You have pet snakes, you're gonna get bit...OUCH!

I was reminded today: Snakes have really teeny brains.

Snakes are stupid.

(But cute!)

So I was feeding 6-month-old ball python Seymour, my classroom pet, today. Seymour is a small snake–barely over a foot long–but he’s got the thick, heavy build of a python. As a result, he eats larger mice than my year-old, three-foot-long corn snake Cleo.

Seymour tends to get very excited when he smells mouse. He’ll take them out of your hands, given the opportunity. I dropped him in the feeding cage, and he, smelling mouse everywhere, enters with mouth agape and promptly attacks the first thing he can: the tissue paper bedding. Brilliant. So, I take Stupid Seymour out of the cage and into his cage to wait for him to uncoil and realize the tissue isn’t food. Once he releases his “prey,” I pick him up to plop him in the feed cage again. This time, he whips around, mouth agape, and lands on the first thing he can: my finger. Frick! Those dozens of needle-sharp, backward-hooked teeth sink into my knuckle and it friggin’ HURTS!

He wouldn’t let go of me, and pulling away from snake as well as pushing into snake hurt like hell. Finally, I blew in his face, and he released my finger. He finally got to eat the mouse, and I got ot go nurse my wounds.

My knuckle is now purple. But I have a cool story to tell the kiddos tomorrow.

Have you been eating a lot of cheese? I’ve been struck by one Ball Python and one Kenyan Sand Boa and each let go of me the instant they realized I was not from the order Rodentia. (They did leave tiny little punctures that bled a bit.)

I’ve noticed this with snakes. They can be the most docile, laid-back snakes alive, but the second they smell food they turn into insane striking demons. I don’t get it. Fortunately, they’re almost always good about realizing their mistake and letting go right away. The worst are those determined snakes who just can’t seem to figure out that my hand is not in fact a mouse and will continue attempting to swallow it despite it being about 10x larger than their head. sigh I love them, but they’re dumb. Whaddaya?

I learned years ago the importance of not letting a snake mistake you for a mouse. I was handling a 3-foot boa constrictor, and foolishly walked by the mouse cage. When he smelled the mice, he went nuts, and got loose. So, dumb me, I go to grab him so he doesn’t get into a cabinet or something. At least he recognized the difference beetween a mouse and my hand.

Plus, there was the added benefit of squeamish, shrieking observers, and decent amounts of blood.

Well, in Seymour’s defense, he is a baby. And…he went six weeks without eating when I first got him. This is because he apparently doesn’t like prekilled mice–so the poor little guy went hungry until I took him to the pet store to find a solution. So now, maybe he smells live food and freaks…“Gotta eat it NOW! Starving BAD!”

That, or he is just really, reeeeeeeaally stupid.

He constricted the kleenex. If I tried to pull it away from him, he’d constrict tighter so his “prey” would go unconscious already. I had to wait for him to finish killing the kleenex before I could take it away from him.

When he latched onto my knuckle, he would’ve constricted if I wasn’t holding his body with two hands. He was too spread out to get a good grip, and thankfully, he got only the front half of his mouth (and teeth) into my knuckle. I’m hoping he’ll grow out of this phase.

Yeah…he’s dumb.

Sure he’s dumb. He’s a snake. Snakes aren’t the brightest creatures on Earth. They’re gorgeous, though.

My mom has a great story about when she got bit by a pet boa. They may not be venemous, but they have VERY SHARP little teeth!

A buddy came home buzzed one night back when we were in college and decided the water in his rattlesnake aquarium needed changing. See, alcohol makes your hand invisible to rattlesnakes, at least until your elbow hits the shelf above as you’re lifting the water bowl out. Finger, meet fang.

Alcohol, in addition to making hands invisible, is also apparently the stuff of anti-venom and my buddy just crawled into bed to sleep off the buzz and bite.

He woke up about 4 am with both his head and his arm on fire. In the emergency room the doctor told him that (1) he was an idiot, and (2) that he would lose two fingers and maybe his hand but that he’d try and save the arm. Finally queasy, Duncan sat down and prayed like Hell.

Because of his age and conditioning, he came through the ordeal with no more than some scarring and… uhhh… his hand turned out okay as well.

lieu–no offense to your friend, but what a bloody idiot! I’ve got a buddy who keeps about two dozen venemous herps, all of which are padlocked into their tanks. He also has a strict policy of never freehandling them, never putting his hand into the tank unless the snake is secure, and never unlocking the tank if he has been drinking anything, at all.

Re: nonvenemous snake bites, I’ve got a little Brazilian rainbow boa (ziggy stardust) who is a voracious feeder. He has latched on to me once or twice, and just… wouldn’t let go. I tried waiting him out, but ten minutes later he was still hanging on for dear life and I was still dripping blood and my friend was still on the verge of calling 911 (note: he was about six inches long at the time). I have since learned that you can dribble a bit of (drinking) alcohol or mouthwash into the corner of their mouth for a quick release.

He’s a ball python and he’s got a great feeding response. Count your blessings. My 2 1/2 year old BP died on Thursday :frowning:

My poor Mantra

LOL been there done that… but a ball python? sheesh, that’s nothing, get nailed by an 8ft boa… fun fun fun… I’ve been bit around 100 times or so by different snakes (and yes even a ball python) most of them were either newly hatched or born so it wasn’t a big deal.

Word to the wise, don’t try to pull the snake off, you’ll end up breaking their teeth which can result in a nasty infection for both the snake and yourself. Squirt them in the face with some ice cold water (works 90% of the time otherwise you’ll have to just sit and wait them out… had one hang on for darn near an hour once).

Don’t get me started on the live feeding. Bad idea. I’m not sure how thick your corn is, but at 3 feet, you should be feeding it jumbo mice or small rats… anything else and you’re probably underfeeding. Colubrids eat prey close to 2x their body thickness.

I have about a 12 year old boa. She is about 7 ft. long. I have only been bitten by her once when I was in college. I reached my hand into the cage to pet her and she nailed me. Couldn’t blame her, and at least she let go right away. It did bleed a little, though.

My advice would be to never, ever handle a snake if you smell like rodents, or if there are any rodents present at all. Otherwise, the little suckers’ instincts just take over and you don’t know what they’ll do, even a little ball.

Also, I’d suggest whacking the mouse before putting it in the cage if you must feed live. Never leave the snake alone with it. That is a good way for the rodent to gnaw on your reptile and possible do some real damage. Like someone else said, consider yourself really lucky that yours is such a good eater. Balls have a reputation for being very finicky eaters, especially the wild caught ones.

When I had a snake, I just never handled the mouse before putting my hand in the cage. I also took him (I thought it was a male) out of the cage and into a different box before dropping in the mouse. That way the cage doesn’t become conditioned as the feeding place, and things in there aren’t likely to be struck at. I thought it worked pretty well.

Yeah, I felt pretty stupid too. I mean…Seymour by nature is working with just a few brain cells; I have enough to certainly know better. Normally I don’t handle the mice, ever, before touching the snakes, but when Seymour attacked the tissue paper (which reeked of mice), my initial reaction was to first try and get it away from him. Since he wouldn’t let go, I put him somewhere to release the tissue.

Come to think of it, even if I had scrubbed my hands, spazzy-snake still probably would’ve bit because he was all hyped up from the scent on the paper. In hindsight, I should’ve left him in the cage with the mouse, constricting the kleenex. Hopefully he would’ve figured it out. Hopefully. :rolleyes: I was just concerned he’d consume some of the tissue.

It’s only the last few feedings that he’s whipped himself into a frenzy. He grabbed the mouse out of my hands once, and other times, lunged at all corners of the cage, mouth agape, as soon as he smelled mouse. This is more or less what happened yesterday–strike at everything as soon as you smell mouse! …And my finger was in the way.

Thankfully, I knew very well that pulling would hurt much more–the shape of his teeth is a popular lesson for my students. :slight_smile:

Scarlet, my corn is just under three feet, but her diameter is about that of my thumb. She can handle small adult mice, but not Seymour-sized ones. (BTW, I do take her by the pet store occasionally to have her meal size redetermined as she continues to grow.)

Live feeding…I know, I know. Cleo (the corn) will eat anything, alive or dead, but Seymour starved himself when offered prekilled. I have to meekly admit I don’t have the fortitude to brain and/or stun the mice myself, and what makes it a little trickier is I have to buy the mice the day before the snakes are fed (since the snakes are in a classroom). This means I’d have to stun/prekill the snakes at school. Yeeesh. FWIW, I do carefully watch feeding to make sure the snakes strike soon to avoid mouse-bite injuries. Both of them, thankfully, attack within seconds of being put in the feed cage.

I could bring in potent-smelling used mouse shavings to scent the dead mice…but then again, it’s a matter of getting them to the snakes. If I buy them prekilled, should I perhaps freeze them overnight then thaw just before feeding? (And feed in a mouse-scented cage?)

Meanwhile, my knuckle is a bit purple, red, and blue. He really bruised the knuckle, youch! My only concern is infection–he nailed me right in the joint. Those teeny teeth HURT!

Ball pythons can be really picky eaters. We have one that will only eat brown or gray mice. Another one only eats twice a year, and yet another will only eat mice that were fed a specific type of food. Going several weeks or months without eating is not unusual for ball pythons (provided they’re healthy) and typically won’t harm them. I would wean him off live as soon as possible.

Since you don’t like killing the mice yourself (really easy, get a pair of tongs and snap their necks, takes 2 seconds and is humane) you could buy frozen and thaw them out in warm water or ask someone at the pet store to kill them for you. Make sure the (frozen) mice came from the same source as the live ones that he’ll eat (they smell similar, very important for picky eaters). Make sure the mouse is warmed to just above room temperature (make sure its dry, most ball pythons won’t eat a wet mouse) take a pair of tongs and grab the mouse by the tail. Use the tongs to make the mouse “move” in front of the snake without touching his face. If that doesn’t work, tap the mouse lightly against the snake’s body about 1/3 of the way from his head. If he doesn’t take it, leave him alone for a week and try again. You can also try dunking the mouse in chicken broth first, sometimes you can get a response that way.

I misread your first post and didn’t catch that the corn was only a year old. She should start filling out soon. At 2 years old she should be twice that thick at that length.

Not only would this make a good sig, I may have it embroidered on a sampler to put in my parlor.

Well, if no-one who is entitled to play is interested, I’d love to come in (I’m in a regular mini as it is).

Full marks for stupidity to DP. That was not even meant for a different forum, but for an entirely diffrenet website… :o

You might want to get that checked out. When Zith got my mom (who freely admits it was her own fault) they went to the ER to be safe and they x-rayed her hand to check for any teeth and there and gave her antibiotics. They also found the whole thing amusing and I’m sure she was the evening’s entertainment. Really, how many boa bites does an average ER EVER see?

A guy in college told me he got bit by a python (I think it was), and about a week later, sitting in Sunday School, he squeezed out a tooth that had been in his thumb muscle the whole time.

Ick.

You have mice larger than a 3-foot long corn snake??? :smiley:

StG