I havent been bit.....yet

Jewel almost gave me a heart attack today. Shes out of blue but hasn’t shed yet. I was handling her today, cause I do almost every day. I guess she was trying to start her shed and put her head under the rest of her body and her teeth caught in my arm :joy: I was like :scream: . She even left a little scratch. #LoveBitesSorta

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I’m sure I have many bites in my future but 13 months into the hobby I’m actually unscathed as well. Had a few strikes when a snake is new and a couple feeding strikes that were close to my hand as I opened a tub but nothing has connected yet. Not worried about it but it’s a pretty good streak so I hope it stays alive for a bit.

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XD completely understand that feeling one of our girls is a spit fire. I was holding Ignia our fire and my wife was laying next to me with a pillow up in defense because she was completely in defensive mode ^^; been working with her a little bit more as she tagged my hand while cleaning her Cage about a month ago. I’m use to snakes as I use to catch them when I was younger my wife on the other hand is a bit nervous so I mainly work wIthaca the ones that strike ^^. That being said at least it doesn’t hurt :wink:

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well i can tell you that it will more than likely happen when you least expect it. a bite from a subadult or smaller really isnt too bad but adult bites suck just because they are stronger and take longer to pry off of you. i can only imagine what a retic bite would look like and feel like.

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The first time I had a snake shipped I got bit straight out of the bag, to her credit though, she was in deep shed :joy:. The one she was shipped with also took a shot at me, but missed, she was on the backend of a shed as well.

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I have been bit so many times…mostly by juvenile bp’s but my gtp and atb were both super aggressive for first few months

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I’ve got more strikes and bites under my belt from tiny corns than I do any of my larger snakes. Been plenty of misses though. Sometimes snakes are just freaking grumps who’d rather not have you clean their tank/tub.

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I’m sure it’s coming. It’s not a big deal. I am kind of proud that I made it a year going through that “introductory” period with 5 new animals without getting tagged but…I get my male in Wednesday after a year of working on setting my foundation so I’m probably jinxing myself lol

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I made it a full two years before I got tagged, it was a pretty good feeling to make it that long. I had a couple grumpy adults, but they’d never connected with any of their strikes and then I had a baby get me by surprise last fall when I opened the tub to check on him. :joy:

Then on Saturday I got my first “real” bite from a new baby. Seemed to be doing just fine and was chilling on my hand, then he suddenly had a hold of the fleshy bit behind my thumb. :sweat_smile: He pretty much immediately let go, but it caught me off guard because he was acting so relaxed. Bled quite a bit for all the bigger the punctures were.

But you’re absolutely right!

It’s just like everyone says it is, just a bunch of needles getting poked at the same time. The movement surprises me a heck of a lot more than the bite itself and I’m a huge wuss!

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First I was nervous to get my first BP bite, but it looked like that :joy: other marks ony hand is made by my Savannah :joy: Funny that that cat have 20 sharp nails and long sharp teeth and I was nervous about that :sweat_smile::joy::joy: And I have got bitten by rainbow boa…soooo 🤷

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Honestly pricking your finger for a blood sugar test is worse than a bite from a bp,gtp,corn snake or an atb…some snakes are probably worse i.e emerald tree boa or anything with hurt juice, but I have personally been bit by first four, it’s more comical to me now more than anything

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I have been bit a lot, mainly from feeding responses from my rosy boa when she was younger though. She always thought my fingers were food and would try to kill them lol. My kingsnake escaped a couple years back and I found him an hour later under my bed behind a shoe box, and when I grabbed him, he bit me because I startled him.

I have been bit by feeding responses from my BPs a couple times. I did actually get a pretty bad bite once, but that was just because of the location on my hand. I got bit on my middle knuckle on my index finger. The teeth either stabbed through the tendon in the finger, or just scratched it up pretty bad. Right after the bite, my knuckle turned a dark blue and I couldn’t bend my finger well for the next couple days. Everywhere else I have been bit has been less serious than a minor cat scratch though.

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Been workin with small snakes for a long time. I can say through my personal experience that I’ve only been bitten by hatchlings/juveniles…never by one of my adults.

I have also worked with juvenile bull snakes and adult rainbow boas…never been bit even though the Internet said they are both bitey species when they are young. (There’s lots of info on bull snakes in general I’ve found to be…not true in my experience…but that’s another story)

I think it all comes down to snake personality; your technique and your ability to read and understand your snake’s body language. Most times they’ll tell you when and if they’re gonna bite - just gotta pick up on it.

:heart:

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Got a baby BCC on Tuesday. So far so good. I could have swore she would have tagged me already but she’s super chill. Even the first day, she just wanted to be out and exploring. Already ate a little mouse and she seems to be adjusting really well. Hopefully she stays super cool and she doesn’t get nervous a grab a hold of me. If she does…part of the hobby. I know this is a Ball topic, but snakes are snake. lol

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I have been. A few times. Only once broke the skin and I laughed at how little the “puncture” was. She just got one tooth in my finger. Smaller than a pin-prick! My one Champagne is a FEISTY girl. Always hissing and bluff striking every time I open the tub. I just laugh it off. Honestly its more the anticipation of being bitten that’s scary/painful than the actual thing. Granted my largest is my male at only 850g, and the champagne is only 370ish. I MIGHT me a little more concerned when she’s 2000+g. Or if she held on and tried to constrict me some. My Pastel Clown bit me the first time I handled her at 85g the first week of bringing her home from the breeder (local pick up - I got really lucky) and she never even broke the skin. She likes to bluff also, but has gotten better with handling with age. I can’t tell you how many times either has bluffed and just bumped their nose into my hand/finger, didn’t even bother to open their mouths lol.

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Those “bluff” strikes seem to be the most common defensive strike that BPs will do. Any time I’ve been struck when they are saying “go away” they’ve never put their teeth in. They just kind of smack you and push you away. Sometimes they’ll do it to a rat too if they don’t want to be bothered.

Feeding strikes are a different story. Usually it’s the little ones you have to worry about there, but I’ve got a couple big girls that love their food that scare me from time to time. Look inside the tub, see she’s hiding in the back. Open up the tub to put in a rat. And once there’s just enough space she can make it out she’s covered the whole distance of the tub and is flying out the opening mouth open just hoping she snatches something edible. Gives me a heart attack every time lol.

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Bites are really no big deal, I worry more for the snake as they can break teeth biting you.

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