My corn snake has made me a wuss. How can I pick him up?

[dannybgoode]

Ps. the worst behavior you can "teach" the snake is behaving nervous around him when he becomes defensive.. if he's taught that you'll leave him alone when he defends himself, then this is what he will do. They learn as they grow up.

I've never found this to be true. I rarely handle my snakes anyway as you know but by and large the adults have become less flighty and defensive as they grow older regardless of how much they were handled as babies.

There's the odd exception but then that tends to be from snakes who as a species tend to be more feisty.

I'm sure it does happen with specific animals but I've never observed it.

To the OP - I'd at it up in a kickass naturalistic enclosure (so easy to do for a corn) and enjoy observing it and creating the best home you can for it and handle it only when necessary. I appreciate not this may not be everyone's idea of what they want from reptile keeping but it's worth at least trying.