Corn snakes bites and care
When talking about snake bites caused by pet corn snakes it’s likely
that they have occurred during feeding time. Usually, if you’ve gotten
bitten once you’ll not get bitten again because you’ll change your
feeding strategy, but it’s important to understand why the snake
attacked in the first place.
At first it is worthy to note the fact that corn snakes are known for
being an incredibly docile species, that’s why they are probably the
most common pet snake species. That and the fact that they are
non-venomous so even if you do get bitten there will be no venom related
problems to deal with. When it comes to pet snakes biting it’s
important to understand first why they might bite you, and the reason
isn’t that they feel threatened. It is more likely that they think your
hand is food, because most bites occur at feeding time. Snakes use
sight, scent and sometimes even the temperature of a possible target to
decide whether to strike or not. Let’s say for instance that you’ve just
handled a rodent and you put your hand in the snake’s tank; this will
give the snake three different factors that will lead it to think that
it’s dinner time. They would smell the rodent scent left on your hand,
will feel the warm temperature of your hand and will also see movement,
these three factors will click in their brains to say “prey”.
Now in order to avoid these types of accidents, the solution is rather
simple: use a snake hook to initially lift the creature from the tank
making sure that you lift it from its mid-body area for proper support.
Once this is done the snake will realize that it’s not feeding time and
you are free to reach in and handle the snake as you’d normally do.
Some people may be a bit wary of something called a “snake hook” but
it’s basically just a big piece of metal with a curved end which you can
purchase at reptile shops, specialist shops or on the Internet. Now
corn snakes don’t have any venom, and alongside the ball python it is
the most docile species of snake known to man, making both the corn
snake as well as the ball python incredibly reluctant to bite their
owner; however in the extraordinary case that this might happen you
should do the same things that you’d do in the case of a cut of the same
depth. Disinfect and wrap up, if there are signs of swelling or
infection go see a doctor. |
