Suddenly Scared?

[Crawly's Mom]

Hey guys... I had a situation arise and I am not sure what to do with it lol. I stopped by petco the other day and was looking at some of their balls. While I was holding one of the little guys he struck at me, didn't land the bite, but struck two or three times. Since then I find myself flinching around my own balls.

Neither Crawly nor Parker has ever shown any sign of striking at me, if anything when I flinch they ball up. Has anyone ever had this happen where they find themselves nervous over bites? I know its bound to happen eventually, it just frustrates me to no end. I have never been afraid of snakes before, never had to worry about flinching or anything. Now all of a sudden I feel gun shy almost.

Ugh... help. I don't want to be afraid of my own snakes! lol.

[Skittles1101]

You keep snakes...you're going to get bit.

It's a normal reaction I guess...you probably shouldn't be carrying that fear or adrenaline home with you...

[ballpythonluvr]

I just acquired a little male pastel hatchling over the weekend. He was as calm as could be at first but today when I went to handle him he was striking at me and hissing up a storm. I did not let that discourage me from holding him. You are a snake keeper and you will be bitten at some point. Little ones can be like this due to the fact that they are just babies. Please do not let this make you afraid. Snakes can sense we are nervous or scared and that just makes them more nervous.

[purplemuffin]

Just relax.. Know the body language of your snakes. You survived your last snake bite, you can tough it through another one if it happens!

The more positive experiences you have with your snakes, the less that one bad one will affect you. Holding a snake and getting bitten once can be overcome by holding snakes 200 times without getting bitten.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

You will get over it in time. Its normal not to want to get bit.

[Orijin0XazN]

I'm the opposite. It's not very painful actually. I got bitten a few times and didn't know until I saw little tiny blood spots. I'm so used to them trying to bite me. Now I know exactly when they are going to strike. Try to use gloves for the more crazy ones. LOL

[Crawly's Mom]

Well my issue wasn't that I got bitten. The little guy didn't actually bite me, just struck at me. Maybe part of my problem is I don't know how badly it will or will not hurt? It wasn't even one of my snakes that attempted to bite me. Crawly and Parker both are quite calm when being held, have never even given a sign they might bite me. For some reason I am just twitchy now.

Like last night I had Crawly out for her normal ten minute session to get her used to being handled. She turned quickly and I jumped a little. Granted as soon as I did it I was like, wtf is wrong with me? She didn't do anything wrong, just surprised me and I jumped. I guess it may just take a little time. Its just weird that it pops up out of the blue.

[Skittles1101]

It doesn't hurt at all. I've been bitten by both boas (small!) and ball pythons, and it's so quick you don't even get a chance to realize you were bit. Now a feeding response bite....those look painful. Make sure you never smell like rat

[cmack91]

dont worry, once you get bit you'll ask yourself why you were so scared, but yes i have done the same

[AK907]

Like Leah said, bites aren't a big deal. The worst part about most bites is waiting to be bitten. Every time my wife and I have been bitten it ends up in us laughing. I've never been bitten by a ball python (a few have tried), but I've been bitten by just about everything else from corns/kings/milks/bulls to kenyan sand boas, juvenile red tail boas, indonesian tree boas, an adult dumeril boa, a bunch of carpet pythons, countless amazon tree boas and more. I have far more respect for bites from their dinner. Rats, mice, asf, etc bites HURT!

My advice since you haven't been bitten is to get bit! It won't bother you anymore.

For reference, here is a bite from our 5.5ft dumeril boa male that got 3 fingers. This is worse than your little balls would do.