It finally happened...he bit me.

Ok, well, I'm a bit freaked out now. Hercules, my 6 month old BP, bit me when I tried to pick him up from the tank. Now, obviously, it didn't hurt whatsoever, and didn't even realize he had bitten me trully until I saw the 2 little red dots.

Here's my question, when am I supposed to try to pick him up again??

Thanks, little freaked out here.

He may just be having a bad day, like all creatures have. You may have spooked him, you may have had something that smelled "yummy" to him whever ever he bit you, etc. Don't fret on this, it happens to all of us. Give him some time and pick him up again. Just don't stand there and hesitate when about to pick him up, just grab him and if he bites, he bites... if not then great.

As for your hand smelling like a feeder, I always wash my hands before handling a snake to help not being bit.

Try to think a bit like little Herc. He's just a small snake, in the wild he'd be as much prey as a predator at this stage of life. You are some big humanoid thing that reached in over him and scooped him up, triggering his "oh my freakin gawd it's a PREDATOR!" response...so he nipped you. He had a choice to either ball up and hope like heck you go away and don't eat him...or nip and try to drive you away...just normal survival instincts at work. Totally reasonable thing to do if you are Herc. :) He's got not one clue you are his owner that loves him so it's up to you to get him a bit used to handling so it won't freak him out as much. Remember handling is something we want, not something the snakes need.

Try to develop handling habits and routines. Things like only handling when the snake is naturally awake in the evenings. When it's not hungry or you smell like rodent. We stroke all our snakes down their lower bodies for a moment prior to picking them up. We do this every single time so they have learned in their simple snake minds that this means it's time to be bugged by the silly humans. Snakes are such creatures of habit that given enough repitition of simple routines, they seem to figure it out and not react so strongly. We make sure that handling time in our house is quiet time. If the house is busy, the snakes don't come out. If the kids are acting hyper, they don't get to handle the snakes.

Remember though, this is a snake, not a puppy. It can and will occasionally nip or hiss sometimes for no reason that's apparent to you. That's just being a snake and just a part of sharing your life with one. Eventually you get to know your snake and you know when that hiss isn't just a "oh hiss off" hiss but rather a "I'm gonna bite you if you don't get the heck outta my face" hiss or a certain body posture means they aren't in the mood to be fussed with right now.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Try to think a bit like little Herc. He's just a small snake, in the wild he'd be as much prey as a predator at this stage of life. You are some big humanoid thing that reached in over him and scooped him up, triggering his "oh my freakin gawd it's a PREDATOR!" response...so he nipped you. He had a choice to either ball up and hope like heck you go away and don't eat him...or nip and try to drive you away...just normal survival instincts at work. Totally reasonable thing to do if you are Herc. :) He's got not one clue you are his owner that loves him so it's up to you to get him a bit used to handling so it won't freak him out as much. Remember handling is something we want, not something the snakes need.

Try to develop handling habits and routines. Things like only handling when the snake is naturally awake in the evenings. When it's not hungry or you smell like rodent. We stroke all our snakes down their lower bodies for a moment prior to picking them up. We do this every single time so they have learned in their simple snake minds that this means it's time to be bugged by the silly humans. Snakes are such creatures of habit that given enough repitition of simple routines, they seem to figure it out and not react so strongly. We make sure that handling time in our house is quiet time. If the house is busy, the snakes don't come out. If the kids are acting hyper, they don't get to handle the snakes.

Remember though, this is a snake, not a puppy. It can and will occasionally nip or hiss sometimes for no reason that's apparent to you. That's just being a snake and just a part of sharing your life with one. Eventually you get to know your snake and you know when that hiss isn't just a "oh hiss off" hiss but rather a "I'm gonna bite you if you don't get the heck outta my face" hiss or a certain body posture means they aren't in the mood to be fussed with right now.

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GREAT post!!



Welcome to the club!! Your keeping snakes. Your gunna get bit. :carrot:

I make sure there is no chance whatsoever that I smell like feeders. Since feeding my snakes today I've used my hand sanitizer 4 times and washed my hands another 5 times. I think I'm a little OCD about germs. oh well

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Try to think a bit like little Herc. He's just a small snake, in the wild he'd be as much prey as a predator at this stage of life. You are some big humanoid thing that reached in over him and scooped him up, triggering his "oh my freakin gawd it's a PREDATOR!" response...so he nipped you. He had a choice to either ball up and hope like heck you go away and don't eat him...or nip and try to drive you away...just normal survival instincts at work. Totally reasonable thing to do if you are Herc. :) He's got not one clue you are his owner that loves him so it's up to you to get him a bit used to handling so it won't freak him out as much. Remember handling is something we want, not something the snakes need.

Try to develop handling habits and routines. Things like only handling when the snake is naturally awake in the evenings. When it's not hungry or you smell like rodent. We stroke all our snakes down their lower bodies for a moment prior to picking them up. We do this every single time so they have learned in their simple snake minds that this means it's time to be bugged by the silly humans. Snakes are such creatures of habit that given enough repitition of simple routines, they seem to figure it out and not react so strongly. We make sure that handling time in our house is quiet time. If the house is busy, the snakes don't come out. If the kids are acting hyper, they don't get to handle the snakes.

Remember though, this is a snake, not a puppy. It can and will occasionally nip or hiss sometimes for no reason that's apparent to you. That's just being a snake and just a part of sharing your life with one. Eventually you get to know your snake and you know when that hiss isn't just a "oh hiss off" hiss but rather a "I'm gonna bite you if you don't get the heck outta my face" hiss or a certain body posture means they aren't in the mood to be fussed with right now.

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Awesome! Very helpful, thanks!:sunny:

i handle mines in the evening, and i always pick them up towards the lower area away from their head


i have a question though, what if the ball hisses, and you leave it alone, what if it starts thinking hissing= no handling?

i always lay my whole hand over the body if he's balled up or even close to it for a second or 2 then he knows it's me and i pick him up..but if he's wondering i reach in a grab him by mid section.

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Originally Posted by Kizerk

i handle mines in the evening, and i always pick them up towards the lower area away from their head


i have a question though, what if the ball hisses, and you leave it alone, what if it starts thinking hissing= no handling?

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Well best I can say is it depends on the hiss and on the snake. Perhaps some examples from our own collection.....

Malachi, our male BP has always been a hisser but he's not a striker or biter. Since he was a baby he always hisses when you disturb him...sort of snake grumbling really. It basically means nothing and we treat it as such and go about our business with him. Someday he might follow through but so far he hasn't and his body posture isn't tense either. He just likes to remind us he's a big ole boy and yadda yadda LOL.

Saoirse, a mature female, never hisses...ever. She also never strikes or acts up. One day I was cleaning her tub and she hissed...twice...very VERY loudly and VERY deeply. I took that as a definite "bugger off NOW" hiss and made sure her hide was between me and her at all times. Different snake...very different hiss and attitude.

Brannagh, another mature female. Never hissed...but tried to bite us every chance she could when we first got her. My husband always said she never hissed because she didn't want to give us any warning and miss the chance for a delicious bite of human LOL.

I guess basically you need to know what the hiss is about, what's driving your snake to act up a bit that particular time (if you can figure it out) and go from there. If we let hissing put us off, we'd have never handled Malachi LOL. I usually just grumble back at him..."oh hush up you!" If I hear a hiss or get jabbed at (a strike where the snake doesn't seem to be seriously trying to bite) I just pay attention to what's going on and judge whether what I am doing is worth pushing a snake that doesn't want to be pushed at that moment. It's a fine balance between not letting them "be in charge" versus ignorning their signals and respecting that they have boundaries too.

frankykeno, agreed. Phleg has hissed at me a couple times but it's a soft sort of, "I'd rather be left alone today" hiss. More like he's telling me he'd rather be left alone than bothered, but nothing serious. He gets bothered anyway. lol But I've heard a... South American Boa (?) do that nasty deep loud hiss that's a serious warning.

Yep when Saoirse hissed that deep hiss at me the hair on my arms literally stood up instinctively LOL. It was a definitive I mean business type hiss and I'd be a fool to ignore that warning. Doesn't mean I stopped cleaning her tub, just meant I needed to aware of her or just remove her to a carry container until I was done my work. Had I been intent on handling her though I would have probably just skipped it, just because I want to handle, doesn't mean I get to if it's going to stress a normally easy natured snake that much. With Brannagh, her aggressiveness had to be dealt with though. She was not even safe to change her water dish so in her case it was imperative that we get her to a point that any movement didn't trigger an aggressive strike/bite. Not just for us but for her too. I'm sure it's not good for a snake to be that constantly on alert and wasting energy like that.

My baby Ball python hissed at me today when i went to pick it up so i left it alone, he body didn't tense up but i could tell he didn't want to be bothered. I plan on attempting to handle him again because i want to continue a good handling schedule.

Mine hiss' at times and like Jo says, you can tell if you want to pick him up or not. Your the owner and know your snake better than anyone.

I can tell by the look in their eye if I want to reach in or not. The ones in the tubs are real easy but if you have to reach down into an aquarium its a little different. IMO.

I pick them up towards the middle to lower part of their body. This is how I pick them up from their feeder tubs too.

I've been bit once but not by a BP.

We have one male BP, George. He will get ya everytime is you don't watch him close. We use the hook to get him situated and once you pick him up he is fine.

so, i'm not much of an expert here but one thing i noticed nobody mentioned is that if you pick up a bp too soon after feeding they tend to get pretty snippy. too much handling while they're digesting can lead to accidental regurgatation... and nobody wants that! especially the snake!

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Originally Posted by python.princess

so, i'm not much of an expert here but one thing i noticed nobody mentioned is that if you pick up a bp too soon after feeding they tend to get pretty snippy. too much handling while they're digesting can lead to accidental regurgatation... and nobody wants that! especially the snake!

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As far as handling after feeding goes, I always wait for a few minutes after my BP has the tail down, and starts moving on her own again. Then the only handeling that she gets is from the tub back to her enclosure, and I let her digest for ~36 hours. Other than that she gets handled the other 5 days of the week. Some people have problems with their snakes not eating if they handle them on feed days, but I've never had a problem with Isis. Once again, this is entirely dependant on the snake and his/her personality. I've heard of snakes that took a few hours to feed, alone, in the dark, and if you looked in to check on it, it completely restarted the process and took a few more hours to even strike at the prey.

And for the handling in general, I always make sure to stroke someplace that's behind her face to let her know that I'm about to pick her up.