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His as friendly as a rattle snake, So how should i handle him!

darkmorning1

darkmorning1

New member
JERKIE!
The name says it all, i got this guy and when i unpacked him he was Freezing cold and a little jumpy but ok to handle. After he warmed up as soon as he saw me coming his tail was rattling and he was spinning around....:awcrap: <was basically my face..Because i was told he was a good tempered snake......well so i opened the lid and as soon as i did he flew out. i grabbed him he was tossing and thrashing around then he tried biting my other arm. and trying to get him back in his bin was NO FUN! :crying: and now as soon as he sees someone or i pull out his bin he FREAKS.


i mailed the dealer, and he said "oh yeah him my wife remembers him he can be nasty" :eek1: When if i would have known this i wouldn't have bought him! i was told he was nice.....$150 bucks bought me pissed off cornsnake...so i have to deal with that. and am DEATHLY scared of mean tempered snakes! :crying:


Am going to get bite, and i never have before....will i survive?

how the heck do i handle him??! AND will it help? because the breeder said his been like that since a baby? :nope:


Any stories,comments, photos of bites would help...and ideas on how to pick up this guy would be helpful! this is him...

jerkie.jpg


jerkie2.jpg




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Get a little hook, and a wussy glove. Let him repeatedly nail the wussy glove, and don't put him down until he stops being such a butt head.
 
Part of me thinks, "Are you serious?" You own snakes, you know they can bite, and you're terrified of that possibility?

I understand its scary. No one enjoys being bitten. It hurts a little, less than a cat scratch if you ask me. You'll live. Its going to happen sometimes in your snake owning career, you should get used to it. Of the more energetic snakes I own, I wear gloves because I don't like them to bite me. Its ok to wear gloves when handling him. He may settle down, he's just been through a very stressful ordeal being shipped. Give him a few weeks if need be before handling again. Stay calm.

If the seller completely misrepresented the animal as friendly and easy to handle, then they need to compensate you, either ship the snake back and they can refund your money or they need to refund part of it regardless.

If you really don't like that this snake is flighty and bitey, sell him to someone else. That's another option.

You'll be fine!
 
Well, search on "bite club". Seems like lots of people have been tagged. I have only been tagged by Attitude who is an 09 & therefore small, but it doesn't hurt very much. Attitude's teeth are very sharp & small so I bleed but it doesn't really hurt. I figure sooner or later I will get tagged by an adult, but compared to human, dog & cat bites cornsnake bites don't worry me much.

I don't know enough to give good suggestions on how to handle Jerikie, except maybe using a hook to get him out of the viv. He is a very pretty Jerkie by the way!
 
Well, just remember- you need him for his genes!! It's okay to have a snake that just wants to be left alone. If you have enough, they don't all need to be pets.

I'd let him settle in. Let him relax, get used to your routine. He was probably never handled at all. My Bacon snake is like that- grew up to be a breeder, was only handled so he could go do his thing, had no experience with people that wanted to cuddle. He doesn't _like_ being handled, so I don't force myself on him. He isn't afraid of me, and knows what to expect, and I don't surprise him, and he doesn't bite.

If you're determined to "tame" Jerky (love the name) then let him settle in, get used to you, maybe after a few weeks just take him out, sit down, watch a TV show with him. he'll figure out that you don't have any evil intentions. After the initial settling in, I'd handle him, but try to keep him quiet and calm rather than running through your hands, for longer periods of time so he has long enough to get bored and figure out A. he isn't going to get put back if he gets all wild and B. you aren't going to do anything more unpleasant than just removing him from his home.

You might get bit by Jerky. You will survive. You will wonder why you were ever afraid of being bit by a cornsnake.
 
Something I want to add. You can take the "meanest" wild snake, like a big yellow rat or a garter or whatever. (Not a black racer- they never get tame!!) It's crazy defensive and biting and musking when you first catch it, but if you handle it for a while, take some pictures, pass it around to your friends, eventually it resigns itself to the fact that biting isn't working, and soon is very pleasant and relaxed. You cannot hold a snake that wants to bite right behind the head, they really, really, really hate this and it does nothing to allow them to learn to trust you.
 
Bites don't hurt off cornsnakes... little cornsnake bites hurt less...
Try wearing the bites as a badge of honour and show them off to your friends...
I'll bet they won't have any to show off... LOL
 
You could send him to me.............I'd take a bit of lively behaviour from a corn as handsome as that any day!
 
Am determined to do this! however today when i opened the lid and i was getting the look like "I dare you" from him, my boyfriend (which is deathly scared of any snakes) comes in with gloves and picked him up. i was impressed! and jerkie was trashing around and his hemipenes where showing (was he trying to musk?) He held him for only a few moments but its a start, Am going to wise up and learn...uhh! have to start somewhere been dealing with corn snakes since 2007! Its about time i learn to deal with bites.
 
Perfect snake for getting rid of those people you don't want banging on your door! Like overly judgemental relatives, holy rollers, nosy neighbors, salesmen and such. Try & find the silver lining. He may be useful for things OTHER than cuddleing!;)

Devon
 
LOL Pal-O-mine, i like the way you think, thank you Oh thank you for the WONDERFUL idea, Once i get used to handling him lol his going to be going on trips with me downstairs. i know a few people that would LOVE to see him..... around 4 am when there having another Stupid party down stairs and they dont wanna turn off the music....there scared of worms Let alone a pissed snake... Haha good idea.
 
It's been suggested to just let the snake alone to settle in. Don't be in such a rush to handle him. If I understand this correctly, you just got your snake shipment a few days ago. You should just let the snake acclimatize to its new surroundings for at least a week and then start trying to handle. Wear gloves if you're afraid of been bit. If you read the sellers add, then you know these are breeders he was selling off. And if you know about the breeder, then you can probably understand he has so many snakes he doesn't possibly have time to handle all of his collection. What you did get from this breeder is solid genetics and a very nice representation of the morph. That's more what I look for when I buy snakes. Sometimes handling just isn't in the cards.
 
For what it's worth, I've been bit by a large (5 or 6 feet?) wild snake and it doesn't really hurt (but the musk wasn't pleasant!). Cat scratches are worse!
 
I wanted to add my four cents.

First, in my opinion, getting musked is worse than being bitten. At least bites don't smell. :awcrap:

Second, my snake Grrr is over five feet (I'm still trying to decide if he's a "monster" snake or not) and he has this uncanny habit of dragging his teeth across your arm or hand when he's exploring you. That hurts and it itches for days afterward.

Third, I have two jumpy snakes that do the "oh look! It moved. Is it food?" head jerk. One rattles at me all the time and came from a breeder. He doesn't seem like he was held much and after the mite treatments, I'll be holding him a lot more. He likes to musk too. The other one just plain doesn't like me. He will strike me every chance he gets but he is nice to my ex-roommate. Go figure huh?

Last, I am terrified of being bitten by my ball pythons. I don't know how long their teeth are and I've never been bitten. They're '09s and still tiny. I keep imagining the teeth one of my favorite snake breeders pulled out of his knuckle. He was bitten by a green tree python and he said it took several months for this tooth to work its way out. I can't even imagine!

Anyway, my four cents and stories.
 
His male parts were showing? How old is this guy? Maybe he was going crazy trying to breed you?? Has he eaten for you? Is he active in his home enclosure? Sounds like an overly hormonal teen to me lol!
 
Sweetseraph said:
For what it's worth, I've been bit by a large (5 or 6 feet?) wild snake and it doesn't really hurt (but the musk wasn't pleasant!). Cat scratches are worse!
Click to expand...

Having lived with cats all my life I have been desensitized to scratches, I got tagged by a baby sandboa who held on and shook like a mad dog with a bone! Now that was painful! It would have seemed fair to me if the buggar had lost a tooth but no! Honest the only thing I have experienced worse than that was being stepped on by a horse. On the subject or corns I have yet to get tagged by any young or old. I know its coming though!
 
I've had corn snakes for 4 years, and never been bitten. I'm a teacher, and have brought them to school for the kids to handle because i wasn't concerned about biting. After reading these posts, I'm wondering if I've just been lucky. Is it safe to assume that a corn snake you've had a while and has never bitten will never bite?

Also...I just adopted 2 corn snakes from a reptile rescue and their sex is unknown. Any tips for sexing corns ( 1 baby and 1 adult) without being "intrusive"?
 
My snakes rattle all the time! Especially if they are in their vivs, and I touch them, (adults the most) or in their feeding bins (babies the most, but adults frequently, too).

Many species of snakes rattle their tails. Rattlesnakes just took it a step further and developed special scales that rattle really loudly. They evolved in this manner when they moved away from the safety of swamps and out to the prairies where there were lots of rodents and birds, but huge hooved animals that could kill them by stepping on them. Other slimmer snakes could easily run away, but the heavy-bodied rattlers needed an audible warning since they weren't so limber.
 
robinaofwinona said:
I've had corn snakes for 4 years, and never been bitten. I'm a teacher, and have brought them to school for the kids to handle because i wasn't concerned about biting. After reading these posts, I'm wondering if I've just been lucky. Is it safe to assume that a corn snake you've had a while and has never bitten will never bite?

Also...I just adopted 2 corn snakes from a reptile rescue and their sex is unknown. Any tips for sexing corns ( 1 baby and 1 adult) without being "intrusive"?
Click to expand...

1. Anything with teeth CAN bite so never assume they won't ever. A gentle animal will lash out when in pain or very scared. So you never know.

2. Saddly sexing corns has to be intrusive to a point, because their parts are internal with no outward clues that are conclusive. Popping in under 18 inch babies is only so-so for acuracy, do it wrong and that male pops as a female. From what I am coming to understand genetic testin for genders like with birds or probing are the only way to know for sure. Its cheaper and faster to probe. Its take a bit for my thick head to let that info in lol!

robinaofwinona said:
What do ya'll mean by "rattling"? I've never heard my corn snakes rattle, I don't think.
Click to expand...

With corns the term rattling is in refference to them shaking their tail very very fast. If there were in grass doing this it would make a sound similar to a rattlesnake, its duller in most substrates used in vivs but still gets the idea across. A scared or anoyed snake will do it as a warning to keep you away. I ignore it and pick them up anyway. There is always the chance some thing may be wrong so I want to look them over. Especially if a particular snake had not rattled at me before.
 
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