• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

new owner, shy new snake

E

eloisemidgen

New member
Hey! I'm new to owning a snake, and I'm probably just over-anxious, haha. My baby corn has been with me for two weeks now, and she's still really shy. She only comes out when I'm not around, and she isn't used to me handing her at all yet. I've been handling her about once a day, for a minute or two, and almost every time she freaks out and tries to take off. Am I handling her too much and stressing her out? Or not enough, or should I keep doing this? Haha, I just don't want to psychologically traumatize my first snake. That's no good.

As a sidenote, I dont actually know my snake's gender, but I gave her a pretty feminine name, so to me she is a girl snake.


Thanks!
 
They're a bit flighty when babies, even if it seems like you've had her for long enough to get settled in. She's still very tiny so she still is under the impression that you're going to eat her! Once she realizes that you won't gobble her up, she'll calm down a bit, and once she grows larger and gets used to the idea that she'll get to leave her tank every so often, she'll calm down even more! Handling often is okay as long as you give her 48 hours after feeding to let her digest - I get both of mine out every day for about fifteen to twenty minutes; letting the explore my hands and lap.

Hope this helps and welcome!
 
Don't worry, as I understand it, it takes baby snakes quite a while to get comfortable being handled. I mean, they are pretty tiny! Mine is about 4 months old and he's still fairly shy - I don't see him a whole lot, but I occasionally get a peek at him at night. They're nocturnal so she's probably exploring a bit while you're sleeping.

FWIW, I pretty much only handle my snake when he's getting fed, occasionally I'll take him out to take pictures or give him a once-over to make sure he's in good health or when I'm cleaning his cage out, but other than that I mostly leave him to himself. Handling your snake every day is probably okay, but make sure that if she flails around you don't put her directly back in until she calms down, or she'll learn that this is a good way to get you to leave her alone, the same goes for if she strikes at you. Also make sure you give her a couple days after she eats before handling her again so she can digest.

Anyway, I totally understand your anxiousness! When mine kept freaking out while being held (or when I tried to pick him up for the first...couple of weeks at least) I was honestly worried that he would never like me. :laugh: However over the past month or so I've noticed he's really gotten great about being handled. So my best advice there is just to give her time to get used to you and to being handled. She'll calm down eventually.

PS: I like your username! ;)
 
As previous posters have said, it's mostly an age thing, although both giving her adequate space (not constantly poking around in the cage to see her, moving things around, etc) and handling once or twice a day for 15 minute sessions can give her a sense of security and get her used to being handled, respectively.
 
Although they've been captive bred for generations, Corn Snakes are mainly guided by instinct. In the wild a baby snake would pretty much constantly hide and fear anything bigger than it. That is what your snake is doing.

I'd handle the snake less often. If the snake begins to associate you with the getting of food, it will lose its fear of you. If the snake associates you with being handled (an experience it doesn't like) then it will take longer for it to overcome its fear.

Two weeks is a rather short time to be in a new environment. Give the snake a few months to adapt to its new living situation - chances are it will calm down and be handleable after awhile.

motleycross.jpg
 
eloisemidgen said:
As a sidenote, I dont actually know my snake's gender, but I gave her a pretty feminine name, so to me she is a girl snake.
Click to expand...

same here, lol. at least i'm not the only one!
i don't plan on breeding, so i never really need to know if she's a boy or a girl or not. i dont see the harm, lol. :rolleyes:
 
Sounds simlar with my snake she is about 7 months old and i left her alone for the first few weeks she was with me apart from feeding, changing water etc, just to let her settle in. Then after 3or so weeks i started to handle her 1 or 2 times a day for around 10/15 min. For the first few minutes she would be very jumpy, moving fast trying to get away, then after that she would calm down and start to move more slowly.

She is still jumpy when i first get her out but once she is out a few minutes she calms down. My other snake was exactly the same until she was around a year old and then she got used to it and would even come upto my hand to come out without me having to pick her up.

Just keep holding her everyday and she ' ll eventually calm down
 
My corn was the same way. After about 4 or 5 months though he calmed significantly. When he was a hatchling I'd have to keep a firm hold of him else he'd shoot out of my hands. Now he's just like "whatever" and moves calmly and slowly in my hands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top