BP's smell alcohol from the skin?

you are suppose to pour the alcohol on the snakes face. my buddy that breeds burms keeps a spray bottle of alcohol next to his set just in case on snaps he sprays them in the face and then they let go cuz it becomes unconfortable to breed... but thats all theory

Actually, according to the Barkers, a snake lets go when it's ready to let go. When I get home, I'll find the passage and post here.

I'm going to go with robin on this one. i don't think a couple of squirt of alcohol are going to make a snake let go... especially an angry snake.

my mil suggested this too for an angry snake. my husband swears by it :rolleyes:

Tracey and Dave speak specifically to the use of alcohol and that it doesn't always work. I'll find it and post it this evening to add to the topic! :)

Could it be that rather than the alcohol smell itself it is the rapid evaporation rate of the alcohol that makes the snakes let go? Alcohol evaporates when on a surface at a very high rate, and as evaporation is a cooling process it would be highly unpleasant for the reptile to have on it, because after the alcohol evaporated, it would leave behind the much-cooler liquids on the animal's head. Just a thought, because water would not evaporate nearly as quickly, so the cooling rate on the skin wouldn't be as rapid or drastic, and it wouldn't be so shocking to the snake.

Just my :2cent:!

Here, I'll beat ya to it, Robin. It's a rather long passage about snake bites and methods of getting them to let go if they're holding on for dear life, so I'll type snippets...


"When a python is holding onto an offensive bite, there is no sure way it get it to release its bite. As you might suppose, we've been told almost every imaginable way to make snakes stop constricting and release from a feeding bite. And in our line of work, we've been able to try nearly every single one of them, many of them more than once. We can say that, without exception, not one of them works, at least not evey time. Sure, you say, you held your hand with a python attached under cold water, and the python let go. Well, don't bet your life on this method, because it doesn't always work. In fact, it usually doesn't work. Yes, eventually the snake will have to breathe, but eventually could be twenty minutes to an hour.

It also doesn't always work to pour alcohol or spray mace in a python's mouth when your hand is in there. ... Neither does it work to hold a python under really hot water... And of course it doesn't work to gouge their eyes or bite their tails either.

It especially doesn't work to try to pry the python's mouth off the bite. ... It doesn't work to blow air in the nostrils of the python while it's biting, and it doesn't work to poke it in the mouth or on the body with a sharp implement. It doesn't work to stab into a python's body with a knife, because many pythons will keep constricting until they die or their prey quits struggling. .....

So how do you get a biting snake to let go? The thing that does work is to grit your teeth, quit struggling, be motionless and quiet. The snake will let go as soon as the instinctive feeding behavior passes, usually not a long time if you don't struggle. This method does the minimal damage to the biter and the bitten."

Dave & Tracy Barker in Pythons of the World, Vol II -- Ball Pythons, The History, Natural History, Care, and Breeding. (This book should be the foundation of any serious Ball Python keeper's library....just amazing!!!)

Thanks Judy! And to also point out, they mention an offensive bite (ie, feed response). Defensive bites are not bite and hold on bites, they are bite/release. And I agree, a must have book, as well as The Complete Ball Python by Kevin McCurley!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bearhart

I read somewhere that you can stop a giant python from constricting you by drinking alcohol.

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heh heh but if you are being consticted where are you going to get the alcohol? :8: Unless you were attacked while you where in a bar heh heh. :snake:

The Barker's method of just chillin and waiting for the snake to let go is great w/ a ball python but say you have a 12-15' retic or rock coiled around and trying to put your lights out? Not gonna work before you let out your last breath. The person in the room to help you better come up w/ a far better method.


I have seen several shows on Animal Planet and Discovery and Nat Geo about large snakes and the people who handle them and also are pro. keepers and the one common thing in every show is the alcohol trick followed closely by very hot water. They do state pour the alcohol in their eyes nose and mouth. Same with water.
Maybe just me but if I have or a friend has a large snake wrapped around them I think I will go for the alcohol or hot water, but hey, that's just me. :)