think holding my hand in the cage for an extended time might actually confuse the snake (?) Maybe someone else can comment on that. I sure wouldn't do it with a Boa, for instance (probably not a Python either, though I've never owned one.)
 
Yeah Larry, I agree with you on this. The glove thing is strictly for those that simply will not try the bare handed way. The bit about offering it your hand so it recognizes your scent is baloney, this is more likely to illicit a strike than a quick pick up IMO :cheers:
 
I'm assuming the snake is small...in that case, a bite won't hurt. I have a couple of adults that I've bought as rather untamed adults and they do a good bit of bluff and tail rattling to show me how tough they are. My adult ghost tagged my knuckle but I admit that I moved in on her a little fast for her comfort while she was in blue, so I don't hold her responsible. The 'wound' was no worse than a pinprick and actually didn't bleed unless I squeezed it. -no drama!


If you tell your friend to move fluently and quietly and not be intimidated by the snake then he should be OK. Otherwise, he can just give it to you and hey-presto...you get a free snake!
 
mbdorfer, the smelling me works for me. If I dive in and grab her she's skittish, whereas if I show her my hand then pick her up she's OK.
 
Yeah Dan, I present them with the back of my hand too, like when you met a dog you don't know...works for me!
 
Hey, if it works for you, great. That's the beauty of this hobby, nothing is really carved in stone. For me, offering the hand seems to just intimidate them. Maybe it's all that hair :grin01: I guess calling it "baloney" was a little harsh :wavey:
 
I don't know if it's a matter of the snake smelling you, or rather that it just knows you're there. It'd probably scare the hell out of me too if somebody just reached down and grabbed me without any kind of warning.
 
TrpnBils said:
I don't know if it's a matter of the snake smelling you, or rather that it just knows you're there. It'd probably scare the hell out of me too if somebody just reached down and grabbed me without any kind of warning.
Click to expand...

They have eyes. They don't need to touch you with their tongue or whatever to recognize you. (Do they? Maybe I'm wrong, but mine seem to have good vision.)
 
larryg said:
They have eyes. They don't need to touch you with their tongue or whatever to recognize you. (Do they? Maybe I'm wrong, but mine seem to have good vision.)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the anatomy lesson.

That's my point. If you're sticking your hand in front of their face so they can smell you, they can also see you. If you reach into the viv of, say, a sleeping snake and grab it from behind, it'd never know you were there otherwise. I've done that a couple of times with ball pythons and a RTB at work and almost paid for my stupidity, but luckily they're calm enough they just jumped a little instead of biting me.
 
Smell is good

I think the hand thing calms mine down as well. I also bought into the theory of putting a shirt in the viv overnight so my corn could get used to my smell. I think it worked, although it could just be that enough time had passed that he settled down naturally, so who really knows, but it doesn't hurt so it's worth a try.
 
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