Corn Snake Biting?

Hello all,

I have an Okeetee corn who is about 18 inches long, and sometimes he just randomly bites me for no apparent reason. He's well fed, and I always make sure my hands are clean and have no meat scent on them. His bites don't hurt at all (yet), but I'm just not sure why he does this. Any help as to why would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Little corns can be pretty nippy, so I don't think it's that much of an issue. They normally grow out of it.

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Originally Posted by Saxguy101

Hello all,

I have an Okeetee corn who is about 18 inches long, and sometimes he just randomly bites me for no apparent reason. He's well fed, and I always make sure my hands are clean and have no meat scent on them. His bites don't hurt at all (yet), but I'm just not sure why he does this. Any help as to why would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Hi, I know I'm new here so you might think I'm silly for giving you advice, but I've been keeping corns for 6 years now. As said in the post above me, young corns can be nippy, so just keep handling the snake and it'll eventually get used to you. You can also buy a snake hook and pick him out of the cage with it and then handle him outside if you want, although I dont really find snake hooks are really necessary with corns. Perhaps you are feeding him in his enclosure and he is mistaking your hands for food? If so try feeding him in a separate bin. Main point: keep handling him and he should tame quite nicely.:taz:

Yes any baby snake can be a bit nippy but alot of people forget the fact that corns are subspecies of rat snakes, which are some the bitiest snakes. But yes it will calm down as it grows.

If it bites you just keep holding it, dont put it back in its enclosure, that shows that your scared and then it will know if it bites you it will be put down so it will just continue to bite.

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Originally Posted by SnakeWoman

Hi, I know I'm new here so you might think I'm silly for giving you advice, but I've been keeping corns for 6 years now. As said in the post above me, young corns can be nippy, so just keep handling the snake and it'll eventually get used to you. You can also buy a snake hook and pick him out of the cage with it and then handle him outside if you want, although I dont really find snake hooks are really necessary with corns. Perhaps you are feeding him in his enclosure and he is mistaking your hands for food? If so try feeding him in a separate bin. Main point: keep handling him and he should tame quite nicely.:taz:

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I personally feed him in his enclosure because you could also counter that with the statement that when you feed them in a separate enclosure, they start to associate being handled with food. I did kind of figure that it was due to him being young. Thanks for the info.

I don't find the rat snakes around here to be all that nippy. If I pick up a grey, red or yellow in the wild I figure I got about a 80% chance of getting tagged once. Taking a second tag from the same snake is probably more in the 30-40% range. A third tag maybe in the 10-15% range and taking more than 3 hits from the same snake is very rare in my experiences. One of the exceptions being when I'm handling them aggressively(e.g., swimming, climbing, crawling, etc with a freshly nabbed snake in my grasp, giving it an uncomfortably bumpy ride).

Here are some good handling habits that may help tame your snake down a bit more quickly. Don't move fast(especially with limbs/hands approaching the snakes face, keep movements as slow as you can manage), don't hold the snake anywhere near your face where you may inadvertently breathe on it, clean hands before handling. Good luck to you.

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Originally Posted by John1982

I don't find the rat snakes around here to be all that nippy.

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I wish the rats in Jersey were as nice as the ones in Florida...

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Originally Posted by RobNJ

I wish the rats in Jersey were as nice as the ones in Florida...

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Yeah no doubt rob lmao :gj:

I think you just got good luck john lol

Maybe it has something to do with body temperature vs the temperature of surrounding terrain. Makes it easier to mimic a tree branch if you aren't blazing hot in comparison. :)

If you've ever held a wild corn snake you would know that they bite a lot more. Just genetics. ...and it's better than a green tree python.