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just a bad egg?

J

jeordiew

New member
I have had my female for about eight years. She's always been kind of skittish. I just moved, and there are probably more vibrations coming through the floor here. She bit me for the first time ever about a month ago, and now every time I open the cage, she looks ready to attack. She's never been a very calm snake, but I won't deal with her like this. My male stayed calm after the move, and is fine.

I'm getting ready to give her away. Any ideas? (By the way, shedding is not the issue, and she doesn't have mites. She is also fed on a regular schedule. Nothing has changed for her but her location. It is not an option to move her elsewhere).
 
I'm not exactly sure what to do, I am pretty new at this, but I have heard that you should keep the snake out when it tries to bite you and not to put it back until it has calmed down. If you put it back, you are letting it know that biting or acting up is the way to act to be left alone. If you are worried about bites, I have also heard that you should wear gloves until you feel that you can handle the snake without it trying to bite you. I hope someone with more experience can give you some better suggestions. :)
 
what kind of gloves do you use though?? surely with nylon gloves the snake can easily slide out of your grip?
 
brtrude said:
what kind of gloves do you use though?? surely with nylon gloves the snake can easily slide out of your grip?
Click to expand...


I'm not sure. I assumed something like gardening gloves. :shrugs:
 
lol what dus it actually feel like when they bite you? does n e one know? I havent as yet been bit but im sure the time wil come. My little guy is only a few months old so will it not really hurt??

Do they even have teeth or what??? lol
 
My ratsnake used to bite, so I used a pair of gardening gloves until he gave up, then 1 glove (Michael Jackson!), then no gloves.
 
Sub-adult, about 4 foot now. It's most like a sudden set of pin-pricks, more a surprise than painful, if it's a defensive strike. From what I've read feeding bites hurt more because the snake hangs on
 
One of my snake's favourite activities is biting me. At first, it was just shocking. Now I laugh and laugh at her tenacity...the fact that she seems to think she can eat me (these are feeding response bites). She's even taken to constricting my hand sometimes. She looks so pathetic I can't help but laugh. It's even funnier if she bites my earlobe (one of her favourite places to bite) because she has nothing to constrict around, though she tries constricting air. I am a big baby about pain, and I can tell you it does not hurt. Someone described it like having velcro pressed against your skin, and that's what I liken it to. She is getting better now that she eats adult mice. Even though it doesn't hurt, it started to get a little annoying because she wouldn't stop doing it. I tried to ask for advise on how to get her to stop, but nothing seemed to work. Then, after reading how someone used hand sanitizer, I came up with a plan to rinse my hands and neck and earlobes (the places she bites me) with rubbing alcohol before handling her, and it definitely stopped her from biting me. It was like she went to bite my hand, and it smelled bad, so she decided against it.

Long story short...it doesn't hurt and barely even breaks the skin. (She is about 1 1/2 yrs old).
 
wow so if shes one and a half years old and it doesnt hurt when she bites you, i bet you can hardly even feel a hatchlings bite!
Like i said i havnt been bit yet but i was struk at last week. As you mentioned it was really shoking because it happend so fast! In the blink of an eye! It deffo knowked my confidence when it comes to pikin him up but im getting a lot better. However....this did happen like, only 2 days after feeding so maybe this had something to do with it. not digested his meal propperly and was a bit cranky or something? (because he hadnt been out much since the feeding and i uncovered him so maybe he was jsut a bit annoyed).

So when she was striking at you did it not really put you off reching for her at first because it is a shok to the system??? Also, how do you try to get her? i take it when she is in her coiled position you didnt try to get her? i have just waited til my snake starts to move around, i find it easier and less scary trying to get him that way (it can still take a while for the snake to get into a good position to pik him up though.).

Do you have any pics of your snake that you cud post?? id love to see. If you have any pics of him biting your ear that would be good to see also? lol i bet that makes a really funny pic! :crazy02:
 
HAHAHA...unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of her biting my ear! That'd be funny. I have posted pics of her on the board before. Here are links to the most recent pics (I hope they work):

Lupe 1
Lupe 2

She's the cutest!

Anyways, the first time she did it, I was kinda scared because I thought there might be something wrong with her, but she doesn't scare me other than that. I pick her up however I want to because I'm the boss of her. She never strikes at me...it's not an aggression thing...she always just hangs out with me for a while and finds where she wants to bite me. Then she latches on for the duration. I've been told that this is weird because most bites happen immediately upon picking up the snake. Lupe's just a crazy snakey. She does things her own way, which is fine because that's just like me. Whatever, I just think she feels hungry and associates my hands with feeding (even though I have always used gloves/tongs to feed her, it is my hand in the gloves, holding the tongs...?). Or maybe it's my scent. I don't know.

But I wouldn't be afraid to pick up your snake. If he strikes you, meh. Just hold him anyways. Or wash yourself in rubbing alcohol. I don't think they like the way that smells...
 
wows shes georgeos! lovely colours!

so.....sorry to keep goin on about this by the way :)........she has never struk at you when shes been in her striking position and you have reached for her?? even when she was younger?? How do you pick her up though when she is coiled? i might just be finding it hard to grasp that you can get her in this position because my snake is still small so i find it hard to get her n e way because hes pretty thin. compared to your snake.

shes pretty big isnt she! i cant believe shes onyl a year and a half! i cant wate till my little guy gets that big because isnt that when they start to chill out a lot more and get more confident and stuff???

Do you let her wonder round on your floor and stuff? i wouldnt let my snake do that yet, id be scared of him doing one! lol haha, how old was she when you started to let her explore the place on his own like that (supervised obviously).

great pics! thanks for all this info! its a great help!
 
When Mr Bonney was a biter, I found it easiest to pick him up when he was still coiled, by putting my hand down flat over him, sometimes while distracting him with a hand that he thought he was going to bite at his head end. If I waited until he uncoiled and started moving, he was more likely to whip round and get a bite at me when i was trying to pick him up in a more conventional way. I wish I had pictures to show you, but at that point I needed to use both hands and my boys wouldn't come anywhere near him!
 
so wer would you go once you have placed your hand on top of him?? whats the next move?? i might try that net time.
 
It's difficult to describe, but i'll try, because he was in a bad mood tonight and I needed to put him in his feeding tub.
He was coiled up in a strike position, but I've learnt not to let him work himself up into tail-rattling. So I just placed my right hand down flat over his coils and curled my fingers under him, then picked him up and let him cruise from hand to hand whilst carrying him to the tub.
While he's cruising I find it best to keep pretty good control of him, a firm hold seems to work better than letting him start to go wherever he wants, not letting more than a third of his body (head end )loose, or he remembers he wants to bite me.
 
Thanks for your nice comments about Lupe. I appreciate them, but she does not. I told her, and she was like, "Leave me alone; I'm in my tube."

Anyways, she has never been in a strike position. However, she has been coiled before, under her hide. I just lift up her hide and scoop her up. I think it's really easy, and she often stays coiled in my hand for a while, as she tries to figure out where she is and why. She's so cute!
 
Bites from full fledged adults don't necessarily feel good, but it's not like it really hurts either.

I should rephrase that---defensive bites don't really hurt. Feeding bites can because they have a tendency to chew on you.

Adults will make you bleed---it's not much, but you will bleed. Some people have reactions to the bites, other dont. Whenever I get bitten I tend to get a bit red and scratchy. A simple wash of the hands always takes care of it.

If you're nervous about being bitten, get a latex dishwashing glove. I had an adult tag my hand through that last week---so they can get through the glove, but it does help as far as a mental state goes.

Basically, just pick the snake up and don't worry about being bitten. Show the snake who the boss is.
 
It's really not that bad. I was bit by a Cali King once...feeding response...she wouldn't let go. I had to hold her under cold water...after a few minutes. Now, I'm NOT a tough chick...I DON'T like pain. But, while it was grinding it's jaws, I was able to laugh, have my friend take the camera off of my shoulder, while I was holding the snakes body to keep it from trying to constrict my arm, and get this picture...without a wince:

iamfood.jpg


Seriously...even when the do "Draw blood"...it's not that bad. I was bit by my Ball Python, who, allthough young, still had a much larger skull than my corn. This was the aftermath:

DSC_8231.jpg


A day later, you couldn't even tell where I'd been bitten. :)
 
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