View Full Version : got tagged the other day, so i have a question for all of you guys and gals.
SlimeyLimey805
10-10-09, 10:37 AM
ok so earlier this week when i was feeding my baby Kali, after she was done devouring the mouse and all that cool stuff, i went to pick her up to remove her from her feeding box and then BAM :eek: next thing i know. she's bitten me, latched on, and let go and gone back and curled back to defend herself. needless to say i was quite upset that this had happened. but it turns out i made a newb style mistake (using my amazing hind sight skill) i realized that i tried to pick her up with the same hand with which i had brought her food in to the box (yes i know dumbass move :sad: and i feel very stupid for letting it happen) the good news is she is still a lil snakey snake atm (prolly about 18-24 inches and a couple of itches across at the thickest) so the bit did little more than almost make me **** my self xD and there was a pin prick size drop of blood from where she tagged me best. but other than that no harm done.
this whole story leads me to think of and ask this, what were the circumstances of some/all/one of your snake bites? either your first or maybe just your most interesting or supidest story it doesn't matter to me i am just curious. so uhh.. yea rsvp.
yours, Kyle Mallinson
Will0W783
10-10-09, 05:15 PM
Lol. Well, I have a bad knack for getting tagged, while my fiance hardly ever gets bitten. My first 2 bites were both feeding bites from my BP. The first time I was showing him to the maintenance guy in my old apartment and had just told him what a sweet, good-natured snake Saleen was. I forgot I'd been playing with my guinea pig and hadn't washed my hands. So I stick my hand in there and he just launches up and nails me- right across all of my fingers....he hung on too for a good 5-10 seconds. The maintenance guy blanched and ran out of the room..and I ran after him trying to calm him down with blood pouring off my hand..lmao. Second strike was when my fiance asked me to move Saleen's hide so we could feed him and he got me again. Normally he's a very calm good snake, but when he's hungry watch out. Other than that my white-lipped gal got me when I was soaking her, and my baby coastal carpet got me and my female GTP just grazed my thumb but that bled like a mofo. My kingsnake "tastes" me every time I hold him. Just a little nip, but enough to sting.
I think the funniest bite I have ever witnessed though, was my Macklot's python Cipher's work on my fiance. I just got Cipher and was unsure of his temperament so I was wearing gloves with him. My fiance John just scooped Cipher up and brought him downstairs and was going on about how cool he was, when suddenly, John said "ummm, he's getting awful tight on my arm" and tried to loosen his coils. Cipher just slowly and calmly slid his head along John's wrist, then opened his mouth and engulfed two fingers, and bit down.....no strike, no hiss, just a gentle polite sneak attack bite..lmao. When John pried him off though, he got pissed and struck and got John again...
It had to hurt but man, it was funny. It was like the snake was thinking, "hmmm...I wonder what he tastes like...I think I'll take a taste..."
Phoenix446
10-11-09, 07:01 PM
"Noob" happens. I've never been tagged by any of the boidae that I keep now, but when I kept culabrids I'd get tagged all the time, hence the reason I don't keep anymore.
All bites I've received from my snakes are feeding responses. Either when I take them out to feed (they smell the thawing mice) or if I take them out of the feeding boxes and they are still in feeding mode. It doesn't matter if you smell like mouse or not, if they think there's food coming in the box, they strike. I've had the green tree pythons nail my hand if I put it in the cage after dark. I usually try to spray them first so that they know I'm not feeding, but it doesn't always work. I've had a few defensive strikes but no real bites from various species (usually the arboreals, but also the false water cobras...especially if they are hungry). the longest hold was one of my Okeetee cornsnakes. He grabbed the inside of my arm and wrapped my arm. I couldn't get him to let go, even with cold water etc. As I was rumaging around for some drinking alcohol that was cheap enough to waste on a cornsnake, he finally let go. Couldn't get him to unwrap me though, so I just walked around the house with a large cornsnake armwrap until he gave up. Then I fed him! My other funny one was my amel cornsnake. He was a voracious eater and since all my feeding boxes were being used I decided to just put him on the floor and feed him his rat. I dangled it on the tongs, he struck, I dropped the rat and he went after me. Here was this 4 ft cornsnake, mouth open, chasing me around the snake room. I was fending him off with the feeding tongs and a paper towel (think matador) yelling at him that the rat was behind him....as if he would understand that! I finally got a hold of the rat and stuck it in his face. Last time I fed him outside a feeding box!
Will0W783
10-12-09, 07:33 AM
Lol. That must have been quite a sight with the cornsnake after you in your snake room..too bad you didnt' have a camcorder.
Meg....that is freaking hilarious. Killer corns :D
BP_okay
10-12-09, 08:02 PM
MegF LMAO! Matador Meg vs. amel corn! I just love how we talk to our snakes thinking they can understand us. :)
Even if I'd had a camcorder, I think the only thing you would have seen was a jiggling, blurry mess and muffled cursing-and maybe a bit of white paper towel. I'm only glad I didn't scream like the girl I am :) As far as matador......he won.....Their mouths are really big when they are coming after you! It's like the rabbit in Monty Python's Holy Grail "But he's got very big teeth!"
SlimeyLimey805
10-13-09, 09:32 AM
haha that would be quite a video (cloverfield status) those are quite an array of stories, makes mine sound pretty lame by comparison :[ haha. but also makes me feel glad that my bite was by the hands (or mouth) of a small, well tempremented snake..
He was a very mellow snake...just not at feeding time. We called him Orca at that time as he'd leap out of the feeding box for the mouse.
SlimeyLimey805
10-15-09, 11:53 AM
hahaha wow a leaping snake, never would've thought it. how large is he? and how high does he manage to leap? that sounds like quite a sight to behold. "hey guys check out my snake he can jump!" :p
He was around 4 ft. and he would clear the edge of the feeding box. It was a rather large cardboard box that was maybe 2 ft. high. He'd go over the top of that to get the food off the tongs.
SlimeyLimey805
10-16-09, 09:53 PM
haha nice. sounds like quiet a show.
Look out Sea World! He's now a teaching snake in Illinois and the hit of the elementary school!
SlimeyLimey805
10-17-09, 11:09 AM
that sounds great! teaching younger children that snakes (and all reptiles) should be loved and can make great pets. instead of them growing up thinking of them as scary or gross or what have you. glad to hear that he is serving as an ambassador for the entire reptile class.
Yeah, it worked out great. He was very docile and someone on the forum had asked about what to put in a two level 5 ft high by 3.5 wide by 2 deep for her classroom. The cage was given to her by one of her students and used to house a lizard. My boy was very active and loved to climb and explore. I thought he'd be ideal and he was. They can observe how they eat because she can feed him anywhere and the best part was, their school colors were orange and black and he was an amel so he was orange. Even the school janitor likes him and was concerned that something was wrong with him when he went into blue and didn't crawl around like normal. I thought that was pretty funny. The secretaries up front think snakes might not be so bad after all!
SlimeyLimey805
10-18-09, 09:27 AM
haha yea sounds like a pretty sweet set up for the snake. well i hope that they do learn from him and hopefully you may have just created a couple of dozen more herpers :)
hi my tag came from my 15ft burm iam a big guy but it hurt all i could do was sit on the floor and waite till he know i wasnt food about 5 mins later he let go and ill tell you all i was the happy man in the world to have him off my hand but it was all on me i was trying to give him a bunny and he got me we are still really good friends but i told him if he bites me one more time i was going to bite him back so now we are good:Wow:
That's why for safety, all large boids over 6 ft. should have another person in the room at handling and feeding. If your snake had wrapped you to the point you couldn't escape and you had died, we all would pay. There's enough negative media about snakes without adding a death from your pet. I know you don't live here in the US, but we are fighting for the right to even keep the large boids and pythons now. Be safe!
pyythonboa
10-19-09, 07:04 PM
next time us a j hook
Good 'N Plenty
10-20-09, 12:42 PM
Never been bitten by a snake I own, but my friend's bcc tagged me a few years back when it was probably 2 1/2 or 3 feet long. Right on the knuckles, ouch.
Not sure what prompted it, but it wasnt feeding day, I hadnt touched anything small, fuzzy, and mammalian, snake was not in shed...
As to biting back a 15 foot burm, good luck with that one! BBC NEWS | Africa | Man bites snake in epic struggle (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7999909.stm)
Will0W783
10-26-09, 09:26 AM
Well my Macklot's python, Cipher, finally showed me his "bad side". LOL. I was holding him with gauntlet gloves and a t-shirt on and had a bit of skin exposed between my elbow and the sleeve of the shirt. He was cruising around just fine on my arms and turned his head and bumped himself on the inside of my elbow. Well, he didn't much like that and he quickly struck the spot and left a nice, mouth-shaped mark..lol. After that I guess he thought it was food and was "getting away" because he became completely irascible and wrapped the glove and tried to "kill" it and I had to wrestle him back in the cage and force the glove away from him. He was biting his own tail! He's so handsome, but psycho!
Here you go:
Picture #1 = The bite (it's a good one- shows almost complete tooth set)
Picture #2 = The perpetrator, looking all smug
BP_okay
10-27-09, 10:55 PM
Ahhh...Kimberly - poor gal. He really is adorable, but yes, that is the most smug look I have ever seen on a snake's face. He must be really proud of himself. So I'm assuming he's been a little aggressive in the past, since you had to use the gloves to begin with. Is this type of python usually more aggressive, or did you just get a spunky one? Btw, the bite marks look big compared to his head...how big is he?
When they want to bite...especially when they are trying to "ingest" a body part, they spread their jaws quite a bit. My Aru tagged my husband on the wrist one day and left an entire jaw print from one side of his wrist to the other and my hubby is not a "delicate" guy!
Will0W783
10-28-09, 07:44 AM
Macklot's are tricky- they can go either way. My friend Mike had a girl Macklot's that was vicious when he got her but tamed into a big puppy dog of a snake. They do tend to be unpredictable. I knew Cipher was not "friendly" when I got him, but he is also not full-grown so he has time to tame down. He is so very iridescent under good lighting- he's gorgeous. But yes, I knew not to trust him so I normally wear gloves and a long-sleeve shirt and don't let him anywhere near my face or neck. He is fine when he doesn't touch bare skin but as soon as he touches skin he bites it seems. Anyone got any tips for taming, other than handle daily for short times and don't end on a bad note?
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