aggressive corn

[Geography Guy]

My aggressive corn hasn't got any better. I tryed to feed him a larger mouse but he refuses anything larger then what I feed him now. Why is he still aggressive then if he isn't hungry?

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Can you give more details on the situation? :?

 

[pharaoh2653]

do u feed him in the cage or take him out to feed?

 

[Midnightrdr456]

im not so sure on how much that affects the snake, i have fed both my corn and kings their entire life in their enclosures (14 years now for the king, 5 for the corn) and neither are aggressive whatsoever. Its mostly personality of each snake.

But they do become VERY active if the cage is open, just never aggressive, Im feeding my new boa outside of its enclosure, so I can see for myself if there is much of a difference.

 

[Geography Guy]

Can you give more details on the situation? :?

Basically my corn is always hungry (it seems) but he refuses to eat anything larger then what I feed him. He is a great corn when I am handling him but it's a challenge to even open his cage without him attacking me first.

 

[Geography Guy]

do u feed him in the cage or take him out to feed?

I feed him in the cage

 

[Gigas]

Uh oh, Most of the time wen you feed a snake in the cage, he will always assume whatever comes in through the front door is food, very hard to train out of a snake , sorry

 

[ScorpDude]

How much and often are you feeding him?

Your snake will be associating the opening of the vivarium with feeding. Try to get a routine going an stick to it. For instance, every saturday morning, you open the vivarium, take the snake out, put it into a seperate tub (a storage tub from a DIY store works well) and then you feed it. The snakes feeding response will kick in when its in the tub, not when you open the vivarium. Make sure while establishing this routine you handle every other day so it see's it doesn't get fed when the viv gets opened, but it does get fed when it goes into the tub.

 

[Hedorah99]

what are you feeding him now? instead of larger prey try multiple smaller food items. I have found that just because a snake can cram something 5 times the size of its head down its throat, doesn't mean it likes too. usally the large prey gorging is an act of starvation.

 

[IguanaMama]

Yes, I was going to post exacty what Hedorah did. You shouldn't feed corns prey items that are larger than about 1.5 times the diameter of the largest part of their body. Two small mice are better than one big one that is just too big to handle. Also, what type/size corn is it? A really good website for corns is www.cornsnakes.com btw.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Basically my corn is always hungry (it seems) but he refuses to eat anything larger then what I feed him. He is a great corn when I am handling him but it's a challenge to even open his cage without him attacking me first.

Sounds like either food aggression or you're just mistaking a moody corn snake as being hungry.

 

[Henry Kane]

Uh oh, Most of the time wen you feed a snake in the cage, he will always assume whatever comes in through the front door is food, very hard to train out of a snake , sorry

Sorry to you too but absolutely not true. I have 9 snakes (mostly corns, the rest kings and rats), ranging from juvies to adult and there is nothing I see ever to assume this, let alone take it as fact. I feed all of mine in the cage and when not feeding can reach in and free handle any of them with ease...adn for the record, never been bitten.

Even though I'm debating, this repeating arguement is really stupid. Individual snakes have individual temperments. Some never mellow out while most will with maturity and frequent handling. There is far more hobbyist experience to support this than the "they will always assume feeding when you open the cage" arguement.

Gary

 

[Henry Kane]

Sounds like either food aggression or you're just mistaking a moody corn snake as being hungry.

I have to agree with the moody snake part. When people have a grouchy snake, it should not be assumed this is due to an association with feeding. It's due to an association with "leave me the <edit> alone. A snake with little to no owner interaction will often be on the defensive. Especially if such behavior is successful.

Gary

 

[Gigas]

Bile i wasnt trying to start an argument but wounds dont lie(not mine), i just think better safe than sorry. I understand most people and have nothing bad to report but people have snakes that like the routine of open door =food, im not trying to change anyones methods, when i read the post i assumed by aggressive it was striking

 

[ajlauer1984]

possible solution

first off how big is the snake right now? if its not to big (i would about 2ft or less) then its not going to hurt or draw blood if it were to strike you. the girl who owns the reptile store here in town says that if a snake is aggressive its due to lack of handling and the only way to get it out of this is to handle it at least 5min everyday whether it bites you or not, dont act scared of it when it bites just let it bite you and it will relize that you are not going to harm it, just my opinion but i think it just needs to be handled more... i dont go one day without handling my kings...

 

[Geography Guy]

I currently feed 5 small mice to my corn once a week or once every 2 weeks. When I bought my corn they never said what kind of corn snake he is they just said he was a corn snake. He is a very common type of corn though. On this website it shows the corn the looks like mine and about the same size mouse I feed him except I feed him 5 of them. http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/snake.pics/corn.gif One more thing. He is arounf 1.5-2 feet long aprox

 

[Henry Kane]

Bile i wasnt trying to start an argument but wounds dont lie(not mine), i just think better safe than sorry. I understand most people and have nothing bad to report but people have snakes that like the routine of open door =food, im not trying to change anyones methods, when i read the post i assumed by aggressive it was striking

I didn't mean to sound accusatory towards you as far as my "stupid arguement" comments. It was more of a pre-emptive statement as this topic always leads to arguement. Sincere apologies for the context being unclear.
I still (respectfully )disagree as far as snakes being conditioned by feeding them in their enclosures. Other than bad-attitude individuals or if the case should be that a snake's only human interaction is when fed, I have seen over the years too much to dismiss that theory.
I understand that you may know someone bitten while feeding in the enclosure, on repeated occasions perhaps. There are still several factors to consider. The snake's general attitude, a scent that may trigger a feeding response, is the snake very hungry, the manner in which the owner approached the snake, was it in blue, surprised, cornered...the list could go on and on. It would still be difficult to accept the theory as a rule or fact with so many variables.

An alternative, if one should decide to feed in the enclosure, is to hook the snake out when handling or moving it. I believe this to be another decent "better safe than sorry" method...this has been said here a hundred times though...same as the general debate.

I suppose it simply comes down to each individual snake and their owner. Different shoes to walk in, different scales to slither in and their own attitudes and personal reasons.

Take care.

Gary

 

[pharaoh2653]

i personally take all of my snakes out to feed (although i dont have any at the time). it is commonly thought that feeding a snake in a cage can cause aggresiveness for several reasons. primarily the possible lingering smell of rodent in the cage and a snakes poor eyesight may mistake a persons fingers for food. the combination of the two may bring out aggresive behavior. i have kept several snakes and have witnessed this with only one. this snake was previously under my care and was given to a relative as a gift. they later returned the snake to me claiming aggresive behaviour it even struck at me when i went to pick him up. it turned out they fed the snake in cage when i didnt. this may or may not be the cause of the behavior as they are many factors as Bile pointed out. but after cleaning the cage and feeding out of cage the snake calmed down. this issue is very contreversial but i suggest to you to first try feeding out of cage and if doesnt work look at other aspects of your care.

 

[Gigas]

The owners were macro keepers and didnt really handle their pets, the unfortunate thing was when they sold them the snakes took the behaviour with them

 

[ajlauer1984]

calming down a snake

i think a little handling everyday wether you get bit or not and taking out of the cage for feeding would eliminate this behaviour somewhat, maybe and mean MAYBE it might eliminate it all together.. i watched this calm down a 1.5-2ft albino burmese that would bite the hell outta anyone that came near it just by handling it for a few minutes a day and out of the tank feedings, however it took the snake almost 6months to get this calm, still has its occansional attitude problem bu for the most part it calmed down...