Humanivore cornsnake....

[askaboutrep]

I have yearling cornsnake who has recently taking to trying to eat me.
He calmly curls around my fingers like all the others, and then, takes a big bite. I dont think he is scared of me. He finally will figure out that there is no way to swallow my hand, and then he moves to another spot and tries again!! He keeps doing this again and again until I finally put him back down. There is no scent of mice nearby, and he bites when he is so full he can barely move.
Trying more handling only seems to give him more opportunities to bite me more.......
It was cute at first....but now he's getting bigger, and its starting to actually draw blood and hurt.
HELP! How do I get him to stop eating me!

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by askaboutrep
and he bites when he is so full he can barely move.
Okay, well this suggests that the snake is biting after you feed him. I can elicit a bite from any one of my most docile snakes if I mess with them just after feeding (regardless of whether or not I smell like a mouse, they're in feeding mode and will try to consume anything with a pulse). So, if this is the case, that he is biting you after he feeds, then your answer is simply this: don't handle him after feeding.
Ryan

[askaboutrep]

Somebody had suggested to me that he might just be hungry....as you know, snakes will take awhile to digest, I do not need to pick him in order to get a bite. I mentioned that to avoid any responses telling me he is hungry.
My point is.....he bites me all the time.

[marisa]

How long have you had this snake and how old is the snake?


Marisa

[askaboutrep]

He is one that I hatched. He is about a year old. All of the snakes from that batch are very healthy, and he is the only one that bites, yet he isnt snapping at me out of self defense.

[marisa]

"yet he isnt snapping at me out of self defense."

Why do you say that? All snakes bite out of self defense. Above you said "its not because he is hungry" and now you say its not self defense.

Snakes don't just bite because they are mean.

He is just mroe spirited than the others. Some are like that. Naturally, they should all be like that constantly. It's a wonder and a privledge how calm most are, not a right. When you come across one like that, just have fun! lol :D

I would simply keep handling and know that that particular snake has a bad attitude, because if you are handling a lot, there is no way to force him to stop.

:) Good luck!

Marisa

[Simon]

I have got a couple that are like that too
its just a natural thing.

Some will just try to swallow everything in front of it.
There is basically nothing much that you can do to 'teach' it not to do it anymore.

Its just the characteristic of that individual snake.
Try handling it with a glove, maybe after a few bites of the glove it will finally learn that glove doesn't taste good~~

[askaboutrep]

I would have thought by now that he might have figured out that he cant swallow a human. I will try the glove thing. Hopefully that doesnt mean I would have to wear gloves everytime I handle him for the rest of his life.

[marisa]

Well you know some snakes are like that. Even species with a reputation of being calm.

I have a large adult female corn who doesn't bite but no matter how much she is around us she obviously doesn't enjoy handling. Just her personality. :D

Marisa

[askaboutrep]

Thats the weird thing, because this snake is completely calm. Even in biting me, still calm. Unless I try and pull him away, then he tries to constrict my hand.

[liltattyprinces]

My son has a miami corn snake that has always bitten people. No amount of gentle handling has calmed him and even using a glove he still bites. We have just come to acccept that, that is the way he is. Yours may be the same or he could in time grow out of it, it's just a matter of waiting to see.

Laura-Lee L

[askaboutrep]

He is calm, always been calm. Please quit trying to tell me that some snakes are naturally restless. He is not a mean snake. Picture a snake yawning, thats how fast he bites me.

[marisa]

No one said he was MEAN. In fact its quite the opposite.

You are saying he bites, but then you say he is calm.

I know what you mean. He simply looks at your hand, then bites.

It doesn't change the fact some snakes are naturally like that. It's NORMAL.

Marisa

[vanderkm]

The calm deliberate bite you describe is very suggestive of a feeding response. Even if you think he is well fed, it sounds to me as if he is reponding to your hand as if it were prey, so he would be reacting out of a desire to feed. Even without the smell of prey, the warmth and movement of your hand or fingers can be stimulating enough to some snakes to cause this.

Gloves may really help, not only to prevent him from drawing blood but also to drop the temperature of your hands as they will block heat radiating from them. You might also try washing your hands in cold water before picking him up. Keep handling sessions short so your hands don't warm up too much - once he becomes used to being handled and knows it is very different from being fed, he may stop the behaviour.

While you don't want to use anything on your hands that would be toxic to him, you could rinse your hands with something like lemon juice or even hand sanitizer (Purel) to disrupt your scent just before handling him.

You might also want to consider whether you have conditioned him to associate human scent with his prey items - if you handle the mouse a lot before giving it to him (like to dry off wet prey) or offer it with your hands, the human scent may be what he recognizes as prey - so maybe try to avoid handling the rodents you do offer to him.

Interesting that there is so much variability in personality in these guys! Good luck with him,

mary v.

[askaboutrep]

Thanks mary, thats a good point. I typically offer the mouse with my hand, and am aware that snakes may associate you with feeding. I guess this snake just got confused which is which. I try to handle him often, without offering mice, but thats not seeming to work.
With other snakes, I just put in my fist, and they sniff, and go "ok, not food", and then I can pick them up to put them back in their big tank.
I really didnt want to worry about wearing gloves forever, so, I will try that for awhile, and then try the lemon juice, or cold water once he figures out the glove thing.

[paulsreef]

Wear a t-shirt all day. Get it nice and sweaty. Put it in the enclosure. I doubt that it will eat your t-shirt, but it will get used to your scent. He won't associate your scent with feeding if he smells it all day. If you've got bad B.O. then expect to be bitten hard.LOL. Paul.

[Linds]

Some Rosy Boas are quite fond of this slow and deliberate attempt to eat people. I honestly don't think there is much you can do except deal with it. I mean you can't -make- them change, right? I don't handle my one girl, and whenever I have to, I just don't take my eyes off her, and give her a flick everytime I see her zeroing in on me (lol which is anywhere from every 10-30 seconds) :p

[rockney]

Well if he is only a year old he may grow out if it. When snakes are young they tend to be more nippy then adults , with handling and time he may very well just figure it out .

[rwg]

Yeah, younger snakes tend to be nippier, but this is not the description of a nippy snake. This is a feeding behavior short and simple. I've seen it a lot in cal kings, but never quite this strong in a corn. With our cal king, we did two things. One was not letting it bite when we could see it coming. Reposition the snake if you see it about to feed on you. The second was forcing the snake to release when it latched on. We used warm (not hot) running water on the head, and she let go almost immediately. We still cant handle her for more than a minute or two when she is hungry, but she no longer tries to eat us when she shouldn't be hungry. I have no idea if she was conditioned by our counter-measures or if she simply grew out of it.

I have worked with an albino cal-king that never grew out of it. He tried to eat pretty much everyone who ever handled him. Nobody handles him except when necessary anymore, and when they do, they use caution. Sure it's only a cal-king, but it's a royal pain to put up with.

Roy