Wife and I are pretty new keepers, and we have a very pretty little nine month old albino pied ball python. She’s been a little shy but not a striker or a biter, and after some early bumps in the road she has a fantastic feeding response.
Well, we’ve been target training her and she’s been learning to follow the target. She got up close to the front of the enclosure following it tonight! And, not thinking, I reached across to get the tongs so I could pick up the mouse and reward her for a job well done.
Mouse smells plus little pink moving thing plus target training: she made the very understandable mistake of thinking my pinky was her supper.
It hurt! Turns out our little girl has impeccable aim and great bite strength. The punctures are nothing, teeny little things, but she got me RIGHT on the big blood vessel on my pinky’s largest knuckle: it bled like heck, and swelled up a nasty bruise right on the knuckle. We cleaned it and polysporined it and bandaided it tight.
I took pics but I don’t want to spook any new keepers. I’ll just say this doesn’t hurt as bad as the toe I whanged on the doorframe last month, and it would have hurt even less if she hadn’t gotten her little teeth right on the joint. I’m honestly more worried about the bruise than the punctures.
(And she’s hiding all contrite now – I wish I could tell her it’s okay, I’m not mad and she’s not in danger, but hopefully leaving her overnight will be enough.)
I went 10 years before my reptile escapee rite or passage.
Which was not a snake, but a leopard gecko.
I still remember my first real bites though. One was a tokay I had as a teen. The worst was a hedgehog. Hahah. Both held on for about the same 10 minutes before letting go tho.
Again, it happens, but not necessarily to everyone. Mine was my own stupid fault. Had our BP out with me on the couch watching football. I dozed off. Woke up and she was gone. Did a little walk about in our basement for a few a days. I found her curled up in the stereo system sub woofer. Luckily I didn’t turn any loud music/movies on while she was in there.
You guys brought some laughs! Sorry it was at your expense. Here are a few you can laugh at me for:
My BRB couldn’t stand me. I gou her out of her enclosure with a hook but she just hated me anyway and nabbed me. It was my first snake bite but it was the fear that got me, the bite felt like a fish’s teeth, like sandpaper-y.
Don’t feed the wild iguanas on vacation. I thought Big Mama looked hungry so I brought her a piece of lettuce. Well, I didn’t see Big Papa coming from behind me, and he grabbed me between the thumb and forefinger. Youch! He thought he got the lettuce. Lol.
I made it to 10 years of ball python ownership before getting my first bite, and when I did finally get bitten, it was entirely my fault. Last year I had come home from a night out with friends having had a margarita or two, and remembered I had rats thawing in the fridge that I need to feed that night. So I warmed them up and started feeding, and right before I was about to hand Bagel his rat (which he was eagerly waiting for), I noticed one of his decorative vines had gotten push into is water bowl. So of course without thinking I reached in to adjust it, and boom, first bite. I’m really not sure which of us was more surprised. I can’t blame him though, I already had the rat out and he smelled it, and there’s no way he expected me to reach in there instead
I got attacked by one while fishing also. Didn’t see the nest and got too close. Mama charged and tried to beat me to death with her wings. I still remember hearing my buddy laughing hysterically from across the pond as I shrieked and ran.
There was one of those from my childhood. It happened the zoo. I was only about three, but I remember it with crystalline clarity. All I wanted to do was feed the ducks and geese at the pond, when an aggressive white goose came charging at me. It seemed gigantic. The foul fowl went after the food I had scattered, then it went after my hand. It grabbed as I yanked my hand back; I lost a thumbnail. Bled like crazy, hurt like crazy, I howled like crazy.
Yep @kabre! Congratulations you are now officially dubbed a “keeper”! Sounds like you really got nailed in a bad place though! I have been bitten quite a few times over the years but the worst was when I got nailed between my thumb and forefinger by my adult BRB on a feeding night (long story). The hardest part was trying to keep quiet because my husband was in the living room and if he saw the blood I am sure he would have fainted!
But the next day I only had a small bruise and a couple of small bite wounds.
My BP just slams anything warm that gets within his reach. It’s got me really down. He keeps nailing me right on a blood vessel on the back of my hand and causing injuries that take ten days to heal just because I am Chronically Ill and physically kind of fragile.
You’ve got a great attitude about it! I confess I’m pretty skittish now myself. Trying to work through it.
I’ve been lucky enough to pick several BPs over the last 3 years that apparently came out of the egg choosing violence… up until 2months ago I’ve been doing well at reading body language and avoiding getting tagged. Still not sure what got our one girl all in a tizzy but she was waiting, tub wasn’t even slid out 3 inch. Nailed me square on the thumb side of my hand. Still have a faint mark on my hand. As previously stated… welcome to the club.
Now that did leave a mark! Welcome to the forum @iceq! So glad you chimed in! Unfortunately for you, you already belong to the club! None of my bps are bitey so far but who knows what the future holds for me!
I imagine if it keeps happening I’ll get a bit more spooked, but this time was a very clear example of a thoughtless moment that resulted in a bite, not indiscriminate biting from my little lady. I’ve got a lot of empathy for you – I’ve got some iron issues and it means I bruise easily too (genuinely the pinky is one big bruise right now, it looks quite gnarly). I’m trying to cross these bridges as they come, and trying not to worry about it too much unless it becomes a recurring problem. I hope your little guy calms down as he gets older, and I’m sorry it’s so hard right now.
