I will admit I’ve been bitten many many times over the years since I’ve owned five or six snakes my whole life so not a huge big deal to me but by the same token our goal with the BP was to have something fairly docile without a feisty attitude so that my six-year-old little girl could hold it often and be respectful and learn it’s tendencies etc.
Overall the snake is very shy by nature and while it has never bitten us or struck or hissed before it’s still never always seemed completely comfortable when out. It always seemed a little Squirrley and very head shy could be worse I suppose since it wasn’t striking out when we held it but didn’t always relax also.
The other issue is the tank… We have the 24 inch wide exo terra glass tank with the front doors and I’ve always thought the tank is just a little bit cramped… It has room for one hide on one side, one hide on the other and water bowl in the middle and that’s it so basically the snake stays in his cools side all of the time and sticks his head out when he’s not sleeping or resting.
If we ever go near the front of the tank he becomes very active almost like he searching for food or hunting. He has eaten like a champ and has never missed a meal we always feed him on a regular schedule every five or six days frozen R/T pups which seem really small for him as they are about half of his thickest diameter of his body.
He just finished his last one and I went ahead and ordered him five weaned rats and also 15 small rats so I will weigh them out when they arrive today and feed him smallest to largest I am hoping that he’s just always really hungry and these will help suffice his appetite.
So I just fed him the last small rat pup last night and this morning he was sticking out of his hide looking around so I open the front door in front of him, my hands were clean and I haven’t handled any food and he started coming towards me a little bit so I was thinking maybe he was just being friendly so I stuck slowly the back of my hand near him so that if he struck he wouldn’t necessarily be able to latch on as well and he immediately hit it. Obviously didn’t hurt startled me more than anything broke the skin just a little bit… See pictures below.
I have always taken him out of the tank from above - he curls up like crazy when I remove his hide but I don’t know any other way of taking him out because going out him from the front seems destined for danger LOL
Hopefully this was just a one time thing and I have a new PVC animal plastics tank here that I’m setting up in the next week with no top access so I am concerned a little bit about reaching him to get him since he associates anything coming in from the front with food.
Any suggestions on how to handle that with the new tank would be great! Him striking me is not a big deal at all it’s happened many times over the course of my reptile handling but I really would prefer for my six-year-old not to get bit for fear that that will make her afraid of the snake as she’s only six years old and can’t quite process it like we can.
Here is how he normally sits:
Here is the casualty from today’s attack LOL
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