Corn Snake Safety

Video Transcript

"The next thing were going to discuss, just in a brief overview, is certain safety steps to ensure you're not going to get bit by your reptile, especially your snake. Now, my rule is that if you get bit by a snake, it's your fault. You did something wrong, you deserve it. They don't want to bite you, it's not in their nature. They'd rather run from you than bite you, unless were talking about a venomous animal, which brings up a whole different line of information. So, let?s say for instance were going to feed a corn snake today. A little baby corn snake. Now, preferably, and this is where the most bites are going to occur, is when you're trying to feed your animal. Preferably you do not want to handle your snake at all the day you're going to feed them, or after feeding them. You always want to make sure you wash your hands before you go into feed, and you want to make sure you wash your hands after you feed the reptile. Snakes are scent and heat oriented animals, that's how they judge things. If you smell like food, move like food, or are hot like food, there is a chance you could get bit. So, with that knowledge, you're going to get the snake out of his enclosure. What were going to do is we?re going to disassociate him from you, in feeding, as much as possible. So you're going to take that snake and you're going to put him in a separate feeding enclosure. Make sure it's properly ventilated. You don't want your snake suffocating on you while he's supposed to be eating. But a small deli cup for babies, or a piece of Tupperware, whatever you feel is necessary to keep him and his food together. Always feed with feeding tongs. Feeding tongs are very important. You don't ever want to use your fingers to feed a snake. All that's going to do is put you in association with the food, thereby increasing your chances of being bit. So again, you're going to use your feeding tongs to pick up your prey item, and you're going to use those tongs to introduce your prey item into the feeding enclosure. You are then going to close him off and you're going to leave him alone. Most corn snakes will feed pretty readily and you shouldn't have to worry about it, though as babies, you may want to give them a small dark area to be where he can be undisturbed."