Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two snakes in my collection of nine that are aggressive. One is a 3/4 cali-king, 1/4 florida king mix and the other is an Okeetee Corn snake. They both are less then a year old and bite, hiss and musk when handled.

My question is how much and how often of gentle handling is good for hand taming and how much is too much and will stress the snake out.

I have been handling the snakes everyday to every other day for a few minutes each. With the Cali-King I have success with her after a few days, but when feeding time comes and I don't handle her for a couple of days she reverts back to her aggressiveness.

Nothing seems to help with my corn snake, he bites multiple times when I pick him up; thank goodness is is just a baby and his bite doesn't hurt. I hope he mellows out with age or I will have to invest in a snake hook.

Please respond and help a fellow snake lover. Thanks!
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-A.J.

1.1 Ball Pythons (normal, pastel)
3.1 Cornsnakes (Miami, oketee, snow, albino)
1.1 Cali Kings (blk and wht banded, blk and yellow banded)
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake

Age has alot to do with it. Young snakes being much more prone to defend themselves.

In most cases, kingsnakes calm down by age 3 or 4, and often before that. Most cornsnakes get very tame. However, there are cornsnakes which remain aggressive. Not much can be done in those cases.

My theory is that handling does not do a whole lot. I say this because I have had snakes which I handled little that became tame anyway, and I have had some that remained uncomfortable with being held even when I tried daily. I think it is better to allow the snake to be disturbed very little for the first year for sure.

An interesting thread on the kingsnake forum talks about how a lack of hide spots for adults snakes often makes the snake get rather comfortable with the keeper walking by. Seems to be true. But for babies (your are still babies really) give them hide spots.
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Mark

I agree with Mark. I have also heard that young snakes under a year old should not be handled more than once every two or three days for up to half an hour. Handling for longer periods or more frequently (even for very short periods) can stress babies out quite a bit.

Anecdotally, I have heard that if you put a shirt or something that you have worn recently and not washed yet in with the snake that the snake becomes comfortable with your smell. I know this works on puppies, I have not been convinced in either direction in regard to snakes.

All in all though, I think the snake's ages have more to do with their behavior right now than anything you are doing. At that age all they have to go on is their genetic programming and every snake will require a different amount of conditioning to get past that. I have a couple snakes that were absolute darlings from the very beginning and I have one that's nasty as heck as an adult but she is a species that's known for being feisty.

haha I tried the "unwashed shirt" thing with my Milk when I first got her. Yeah, it didn't work. Handling worked lol I held her everyday for at least 15 minutes. She calmed down within a couple of months. Although, getting sprayed wasn't fun!