Suddenly Scared?

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.

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...

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.

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. :D

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

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:rolleye2:

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. :confused:

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 ;)

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

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. :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rist/015-1.jpg

My hatchling phantom bit me. It doesn't hurt at all, don't worry :)

I'm kinda in the same boat, after feeding, I went to pick mine up to put him in his cage and I got a REALLY strong sensation that he was going to try and bite me...I was really hesitant to put my hand in there, specially since this is my first snake.

Snake bites arent bad at all. Now rat bites hurt I worry more about getting bitten by my daugthers rats then any snake. :P

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Originally Posted by RestlessRobie

Snake bites arent bad at all. Now rat bites hurt I worry more about getting bitten by my daugthers rats then any snake. :P

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Although I don't normally fear bites from our pet rats as they are far more intelligent and predictable than snakes, I was bitten by one of our old pet rats when he had a seizure. I ended up spending three days in the hospital on antibiotics because infection set in overnight.

So, I rest my case. Fear your snakes food more than your snake because this can happen:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1009102332.jpg

It is completely normal to be jumpy a little after a near miss. We always fear the unknown.

I was a little nervous about getting bitten at first, but once it actually happened, I burst out laughing. Scared the poor snake even worse. I could not believe that's what I was so scared of. There wasn't even any blood, you almost needed a magnifying glass to even see the bite.

Once I got that first life-altering killer bite out of the way, now I couldn't care less about being bitten. I had a 700 gram pastel I was checking out at a show nail me in the palm. She was in blue and really cranky. I knew she had struck at me, but I didn't jump because I knew it was nothing to worry about. Half an hour later, I happened to notice a tiny red spot on my palm, which I wiped at and finally figured out it was blood. I showed it to my husband, and started laughing. He asked what was so funny, I told him apparently that pastel had bitten me and I never even felt it.

So don't beat yourself up about being jumpy, that is normal. Bottom line, if you can't get used to it within a few days of trying, it might be time to find a willing snake to bite you and help you realize there is nothing to be afraid of.

Gale

It's much easier once you are bitten for the first time. You really don't even feel it, all it does is startle you. :)

I feel like I just keep getting startled. Its funny because right now I twitch and the girls just ball up. Some killer snakes I have, right? They don't seem interested in striking me at all. If its anything like when Parker eats I will know when she'll strike, she acts like a rattle snake. Gets in an s-curve and flicks her tongue a lot, even shakes her tail a little before she attacks her rats. Its kinda funny. I still jump when they strike the rats and I'm using tongs. I swear, I just need to get bit lol.

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Originally Posted by LGray23

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 ;)

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The one time that I ws bitten was a feeding response bite and even then I laughed and showed my teensy bite mark off to my boyfriend. To the OP, you'll live ;) it's not a huge deal to get tagged by a little guy!!!

I agree with the others... you WILL eventually get bitten, it WILL get you over the fear, and you WILL laugh at how insignificant & painless it truly is. :D That doesn't mean you're weird to be jumpy, as it's human nature to jump when something's lunging at you with teeth bared - but at least with these smaller snakes, it's really no big deal if/when they make contact. Now a Burm, on the other hand, could probably do some major damage (so thankfully they're quite docile by nature).

As somebody else already mentioned, rodent bites are so much worse - I fear them much more than my snakes! My cats can also do some damage, especially my evil 10yo Persian who feels we need permission to pet him. :rolleyes: I have scars from that kitty, while the snake bites have never left a permanent mark.

P.S. My 2010 Mojave girl, Juliet, has terrible aim when I feed her (f/t) on tongs... even knowing it won't hurt from such a little snake, I still have a minor coronary whenever that wide-open mouth comes straight for my arm. I've learned not to flinch, though! I also have a little corn snake who's MEAN as all get-out, and tries to bite me whenever I go near her. Once I held her for a few minutes, and just let her go to town on my arm (in an attempt to calm her temperament). She eventually got tired of it, and I was left with nothing more than a few pin-sized drops of blood. Wanna borrow her to get over your fear? LOL :P

As others have said it really doesn't hurt at all. Once it does it'll happen it will be so fast you won't even know it til after.

Just don't be hesitant and scared when you're handling them though, it seems like they can pick up on it and get even more defensive. I have a little male that's just a complete jerk, and at first I would try to distract him before I picked him up but that just made him even more nippy. Now I just reach right in and snag him and he doesn't strike at me as much, just hisses and complains but overall seems less defensive.