Hnadling too much?

[tyflier]

I'm what you call a "cornsnake n00b", and as such, I have a question regarding the handlnig of my new snake.

I have had him(I assume it's a him...I could be wrong ) for about 5 or 6 days. He ate very well for me on the 3rd night that i had him, took a thawed pinkie without much hesitation, and he appears to be very active and healthy, going back and forth between the "hot" and "cold" sides of his tank thermo-regulating, drinking from his water dish, using both of his hides(warm and cool), being "active" by exploring his cage and "checking things out"...all the things I assume are fairly normal behavior for a young corn in a new cage.

He has never struck at me, and very rarely curls into the "S" position when I reach into his cage. I handle him every day, in fact, a few times a day. I just enjoy letting him crawl around on my hands and arms. When I take him from his cage, he is very still for a couple minutes, and then goes about his business, checking out my arms, and crawling around, going from hand to hand, crawling up my arm...

The point is...is it bad to handle him this frequently? As I said, to my untrained eye, it doesnt appear to bother him. He doesn't "run" from me when i reach in his cage. He doesn't strike at me, and doesnt get very defensive when I go to grab him, so to an untrained eye, this much handling doesn't appear to bother him at all. But is it unhealthy to handle him as frequently as I do?

As I said, I am not very experienced, and I just enjoy handling him. I just want to make sure that I am not causing issues that could be avoided with less handling. The main reason I handle him so much is because I have a young daughter that is dying for me to let her hold him, and I just want him to get used to being handled, so that this can happen in the future. She is currently only allowed to pet him softly on his back when I am holding him.

Anyhow...any suggestions as to if I am doing OK, or if I should handle him less? Should I let him decide if he is being handled too much?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[Roy Munson]

There are different opinions on this. If you're properly caring for a hatchling, there really aren't that many handling opportunities anyway. You should be feeding him every 5-6 days, and giving him a 2-3 break from handling after feeding. Until a hatchling is a well-established feeder, I wouldn't recommend handling much on feeding day. This only gives you a solid day or two to handle. On these days, I wouldn't recommend more than two handling sessions of about 30 minutes (or less). As hatchlings, corns are probably more prone to stress than any other time in their lives. Since you've only fed him once, you really don't know if you're stressing him out or not.

In short, I'd limit handling for a couple of months until the snake is better established.

 

[DogStar5988]

I know how hard it is not to over handle, I also just got my corn hatchling and its pretty hard to not break the rules as far as handling goes. But it really is the best thing for them even if they seem ok, if they regurge because of too much handling it could make things much harder for you and your snake.