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Have I Left It Too Late?

nimbuzz

nimbuzz

Adam
Hi there all,

Sorry I haven't been here for a while (a year!)

Okay, but seriously, I have a problem here... :/ I got Pretzel, my little corn a year ago, and things were going well, until he started getting jumpy. I figured that I wouldn't handle him until he'd calmed and grown a little.
Sadly, none of this has worked. He's really aggressive now as won't even let me get near him. It's a struggle to even top his water up. The only time he doesn't bite me is when he's being fed.

Please help!! :(
 
Just to conclude (I think I left it unclear), he's had little to no contact in the past year besides food - and he also kinda strikes at me at the glass. In the last time I attempted to handle him (attempted being key here), he struck at me 17 times in a 5-10 minute slot..
 
Well, you have work to do. I would break out some gloves and long sleeves. Watch out for your face. You might even use a hook if he is hitting you hard. I have Caramel that strikes at me constantly. He still gets held. He is a year old or so.
 
What are the temperatures? Seems a little odd he's striking the glass.

Just persistent handling will calm him down.

I don't think feeding inside a cage has anything to do with it. I feed all my snakes in their enclosures and none have aggression issues.
 
He tries to escape when I attempt to pick him up wearing gloves. I'm worried about stressing him out so I kinda stopped. I do feed him in his viv and the temperatures are 30/31 in the heat and about 26 in the cool.
 
I have an adult male that got that way when he went through 'breeding season' he was a complete jerk... But I think yours is probably too young (at a year old?) for that to be the problem..
I have heard that corns all have different temperments and some can just be mean. while others are the most mild mannered ever..

I think Hvani is right - put on some gloves if you are really worried about a bite, and just keep handling him until he gets used to it. Stay calm and hold still when he strikes at you (jumping or jerking will just aggravate the situation) he has to learn that he's going to be handled either way.
 
Feeding in its enclosure is a bad idea. Some animals will associate every thing that goes into the tank as food. Get used to being nipped until it gets used to you. It's definitely not happy about something. How often do you feed it?
 
enoreg said:
Feeding in its enclosure is a bad idea. Some animals will associate every thing that goes into the tank as food. Get used to being nipped until it gets used to you. It's definitely not happy about something. How often do you feed it?
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I disagree, many of us feed in the viv without problems, I have never had one bite without it being my fault, I didn't wash my hands after handling a mouse and before picking a snake up. I open the vivs almost every day to hold them or spot clean or replace the water, none of them are aggressive.
 
Hopefully with a little patience, this time next year he'll have settled with me (I hope!). I kinda have to maneuver around his position to give him water, I'm just so freaked about stressing him out.
 
smigon said:
I disagree, many of us feed in the viv without problems, I have never had one bite without it being my fault, I didn't wash my hands after handling a mouse and before picking a snake up. I open the vivs almost every day to hold them or spot clean or replace the water, none of them are aggressive.
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I totally agree. I have never removed my snakes from their enclosure to feed. Snakes are very instinctual animals meaning they think you're food if you smell like food. Simply opening the enclosure should not trigger a feeding response, especially if the snake is eating thawed food.

If anything, I think that moving the snake around after they just ate is stressful.

Just my opinion and experience.

~Jason
 
He kinda attacks anything that moves at the moment, and he's on thawed food, I'm beginning to that it's just a lack of handling?
 
The thing about feeding in the viv is- take my 100 baby snakes. How often do you think they'd be getting handled, if I wasn't taking them out every five days, weighing them, placing them in a deli, taking them back out. That adds up to hours of handling they otherwise wouldn't have, preparing them for life as a pet of big scary humans. By the time they leave, they know humans won't harm them, and many come out and beg for food, and crawl willingly into my hands, and some, many even, come out for meals when I knock on their front doors to let them know it's dinner time. It's easy to get complacent and not check body condition, weight, etc., once you have a lot of snakes, if you aren't taking them out routinely.
 
Nanci said:
The thing about feeding in the viv is- take my 100 baby snakes. How often do you think they'd be getting handled, if I wasn't taking them out every five days, weighing them, placing them in a deli, taking them back out. That adds up to hours of handling they otherwise wouldn't have, preparing them for life as a pet of big scary humans. By the time they leave, they know humans won't harm them, and many come out and beg for food, and crawl willingly into my hands, and some, many even, come out for meals when I knock on their front doors to let them know it's dinner time. It's easy to get complacent and not check body condition, weight, etc., once you have a lot of snakes, if you aren't taking them out routinely.
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I can definitely see that with a large number of snakes...or hell even a small collection. We currently only have 3 and feed them in their vivs. We don't have any aggression issues from any of them. We handle them quite a bit before feedings, and after they poop.
 
You'll find that many do this, but others feel it's an unnecessary precaution. I for one have never found this practice to be necessary. My snakes that have been aggressive were that way from the beginning no matter what I did or didn't do and vice versa.

I do however believe that having frequent physical contact with your pet is an excellent practice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It seems there's a divide on whether or not to do it. Anyhow, how would you get them back in the enclosure without encouraging a regurge?
 
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