Good for you, @douglitas! It’s wonderful when people help others learn about the world and the wonderful creatures in it. Corn snakes can be great education/outreach animals. I’ve done a lot of educational programs with them in the past. I’ve also kept corns as classroom pets when I taught high school. Like any creature, individuals are individual and some are more relaxed than others about being handled by lots of strangers.
If you can find an adult who’s well used to being handled, I’d lean that direction. They’re less likely to be harmed by the inexperienced people with whom you’ll be sharing them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with starting with a young one. There’s a bit of an advantage in that they can grow up accepting that life normally involves educational events. I wouldn’t advise getting anything younger than a yearling simply because they’re more fragile, so more likely to be unintentionally harmed by a handle or if they fall. Youngsters are also more likely to be skittish, and very fast. They’re good at shooting out of hands, and a fall to a hard floor can really hurt them. I’ve had some babies in my classroom, and they’ve been handled by students. Many yearlings and subadults can do very well with outreach.
Though I’ve yet to meet a truly nasty corn snake, some are more interested in and calm with large-scale interaction. This is, it seems from my experience, partly innate. Any corn can become accustomed to handling but some hatch seemingly enjoying it. I totally agree with @solarserpents that you should buy from someone who handles their snakes regularly. They should be able to give you info about individual personalities.
Best of luck with this wonderful goal! Can’t wait to see those pics.
Thank you to everyone! Seems like there are pros and cons (like in most things) to raising a corn snake from young vs starting with an adult. I think until engaging in this conversation I didn’t do the math and realize that the benefits of socializing a very young snake myself would come with the detriment of having to wait until it grew a bit to confidently allow others to handle it. Ultimately, I found a really promising (nearly) yearling that is putting on weight nicely and has a great disposition. To @solarserpents point, I lucked out and found a smaller breeder who focuses on cultivating nice temperaments as well as genetics, the friendly, knowledgeable @noodlehaus.
I really do hope to come back with pictures as requested, but more than that, a genuine contribution to the community in the form of discussing how to engage with the public that largely doesn’t know or care much about snakes. And since I can’t help but become interested in nitty gritty biology, you’ll probably see me on here learning about genetics and stuff as well. Thanks so much for the warm welcome and the engagement here so far!
I can definitely post some photos here of your soon to be boy, if you’d like, to hold you and the community over until he arrives! I think he’s going to be the perfect fit for your needs, an absolute gentleman of a snake. If you’d like to speak to someone who owns one of his clutch mates, @lumpy owns Leaky, whose story can be found in this thread.
Welcome to the MorphMarket community, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it here, there’s so much knowledge and support to be had, shared goals to work towards. Can’t wait to hear more about your education and outreach adventures! And as you know, we’re all here to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
Thanks so much for all you’ve already helped me with! I would love seeing some photos of Mr. Hoover (I’ll be working the name Cody in there somehow, too, but Hoover is staying…long story).
Unexpected layovers are never fun, for creatures big and small. Hoover can’t even get out for a Cinnabon, which is the only silver lining this would have for a human.
together. Someone’s plane never left last night. 