Corn snake Bite.

[Mallard]

I have a twelve inch corn snake that likes to strike when ever I need to reach into its tank. At this size its no more than a poke. Iwas wondering how severe a full grown corn snake bite can be?
Thanks Jason

 

[R.W.]

I have a twelve inch corn snake that likes to strike when ever I need to reach into its tank. At this size its no more than a poke. Iwas wondering how severe a full grown corn snake bite can be?
Thanks Jason

Not much different than it is now.

 

[pitbulllady]

An adult will make a few little pin-pricks, but nothing to be concerned over. Try reaching in and picking the little bugger up with a small washcloth or paper towel, since a lot of little snakes either react defensively to a hand, or exhibit a feeding response when anything is put in their cage. Most do calm down with handling, though. In my experience, most juvie snakes are prone to biting, probably because they feel vulnerable at that stage.

pitbulllady

 

[Bear Foot Inc]

A 5 foot corn can give a nasty bite, i had one cut my thumb and first finger up quite nicely! Blood everywhere and all! But they almost NEVER bite, the young usually only do it because they are soo small and scared...
Just hold them alot and it will be good.
~Samuel

 

[arrowhd]

I would have to agree with Bear Foot Inc. An adult corn snake is capable of inflicting a nice little bite. Nothing that will send you to the hospital but there will be some blood. If handled regularly over time I would expect this defensive behavior to subside. As mentioned its not unusual for very small snakes to be "nippy".

 

[Ted]

usually its a feeding response.
many times due to people feeding them live food, or only interacting with them at feeding time.
not that this is the case, here.
but many times this is the reason.
they just have naturally sharp feeding responses.
even mine occasionally gets that way.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I agree with both sides. Though I can only agree with the "bleeders" superficially - the needle sharp teeth on a corn arn't long (perhaps max 2mm) but that's enough to puncture a lot of small blood vessels. So it will look like it's a lot but in actually it will just be like a couple small pin pricks.

What I always do is softly giving the snake stroke with a 1ft stick so it gets the first nervousness out of the way as it realizes that it's not feeding time. Then I lift it out and have never had a problem.

Most defensive bites are just laughable (unless you try to pick it up with your face), a feeding bite from an adult can be a bit more of a problem since the snake not tends to want to let go and might struggle to hold on to your finger. To avoid feeding bites make sure you wash your hands prior to handling if you have previously cooked or handled any meat.

 

[Bear Foot Inc]

Right, the one bad bite i got was a feeding bite, it was a new rescue and i just reached in to grab her like i did all my other corns and she got a good hold on my thumb and tried to "kill" my hand while chewing the whole time! But a slashing defence bite is usually not bad... Just little cuts...

 

[Mister Internet]

IME, it wears off around a year - year and a half old for good. Young corns are just really scared and vulnerable, and they have instincts to lash out at anything perceived as threatening...