My corn snake is 2 years old, he's always been very friendly and been fine with being handled. However this summer he bit me for the first time and since then I have lost a little confidence with him. when going to pick him up the other day he flinched and reared around as though he was on the defensive.
I was wondering whether this change in personality could be to do with hi s age or a time of year thing as I've only had him for a year.

Help me I miss my friendly snake

you could use thick leather gloves until your confidence comes back

do you feed him in his viv? If you do that could be your problem he may assoicate your hand being in his home as food, there for biting/striking out thinking your lunch. We have the same problem with our king snake we now feed all of ours in boxes to save our hands we also use a snake hook (mainly for the boas tho) which saves mistakes they know the difference as snake hook+box=food were as snake hook+hands= playtime

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Owner to-
lots of rodents
2 monster dogs
1 slinky cat

Have you made any changes at all like where his enclosure is in the house, the setup, any news pets etc? I'm not sure what could make him go funny like this except for environmental changes. Could the temperatures be cooler in his viv? I've personally never noticed any personality changes with mine from year to year.

When you move towards him move very slowly and he won't bite, if he rears and goes into a striking position stop moving, because you've stopped moving your hand towards him he no longer views your hand as an immediate threat, he'll eventually straighten out and try and move away, at this point you can pick him up safely, once your holding him he won't bite. This is my approach to picking up nervous hatchlings and I rarely get bitten.

I also feed them whilst holding them, I place a food item onto a peice of kitchen towel and lower the snake to the food, they seem to tame quickly this way. You could also occasionally place your hand in the viv infront of the snake as close as the snake seems comfortable with and just hold it there for a few minutes then removing your hand, the snake will eventually learn that your hand is no danger and may even go to it to investigate.

Hope you can sus out the problem soon!

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both of these replies are pretty useful I think. I've recently moved him into a brand new and much larger viv. So he's had a totally new environment to get used to.

How would I go about feeding him out side of the tank? also he's a striker, is there anyway to stop him from striking (if so will this tame him a little?)

The association of my hand and food makes sense as I've been feeding him with those long tweezers but obviously putting my hand in also.

thanks for the help!

I would handle him a bit more at the moment until you both get your confidence back. To feed him out side the viv you will need a Herp Haven or similar to put him in whan he eats.

If you want to feed him in the viv, just use you tongs to put the food in the viv in a at the opposite side to the viv so the snake has to come and find the food and wont need to strike when it gets there.

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Pete



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Whatever happens, if he goes to bite you, don't pull your hand out of the viv and leave him to calm down.
He will constantly strike at you if he realises that once he has done so, you will get out of his way.

If he strikes, don't panic and don't get scared, just grab him gently and pull him out. Usually when they are outside of their vivs, they calm down.

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Ah, It'll be the stress of the move then, I'd personally leave him for a week or so to settle in, if he's already on edge with the move you don't really want to be stressing him out more than what he is. Make sure there's plenty of hiding places as this will also help him settle. After a week or so he should hopefully be a little calmer at which point you can start handling him again.

To feed him outside the viv, as 'Evolution' stated you can place him in a plastic container with the food item although I don't bother with the container and let the snake eat out infront of me, either method is fine.

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I agree its more then likely the move, it can take a while for them to get used to it, It takes our king snake about 3weeks to settle before Oh can handle her (she hates me so i dont handle her lol she defo a daddys girl if snakes can be!)

we use polystryne boxes that food or live animals are put in for ours because you dont often find a plastic pne big enough for a 7-8foot boa constrictor lol

I love the idea of hand holding feeding tho sounds like its very "peaceful" (if you know what i mean) way to feed them

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Owner to-
lots of rodents
2 monster dogs
1 slinky cat

thank you so much for all the advice,
I'm feeding him today so will try some of things you guys have recommended. I've got a few hides in there but am going to go and buy him some more things today just so he's got a few extra options.
I'll let you know how it goes.

I know this is a daft question but I've never had a snake so I don't know what a snake bite is like - does it really hurt?