Snake bite poll

I read somewhere that you shouldn't own snakes if you can't handle being bitten, as most snake-owners are bit at some point or another. This surprised me! Not that I'm squeamish about being bitten . . . it just seemed perhaps overly pessimistic. So I'm investigating, in my little poll.

(PS--this is my first poll, so if it doesn't show up, sorry!)

ive been struck at by two of my snakes, one was becasue i was fooling around in his cage, and he was on the oter side, so i didnt think hed mind, but he did (my fault) and the second time was by my newest snake, and thats becaue i took him out when he was sleeping, and he didnt really know me

my snakes arent the best at aiming ;) so they missed

Ive been bitten by baby burms and corns but they werent my snakes.

Not including encounters au naturale:

Kali (Red Blood) tagged me fresh on arrival - but transit is bound to make any snake grumpy so I didnt take it personally.

Lilith (Liasis fuscus) let me have it, but she tends to really telegraph her intentions so the bite I saw coming

http://www.madwag.com/herpics/pissoff.jpg
(posture = not a happy camper)

her recoil and vault over the opposite rim of the sterelite caught me totally offguard though lol.

(EDIT: and stupid handling error - after letting BPs rest on my neck while cleaning their enclosures I was doing the same with the California King, who found the BP scent rather appetizing and decided to try a nibble or three)

On another note If you enjoy getting bitten there is something wrong with you :) and you need mental help. If you keep snakes "or any other exotic or non exotic " animals much your going to be bitten its a fact of life unless you stay totally" hands off "
I have been bitten numerous times by various animals and believe me snakes arent the worst

I was struck at once by Elysia, but that was only a few days after I had gotten her, and she wasn't used to me yet and probably grumpy from her trip, but she loves me now and hasn't tried since ^_^ Though she has struck at a mouse at feeding time, made it drop out of the tongs, then try and go through her glass tank to get me. I was the hottest thing she could sense I guess, cause the mouse fell into her water dish and probably cooled it off a little ^_^ I dragged my finger across the glass tot he water bowl and she found it right away though.

Agreed, Robert - I'm more wary of gerbils and ferrets who can do more damage to tissue and then I'd be more worried about infection. If one of the snakes bite on the other hand, my immediate anxiety is over whether they've left behind any teeth and left an open socket that might wind up with an infection in THEM lol.

:? My big male BP, Apok has gotten me a few times since I got him about a year ago. He sort of has a more nasty disposition than my other BPs and does not like to have his head messed with. He dont even like being approached head on. If I disturb him in his hide he will let out a sibilant hiss of displeasure but he will mostly always tolerate being handled. Just a couple of times I think I pushed him too far and he zapped me. It wasnt really bad at all...just a quick bite, release sort of thing and it just stung for a few minutes. Bled a little but no big deal. All said though, I would not want to get bit by a large Burm or Retic.

EyeLashViper 8)

i've only had my bp for 2 weeks now but he has been very friendly so far :lol: , he doesnt like it if you put anything near his face but he just darts back and goes on somewhere else.

when i first got Jeeper, i was letting him crawl around on me and the couch. i was wearing a hoodie and he was crawlin around on it and i glanced down and he was starring at me...so i just kept starring....and BOOM...he struck at me and scared the hell out of me....hasn't struck at me since!...i'm more cautious now..but i wasn't even doing anything to make him strike....just kinda minding my own business.

thanks in part to this poll i dreamed about nellie biting me like ALL night long! she was totally out of control. everytime i tried to handle her she bit the crap out of me. in reality she has never bitten or struck at me or anything. but this post must have got me thinking about it and since i read it not too long before going to bed i guess it was on my mind. what a restless night!

I vote "No, but i've been struck at" and that has only happened once by a bp. I think it was just a head bump saying go away. It was during Andy's first shed after i got him and that was four months in my care. Now .. other snakes is another story. I've been bitten so many times i lost count ( never really counted tho ) a while ago. Most of my bites have come from my late baby boa Homer. They werent bad, but scared the crap outa me every time he did it. I got a nasty bite from a garter snake last week tho. I was trying to get him off of the road, and he didnt want to go. He got me under my right arm in the tender area .. i think that is why it still kinda bugs me.

I never got bit by me bp! once she was close to strike b/c I was touching her head to much.

Ah failed to clarify - by BP's count is 0 :D

I've been tagged a couple of times.

-My mother in law was wearing strong smelling lotion (I didnt realize when I handed my BP over to her) and he struck at her. She freaked out and dropped him (luckily only fell about a foot to land on the lid of his enclosure) and I went to pick the poor guy up to put him back and he nailed me. He was pretty spooked.

-I was at the reptile expo handling a WC ATB. Nuff said there. He struck at my wifes head three times and got me once.

-Last but not least, when my BCI was a neonate, my wife was looking closely at him. He wasnt too impressed so he kissed her on the nose.

I think getting bit once or twice is good for us as owners. Helps us to remember that they are wild animals no matter how tame you think they are.

I've been tagged by rat snakes a bunch of times. I've been tagged once by my house snake as I was dropping the mouse into her sterilite.

If you did everything by the book though, using snake hooks, forceps, etc. whenever handling your snake and prey, you should never get bitten. I mean, people who keep hots can't exactly afford to get bitten now.

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Originally Posted by hhw

\ I mean, people who keep hots can't exactly afford to get bitten now.

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what's a hot?

Venomous snakes are referred to as 'hots' by a lot of herp hobbyists.

The cutest thing in the world is being bitten by a 5-inch-long baby garter snake. They actually think they can do some damage to you!

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Originally Posted by green_man

I've been tagged a couple of times.

-My mother in law was wearing strong smelling lotion (I didnt realize when I handed my BP over to her) and he struck at her. She freaked out and dropped him (luckily only fell about a foot to land on the lid of his enclosure) and I went to pick the poor guy up to put him back and he nailed me. He was pretty spooked....

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introducing the newest line of fragrances from the bath and body works collection: warm fuzzy, frozen/thawed hopper and freshly pre-killed rat.

haha yeah... i dont know about you guys, but freshly pre-killed rat sounds like a very nice smelly body spray to me!!

i prefer the warm fuzzy ;)

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Originally Posted by hhw

I mean, people who keep hots can't exactly afford to get bitten now.

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Sadly .. this does happen far too often.

My bp Dante has never bitten me. Once I routinely opened his cage to clean out his water bowl, he lunged at me but didn't actually strike me. He stopped about an inch from my hand, flicked his tongue, then proceeded to wrap himself around my wrist and climb up. I'm still baffled by that one.

My girlfriends cornsnake though, that's a whole 'nother story. She lets everyone who comes over hold it, regardless if they want to or not. It's an absolute angel around them. God forbid if I come near it though. Every single time I've approached it or attempted to handle it, it will strike at me multiple times. I hate that snake so much. I can't even be in the same room as it for a short amount of time without it coming out and watching my every move. It just hates me. Sometimes I hope it will escape and somehow find it's way across the condo and into my bp's cage. I'm sure Dante would make short work of it. But then I'd have a hysterical girlfriend on my hands.. that would be a bad thing I think.

So except for the one psychotic corn serpent, I've never suffered any other ill tempered snakes.

i've never been around snakes much until Pandora. She's the biggest sweetheart and never bit her previous owners, either. They have a 6 yr old kid, Brendan, and he always messed around with her. She still didnt bite! As much as she loves everyone else, however, she does NOT like my dad one bit. he tried standing across the room once to watch her eat and she just stared through the glass and flicked her tongue at him. She attacked the mouse within seconds of him leaving. I actually saw her eyes follow him out the door! It's pretty funny, if my dad p*sses me off, i threaten to send Pandora after him!

did someone say something about getting tagged. Oh yeah growing up can't count the banded water snakes, corns, rats, and so on. As far as pets just a really nasty retic I used to own. Rescued it from a person that was keeping it in a dog crate this was a 12 foot snake. When my first child was born we decided to sell her to a breeder. but as far as getting tagged oh yeah.

My wife got nailed by the new girl today when I had the snake out for a few minutes. We're not sure what the problem was, whether she didn't like the smell of my wife's lotion, or whether she thought my wife was going to take her off the warm wrist she'd wrapped around (mine). Based on what she got from the snake, and what we've both gotten before from birds, I think we'll take the snake bite anyday. I still have a scar on my hand from a Goffin Cockatoo bite.

So far, having owned a BP for almost a year now, I haven't gotten bitten yet, but I know it's bound to happen someday.

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Helps us to remember that they are wild animals no matter how tame you think they are.

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Excellent point,greenman!! I love my BP, and treat her like she's my baby, but I try to never forget that she is still a wild creature. And lets not forget, reptiles, in general, don't have too much of a brain to begin with.

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Originally Posted by vinnimac

And lets not forget, reptiles, in general, don't have too much of a brain to begin with.

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I know some people like that too ... including me most days ;)

I haven't got bitten YET, but there's alot of good years ahead. My copperhead tagged my buddy on his thumb. He needed 3 bags of anti-venom. Well thats another story.

doh! :shock: i bet that wasn't all too pleasant for him. :bandaid:

My buddy had them really tame and handleable. Which I think is really foolish. He uses them for educational deals @ schools and places like that. Well the dumbass got tagged, right on his thumb. It turned black then pink again. still swollen 2 1/2 weeks later. It was his fault of course and he knows it.....ever see NBK when the indian tells the story of the woman who rescued the frozen snake? The woman said I helped you, fed you, cared for you and you bit me.......the snake said......yeah, but I am still a snake! was funny in the movie..

I've been bitten by a cali king before, but it wasn't a strike. I was handling him and he was being nosey and moving around through my hand and such and he put his nose up to my finger and just calmly placed his mouth over it and bit down lol, I could feel him trying to start swallowing, it felt weird.

Never been tagged before, Roo made a lunge at me just once but it was a stress/cold thing. The Anaconda at the New England Aquarium made a mini-lunge at me once when I was in her tank cleaning out poo, and it scared me so much I almost made a poo of my own. :shock: I'm not counting myself as special, though, just lucky. I know I *will* get bit one of these days, hopefully not by a hot patient though.

Unfourtunately, it comes with the territory. More often then not though, the vet poses more danger to you. I was working as a Vet. Assistant in an animal hospital and the vet missed the dog and came severly close to giving me the rabies shot :shock: The needle went into my thumb, but he didn't push the syringe in (thank god)!

Oh man! I've been hit in the face with a light fixture, stepped on, accidentally had one of my fingers clipped with a pair of cat clippers, and tons of other injuries working in the clinic. Not to mention all the chaos involved with giving shots. But hey, at least you didn't get rabies! ;)