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Reasonable Handling?

plasticknives

plasticknives

the bee's knees: all six
I just got my first cornsnake last Thursday afternoon. She's a three month old normal and is GORGEOUS.

I have handled her three times since then, twice saturday for about 7-8 minutes each time, and once this morning, while I changed her water.

She's a sweetheart- active, curious, very calm and gentle.

I plan to attempt to feed her a small pinkie Tuesday, and then leave her until the sunday after, feed her 2 small pinks on sunday, and then leave her for a week, to avoid regurge.


the only problem is- I want to handle her every time i look at her, and soo do all my roomies and friends. I keep saying no because she's new and I don't want stress to cause a regurge.

I'd rather make sure that she is established on a good routine feeding schedule with no problems right now.


HOWEVER. I'm wondering, once she IS eating well and all settled in, how much handling is appropriate? How many successful feedings should I wait until I can take her out regularly? How often do you take your corns out, and how do they handle it?
 
I would see how the first feeding Tuesday goes. Does she eat quickly, right away, not care if you are watching her? Or is she more reclusive, want to be covered before she eats, want to be left alone with the pink for several hours?

If she eats quickly and easily, I see no problem with handling her two to three days later. I personally wait 48 hours before handling. Waiting five to seven days is quite long. But if she is a more difficult feeder, then it would not hurt to give her more time to settle in.

It sounds like you will be feeding on a five day schedule. So you'll feed Tuesday, let her rest till Thursday or Friday, only have two or three days to handle her, then feed Sunday, and so on.

I would handle her 15-30 minutes, but once a day only, and not let all my friends handle her. If she is handling calmly, not flailing about, but exploring curiously or sitting quietly in your hands, I would gradually increase the amount of time you handle her.

I only have one snake that I take out more than once a day, sometimes, and that is because she is just _always_ out, never hiding, and so is easy to get out for a few minutes at a time.

Nanci
 
You only need to leave them 48 hours after they eat, after that it's fully digested so there's no change of a regurge.

I got my corn about a month ago. I handled her for the first time 4 days after she moved in. I handle her every day for about 15 minutes, unless she's eaten the day before. At first all she did was try to get away from me, but now she winds around my hand and nudges my fingers to get her head through. She'd stopped trying to get away from my hand when I put it in the viv after about a week. Handling doesn't seem to stress her at all anymore - at first she hid away as soon as I put her back, now she roams around for a while.

However some people consider it too stressful to handle snakes every day. I suppose it depends on the snake. I'd say don't handle her more than once a day to give her some sense of security (i.e. after she's been handled, she has a break before it happens again) and maybe don't let other people handle her because she won't know their smell at all and it might scare her. Plus, you want her to be comfortable with you first, right?
 
Personally, to get a good feeding regime established, I've found that handling twice a week to put the snake in the feeding tub has worked best for hatchlings. I handle all my snakes around once or twice a week, which is probably easier as I've got a few now. I think it's best to regard handlng as potentially stressful for the first year at least, and totally secondary in importance to feeding. My bigger snakes (18 months - 2years old)get fed on 10 day intervals now, so they do get handling just for my benefit, and my excuse is to check them over and give them some exercise.
This is just my personal opinion, other people handle their corns more, but it's your call for your own snake.
 
She seems not to mind being handled at all, she doesn't even go into her hides after i place her back in her tank... she usually explores a bunch more after, climbs around on her branches and things.

a week IS a while, i just want to avoid any feeding problems if possible!

does the feeding schedule sound about right? I wanted to try her on one pink, just to make sure she takes them, and then get her onto a 2 pinks, once a week schedule.

Here's a picture, as I find that threads sans photos are inferior to threads with visual aids.


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Again, it's your choice, but for me 1 pink every 5 days works well, rather than a larger meal once a week
 
I'd like to go off topic and state that that is the coolest looking normal hatchling I've ever seen.

I handle my hatchling once a day for 30-45 minutes, giving him three days to fully digest his meals and I do not handle very often if at all during blue phase.
 
LOL Jake......I was thinking the same thing!!!!!!! The belly is just as beautiful!!!!! The colors are extremely vibrant!

I would not let friends handle your snake just yet. Let him/her get used to you as the primary caregiver. Introduce a friend or two slowly but not until a good feeding pattern has been established and you know that your snake feels comfortable with you.

Markey is my son's four year old corn but she prefers me. I think it's because I do most of her care. She knows me the best and will make her way back to me no matter who has her. I love it but I never let on to my son that she prefers me.

Now that Markey is older, Parker wants to handle her more and more. I see nothing wrong with it as long as Markey seems to tolerate it well. I think once you get to know your snake, you will learn what his/her likes and dislikes are.

Best of luck. Congrats!!!! Beautiful snake......
 
thanks guys! i think she's beautiful too. :p

what do you think of the pattern on her head? I think it's the neatest - I chose her over a couple of bright orange amel's because of it!

and i think i will try 1 pink every 5 days or so as a feeding schedule.

all this response is great, I guess i always wondered how often other people actually took their snakes out for "excersize" , it's nice to finally get an idea

its just that you always see pictures of the snakes when they're out and about- i figured it must give a skewed view of how often they are actually handled.
 
I think the pattern on her head is cool. Markey has the same pattern. She is an albino.
Markey normally resides in a 260 gallon cage but is currently being housed in a 20 gallon aquarium. We want to make sure she stays healthy before returning to her condo.
Markey loves hanging out with us. She is handled frequently and I believe that is why she is so calm.
 
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