Guess it was inevitable; he struck me, barely

[kudzu]

My kingsnake is shy, timid, a touch-me-not. He's never been aggressive and only tries to move away from me. He has never, ever struck at me or even threatened to do so. When saying that, I am not including the several times in the last few months when he leapt out of his enclosure at feeding time. He might be timid the rest of the time, but when food is involved the guy is all kingsnake. It took a few tries, but I've got a system to keep him from doing that now. Though I remain vigilant. He's big enough that I don't think the cats would do anything to him, but I don't want to find out.

Anyway, yesterday was not feeding day. I'd not done anything that might lead him to believe it was feeding time. I tried to gently get him out of his enclosure. He didn't want to leave so I backed off. But then he slowly poked his head out and much of the rest of him followed soon after. Used the hook to support part of his body & moved my hand to support the rest as more of him emerged. That's when he suddenly struck at me & made contact, just barely. It felt like his nose hit my hand but there was the tiniest drop of blood so apparently a fang made contact. I was shocked, but not upset with him. I just used the hook to move him back into his home and closed the door.

Now I'm trying to figure out why. Was it defensive or prey drive? My thought is that I finally pushed him too far. But he was actually moving out of the cage on his own & not in a hurried way, not like he was trying to escape. Also, not like the times he lunged out to grab the mouse on the tongs. I think, perhaps, he was in the mood for food & my hand movement triggered something. Had been handling my rat snake just a little while before but had washed my hands & arms well after that. My BF reminded my that my shirt probably still smelled like snake. Good point, but if it was food drive would he not have tried to latch onto me rather than the glancing blow he gave me?

Just trying to tease out the actual cause so I can avoid it happening again. Mostly, I don't want to do things that scare or annoy him so much he wants to strike. I love the dude and want him happy, in his own snakey way.