• 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.

Socializing a Snake?

Sayjoo13

Sayjoo13

New member
I haven't seen a thread about this thus far (maybe I just missed it) and its something I've been curious about... I know you should hold your snake regularly to keep them hand tame and such, but my question is, does a snake get used to only the people that handle him, or all people in general when handled? I'm the only one who holds my snake and I'm wondering if later on down the road, will I be the only person he's ok with holding him? Or will he just generally be ok with people holding him since I do? I just want to know so I can start having my husband and friends hold him too, if needed. He's perfectly fine with me, but seems a little scared of my husband, so I've been wondering about this for a while now haha
 
Oh and also, its not that I don't let my husband and friends hold him now, I would love for them to hold him - they just don't want to hold him haha they're just not interested in him, but if it would be beneficial to keeping him docile with most people that he might not know but that would want to hold him, then I'll have to nag my husbands and friends to start holding him some haha
 
the best way to tame a snake down to other people (someone he doesnt already know)... is for you to hold the snake and let him venture onto the other person, dont force him on someone he doesnt know.. that will stress him out... and you may want to get other people to handle him, so hes not used to your scent only... just like dogs or cats.. if their only used to one person, theyll be scared around other people... your snake should be fine when he gets older with other people... Good Luck! :)
 
How old is this snake?? Corns can be pretty defensive as babies because they are at the stage of life where everything, even a rat, can snack on them. The older and bigger they get, the braver they get about handling strange things. I've noticed a definite change in Wishbone from her going from baby to juvenile. She used to run from anything and to handle her, I had to remove all her hides and chase her down. Now I tap on the glass and she comes out to see what that sound was.

Devon
 
I agree with Devon. Babies are very timid and will strike at anything they perceive as a threat. That covers just about everything. It's bred into them through thousands of years of evolution. They perceive everything as a predator.

I have a snake that we affectionately name Hatlyn. She had the "I KILL YOU" attitude and would strike as if she was really trying to kill you. Meanest little snake you ever met. Today, two years later, she is probably one of the calmest snakes in my collection.

Now, that doesn't mean that she enjoys the handling session. She has just come to realize that giants aren't that bad. Her instincts have been suppressed a little to enough where she can tolerate handling sessions. She is sill a feisty eater though.

Wayne
 
I think they _do_ recognize the usual handler, and can tell a difference. It just depends on the snake whether that upsets them or not.
 
When I let people handle a snake at a fair, most will try to get back to me a bit, some don't care and try to explore unknown people instead, but that's rare.
 
I am the designated snake handler as well. My husband will only hold them if he feels like he has time to wash his hands twenty times afterward. His mother is a nurse so he inherited a germ phobia. The corns have learned to recognize me as terrain, but the ball python will search for his daddy. Doesn't matter how often I pick him up if my husband is in the room he will zero in on him and extend as far as his pudgy body will reach.
 
Thanks for all the info! I thought that's how it would be, but wasn't sure. I've always had cats/dogs/fish and know how they are, but this is my first reptile haha Last time a friend held him, he just seemed a little "flighty" but not too much. I think I will try to get other people to hold him every once and a while just so he stays ok with other people handling him, but not too often as to not stress him out.

My husband doesn't really have a germ phobia of him or anything... he just thinks snakes are boring... I don't see how anyone could possibly think that! haha I think my snake recognizes me, because he's getting more and more calm and less timid, but I want him to be ok with people in general if I can get him to do that! You guys have been a great help! I appreciate the feedback! :)
 
My oldest son dropped Zar the snow when I was cleaning out his tank. Do be careful when handing over your snake.
 
I really think that snakes can tell the difference between folks, most likely by scent, and one of my snakes is quite picky about who handles her.
 
A bit late to the party, but as someone who recently started taking her snakes to outreaches, where they meet a lot of new humans and spend a *lot* of time being poked at by children, I thought I might share my opinions anyway.

At least some snakes *definitely* recognize their owner. The calmest, most outreach-awesome snake I know, an adult carpet python, is perfectly happy falling asleep around a stranger's neck while random people stroke her, but at the end of the day she slithers with incredible rapidity back on to her human. My larger carpet girl is my current outreach staple, because she's big enough not to be as spooky as my littler guys. I definitely notice that she's much shyer about some people than others. There was a perfectly nice-seeming girl at one outreach who really wanted to hold her, but Zillah was having none of it. Eventually I managed to get her off of me and on to the girl, but it was a great deal more work than usual. And she does tend to try to come back to me when people she finds more threatening are about.

My little corns seem to go based on general calmness more than anything. While my friends occasionally come over and hang out with them, most of the time I'm the only person who holds them, and they're perfectly cool with other people when other people do show up. Since they're still yearlings they haven't had to do marathon outreach sessions like my carpets, so I don't know how they would react to being more stressed. But based on them, it seems to me that the most important thing in socializing corns is just that *someone* holds them. More people wouldn't hurt, but I think all it really takes is you.
 
UPDATE: Since reading all the responses, I have since had my husband and a friend hold Lestat. I let him climb on them when he was ready and he did really well and wasn't flighty at all these last few times! =] Thanks for all the help!
 
hey guys I'm new and have just gotten a corn snake from a guy I met at my job. The snake is really mean, like he wants to be a rattle snake, and hisses and bites everyone. I think there was a history of abuse. Is there anything I can do to one day handle him or not ever?
 
Zar is my avatar. He's a double recessive anery amel. He was fine from his ordeal. I wouldn't let my son hold him for a long time afterwards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top