Does anyone know why my baby cornsnake doesn’t want to be handled anymore?

QUESTION

Hiya. First time cornsnake mummy here. The first few weeks with my baby, Beans, she was loving being handled. Curiously zoomying around my hands or just chilling on me.

But the last few days she has been ’climbing’ her enclosure, and yesterday whilst being handled (even though her behaviour was normal) she pooped on me which I know can be a sign of stress.

Today she has been active in her enclosure again so I opened it up and was chatting to her, popping my hand in the enclosure as I was worried not to stress her out like yesterday. I picked her up and she just seemed really frantic which is unlike her. (photo 1)

I think she has struggled to shed as she is very flaky and we tried the warm damp towel method which she seemed to like but since doing that she’s flaking more. We are going to buy some moss this weekend as i’ve read we can make her enclosure more humid and this should help with shedding.

She has always eaten with me, though last time she was just following the pinky around and licking it (I think she knew mummy had places to be so was being a little dick)!

I’m just taking it to heart that these last few days she’s not wanted to be handled when our handling was going so we’ll (to the point that if my partner held her she was asking to come back to me).

She is honestly such a happy curious girl (photo 2 is how she usually is)… I think that’s why i’m just so panicked about her behaving differently these few days.

Posted Apr 3, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

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