Does your snake ever bite or strike?

Since I got on here and started looking around, I have seen many pictures and comments pertaining to ball pythons biting. I was just wondering how common this really is? My snake, a 9-year-old BP, has never once ever shown any sign of aggression. To the contrary, my snake is a big wussy. lol. He is very tame and timid. Very loving with a huge personality. How many people deal with an aggressive snake? I am really just curious.

I've only had new hatchlings be kind of nippy. They all outgrew it. Ball pythons get their name from balling up. They would rather ball up than fight. So its not exactly the norm for BPs to be aggressive for reasons other than insecurity, hunger, or human error. There are exceptions of course, but in general not common with the species.

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that's what I thought, but I have seen a lot on here and other sites of it happening. I think human error might be the main culprit huh?

I've yet to be biten by any of my BPs, though my Mojave is very "vocal". Very rarely can I handle without getting hissed at. He never actually does anything about it, and is quick to calm down. That is until I put him back in his tub, where he will hiss again. Strangely he doesn't mind whenever my Girlfriend picks him up. Recently my little Pastel has started acting the same way, she however actually striked at my GF a couple times, but didn't connect. Other than those two, all our other BPs have been very calm and just pretty adverage in their temperment. Most of which actually enjoy being taken out to be handled. Haven't gotten the chance to see how well behaved my new female Spider is, since she's still in the "hands off phase."

But for the most part Ball Pythons are generally curious and shy, and are not prone to bite unless the keeper is careless during feedings.

I have a few ball pythons and most of them are nice.

I do have one who does seem to be more defensive and does often strike at me, although she has not bit me yet.

So...it might not just be human error? Some BP's might be naturally aggressive? My snake actually lets me touch his head and pet him under the chin lol. I only own one snake, and actually didn't raise it. I have only had him for a year and a half and he is nine years old. Never even showed aggression during the transition stage or move.

Out of all of mine I've only had one ball python bite me, one corn snake, and my coastal carpet: all of which were my fault (smelling like a feeder and getting too close). Human error!

I've had several BP's hiss but none has ever offered to take a swipe at me. OTOH my MBK is so food-driven I'm hook training her.

Tip: don't handle your king snakes after picking steamed crabs.

My ball? Never.

My tree pythons and baby bloods? Yes.

I've been bitten by 2 ball pythons, one being a large adult male. The adult male's bite HURT. He grabbed the top of my hand, latched on and coiled and stayed there for 20 minutes. I had to pry his mouth loose with a popsicle stick. I'm pretty sure I still had rat smell on my hand.

I've been dealing with snakes for 4 years now and i have yet to be bit.

My Ball has struck occasionally (in my direction) when startled (spot cleaning or getting ready to feed). Obviously I try and avoid this, but it has happened. I haven't been bit (yet, by my Ball), as I can see when he is displaying aggressive behavior and I leave him be until he relaxes.

When Loki becomes startled, he will strike out; usually it's at my husband, whom he doesn't seem to like much. It doesn't seem like he's trying to bite, more a strike and retract away from danger to try to scare me.

They bite? :rolleye2:

I got bite once by my Pastel PH Pied when moving him from the feeding tub to his home. My Normal PH Pied struck at once when I first got her and was putting her in her home but nothing since. Human Error and nothing more.

I've been bitten by various species, but never a BP. I've been hissed at, but that's as bad as it got.
My worst bite was from a Kenyan Sand Boa. Drew blood and left a scar. I had not a clue that they were fast

Yep, tons of bites and strikes every Thursday night! ;)

MY girl (Russo BEL) will take a shot at me without hissing or showing aggression. I think it is from her curiosity or territorial because once she is out of the cage, she is very calm.

I have 20 bps and only 2 are "nasty". The others I can reach in without much caution, even on feeding days I just touch them and they know it's not a rat. The other two will try to tag you and I have to touch them on the head so they coil up and can't see what I am doing.

I voted no, but I was once. Long story short, I was holding my pied, I was being repeatedly shoved by someone (jostling the pied around), while arguing with the person shoving me and someone else. I made a fast hand movement, and felt a little pinch... looked down to see my pied backing away from my hand with a few spots of blood :P... I guess she could sense the tense situation and then a fast movement in front of her face prompted her to strike. Human error there for sure there. I think most animals would react negatively in that situation, a cat would probably destroy you haha. My pied has never shown any sort of aggression other than that. As for my other two, they've never struck at me once. My normal hissed for the first few months whenever I'd touch her to take her out, but she was just tiny (50g!) and startled.

I've had Gengar (my ghost stripe corn snake) for 8 months now and he hasn't even tried to bite me.

Its kind of funny I stumbled across this thread. Leaving on a vacation tomorrow and needed to feed my BP before I left(since my wife won't feed). My snake is normally very shy and timid, its only been 7 days since his last meal. As soon as I went to move his hide that he favors he came right out and went into strike position. I removed my hand and he took a strike at the glass. I gave him a few minutes and he calmed down and then proceeded on with getting him out and fed. I suppose that was my fault for smelling like food, even tho I had just washed my hands. No bite yet tho.

It pretty much depends on the personality of the snake. Most of mine have never bitten me and probably never will. A few will bite me because they have such a powerful feeding response and get carried away. A relatively small number are just very timid and frightened animals who will bite defensively and just want to be left alone.

Well, I got my first BP bite today. One of the yearlings nailed me during feeding. He had wrapped his mouse ok, and I was checking him later to make sure he'd really eaten it and not just left it, which he's done. He had eaten and was still hunting, and I put my hand up to block him as he tried to leave the tub. He struck, I swore, then I flipped him another mouse which he chased to the back of his tub and wrapped.

Mines strike and bite rats......

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Okay...I am new to this site (relatively) and have never posted a poll; therefore, I didn't know what I was doing lol. I probably would have worded/constructed it a little differently. No biggie. I guess I am just kinda lucky huh? My snake has never ever shown any bit of aggression towards me, even when hungry.

I've only been tagged twice by ball pythons.

No big deal :P

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Mine are all hiss no bite. Only time I'm ever even hissed at is when I have to do something with their setup while they're in shed.