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One pissed off corn snake

How many corn snakes do you have?

  • 1

    Votes: 251 45.5%

  • 2-4

    Votes: 149 27.0%

  • 5-8

    Votes: 46 8.3%

  • 8-more

    Votes: 106 19.2%
  • Total voters
    552
Sometimes one of my males is upset, when I try to put my hand in his cage. Then I put my hand down on the ground an move slowly. I'm noiseful with that hand so he nows I'm coming. When I reach him, I put my hand gently on him and if necessary I take him out. Looks like he's afraid when a hand comes from above.
So I try to come from the side.
 
Hallo,

How are your snake now? still so junpy. When I have my first baby corn, out of good heart, I also get right away a 80 gal. tank but after twe months I found it is more easy to have a smaller tank vor a baby, for it is easy to pick him up without stressing him in order to chase after him with your hand in a big tank.

So I got him a 15 gal. tank and buy myself a sub-adult for the big one ;) . Plus on top of that I never pick up my snake, I always place the tank next to me whenever I want him to be out. I open the tank top, and wait till he himself climb up to the top and wanting to get out, then I place my hand next to the tank and he climb onto my hand right away. Maybe you should try my mathod, maybe this he will get use to you and find that you are a mean for him to comes out of his encloser.

Good luck
 
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dude, theres a few things that could be happening, one is you may not be feeding him enough, dont forget they grow and need more when they get bigger(i know ur not stupid) another thing is maybe theres shedded skin over his eyes to where he cant see whos there and hes just acting out of instinct. thats probably what it is. you should take him to a vet immediately to get him checked out. thanks bye:p
 
Reading all of the questions and feedback on this thread definitely relieved me quite a bit. One of my two corns definitely does not like me right now, but I guess if I employ everything I have learned here, that hopefully she will gradually begin to like me :) I am still definitely skittish.. probably more so than the snakes, since the female tried to bite me! hah
 
The one thing that strikes me is that you have a small snake in a huge viv.Snakes like to feel secure, so it may not feel secure in such a large space. They can get stressed out in sich circumstances and stop eating.
A lot of people use small vivs when they are so young and increase the size of the viv as the snake grows.
 
Ok I didnt have much time when I posted that last post and I have a bit to add.
Anything you can do to help make youre snake feel more secure might just help a bit and certainly shouldnt have any detrimental effects.
If it was my snake, I would place it in a smaller viv( maybe within the large one). I would cover 3 sides of its viv with dark card to help it feel more secure.I would make sure the viv isnt situated in a high traffic/draughty or hot area, just give it somewhere peaceful.

I wouldnt handle it much for a few weeks, giving it time to settle down a bit.I would handle it only during cleaning its viv initially, building up handling times to last longer, then increasing frequency.
If you are getting it out of its viv to feed it only then I would personally transefer it to its feeding area before you get its food out to defrost(assuming you use defrost), so reducing the chances that it will attack because it smells food.
I would follow all the advice on handling slowly but deliberately. I certainly wouldnt go getting the poor already stressed snake out of its viv daily just so I could have the pleasure of handling it. Give it a chance, try to determine the reason it might be stressed and work on that.
Best of luck and keep us posted.
Angi
 
i have one snake that will let you do anything you want to in the tank and it just slithers off to the opposite ends, but if you go to pick her up the tail goes and so does the head, straight for you!!! so i guess i can just live with her as she is quite nice to look at and active most the time. i also have 7 others that are real docile, and ive just aquired a pair of cali kings that aint been handled ever theyre 4 now so its like dealing with a 4.5 foot hatchling lol
 
susyq said:
i have one snake that will let you do anything you want to in the tank and it just slithers off to the opposite ends, but if you go to pick her up the tail goes and so does the head, straight for you!!! so i guess i can just live with her as she is quite nice to look at and active most the time. i also have 7 others that are real docile, and ive just aquired a pair of cali kings that aint been handled ever theyre 4 now so its like dealing with a 4.5 foot hatchling lol
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oh and the other thing all mine spend most their time in the cool end of the tank, except when they go swimming in their water bowls!!!!!
 
Hatchling that rattles as well

My snake is typically skittish as well (my corn). Typically it is when I am taking him out with little or no light on in the room (which I have tried to stop doing, but its hard at night when you only have so much light in the room I keep him in). Anywayz he would get in his defensive and threaten to strike but wouldnt. He does rattle his tail against the astroturf a bit sometimes during those times but once you nudge him and stuff and slowly move around him he gets comfortable and allows you to handle him. Once being handled he's great and as mellow as could be. I think just as youngsters they need time to get used to you. Another thing may be he is associating your hand being in as feeding time. Do you feed him outside the cage? If you do not (I feed mine inside his cage) what I find useful is to use tongs to put his pinkies in and make sure I have as little of my hand as possible in the cage so he associates hand with being held and tongs with food. Other than that it will prob just take time from what I've read in here and talked to reps at petco about when purchasing.
 
RedRaydin said:
My snake is typically skittish as well (my corn). Typically it is when I am taking him out with little or no light on in the room (which I have tried to stop doing, but its hard at night when you only have so much light in the room I keep him in). Anywayz he would get in his defensive and threaten to strike but wouldnt. He does rattle his tail against the astroturf a bit sometimes during those times but once you nudge him and stuff and slowly move around him he gets comfortable and allows you to handle him. Once being handled he's great and as mellow as could be. I think just as youngsters they need time to get used to you. Another thing may be he is associating your hand being in as feeding time. Do you feed him outside the cage? If you do not (I feed mine inside his cage) what I find useful is to use tongs to put his pinkies in and make sure I have as little of my hand as possible in the cage so he associates hand with being held and tongs with food. Other than that it will prob just take time from what I've read in here and talked to reps at petco about when purchasing.
Click to expand...
Decent advice, but the original poster started this thread three and a half years ago... That snake probably escaped three years ago, and was replaced by a leopard gecko. :grin01:
 
search tool ... same way I found it.

My corn does this aswell.. but it's possibly that I've fed him every time from my hand now... I'll try and get the tongs in future.
 
One different method of picking up your corn, that worked for me and my snake when he was aggressive as a hatchling is to:-
1. remove the hide, hopefully seeing the snake all curled up
2. Next place your hand confidently palm down onto the snake whilst it is still coiled (carefull only to apply light pressure, not pushing him into the substrate) just enough so he feels in a secure, darker (if youve covered the head too), small space. This makes corns feel more relaxed
3. The difficult bit is after your corn looks calm and hasnt moved for a few seconds remove your hand and without taking it away from the snake pick up a third of the way down the body, because yours is a hatchling you can pick up using one hand, i used to get my corn between two fingers as far underneath as possible, before quickly as i raised it from the ground added more support.

Hope this helps. Also when handling be a little careful when introducing your other hand. I know this might sound stupid but if you move your hand holding the snake to your other empty hand which remains still the corn will react far more calmly than if you keep the snake still and the move your hand towards the snake.
Think its got something to do with aggression. A big looming hand is bound to be intimidating if forced on you, but if it feels like its approaching the hand...
Dont know why that is, but it works with passing the snake to other people when your holding it.
Hope these little methods work for you they did for me. Please keep me informed!
 
Help with it

dhs545 said:
My snake is a very violent snake. Ever since he bit me he has never been the same. He never seems content when i try to handle him. When i do try to handle him he tries to squirm out of my hand and fall to the floor where he runs under my bed and quickly gets into his defensive position. Every time I try to get it out of its tank it cocks its head back ready to strike my hand at any moment. But recently i managed to piss off my snake really bad. It was feeding day for my snake, so i picked up the rock he hides under and tried to pick him up to get him to his separate tank with newspaper. But before i could pick him up he managed to get into strike position. I took a pencil to try to pick him up from underneath his body rather than my hand. He started to run but i managed to get him on to the snake and into his other tank. As soon as he got into the other tank he struck at the glass(most likely going for my hand). He then cocked his head back again, and started to rattle his tail just like a rattlesnake. Now i know he cant actually rattle his tail, but his tail was moving so quickly against the newspaper, that it sounded just like a rattlesnake. I have never seen this behavior in my snake. Is this normal for all newborn snakes? How do i get my snake to become more comfortable. Is there a proper way to pick up my snake, because it seems that when i use my finger to scoop up under his body it seems to startle him. If i cant use my hands to pick up my snake what should i use? I appreciate any advice or comments.
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We just got my cornsnake not too long ago. The expert told us that if it starts to show aggression then you can start by showing it comfort. When you get it out of its cage, pick it up with a towel gently. I hope that helps you. Well, GOOD LUCK!!!!! :shrugs:
 
I think this is one of those threads that will be brought up for the next 10 years with more advice for the original poster.
 
Hah, i wonder after 4 years his "hatchling" which now should be fully grown, still strikes n bites ;[ update! :grin01: justtt kidding.
 
All my threads die after one or two days, but this guy has staying power. He hasn't even had to post since 05-25-2003. :grin01:
 
So are you guys saying.........

Cornsnakes are a lot like boy friends, unpredictable and sometimes bite? And even after years of training, it doesn't stop?

I haven't been on in awhile what are the silver coins with the snake near your avatars about?
 
hi guys i thought id chip in with some info about my newly aquired snake who i have called Dezmond.
Hes really lovely, but as hes a hatchling and in a new home and has been hiding a lot. It is the fourth day of owning him now and for the past two days he has been adventuring out of his hide quite a lot (which i am really pleased with as this can only be a good thing). However sometimes if he sees me enter the room when i chek on him, he doesnt run but he deffinately doesnt seem as relaxed. Also he may go back into his hide within the first 5 minuted of me doin there. After reading all the GREAT info that people have been posting on theis particulare page for YEARS lol i have come to realize that this behaviour is normal?? Does this sound correct dudes??
Also, i have not handled him today, the last few days before i did get him out to handle (which i now know i should not have done) and he pooped while i was handling him. If i leeve him alone for a few days and then come to handle him...will he be less likely to poop when i get him??
He is feeding well and is due for a meal in 3 days. Should i try and not handle him until then or get him out say....the day or two before??
Im sure you guys are sick of answering questions like this but it is properly appreciated.
thanks a lot dudes.
 
Not sick at all of questions. How long have you had him? If only a week or so and had been handling him in the beginning I'd let him settle for 3 or so days before handling again. I'd hold off on handling him at all other then to put him in his feeding tub until 2 or 3 days after he's fed. You want to make sure whatever lump is in his belly is gone before you decide to handle. Also know they will poo about 3 days after feeding , so your very apt to be poo'd on if you handle him then. Good luck with you guy.
 
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