bite

[TheDoctor]

just out of curiosity, how painful is a BP bite?

[Shaun J]

ive never been bitten b4 but from what ive heard,they are painful!Mostly from the shock of the bite.

[rex322]

not really, they feel like a bee sting...ive been bit numerous times.

[Jase]

honestly, in my exp with an constrictor, the bites usually aren't bad.....9 times out of 10, they strike, but dont grab/coil....almost as if they realize "whooops...thats not food"

but...in the case that a snake constricts, it can be a problem
a while back i was helping a local shop owner handle an 8ft albino burmese, and somewhere between getting it out of its tank, and taking it to its feeding area, it decided to give me a nice "hug" - but....it relinquished eventually....but left some bruising, and hurt pretty bad....i'm assuming if it would have bitten, it would have been alot worse

[Hoomi]

My wife got bit by one of my BP's a few weeks ago. We're still not sure why the snake struck at her. I was holding the snake and she was just fine with me; my wife was checking her out, though, and the snake nailed my wife at the base of the thumb. The bite broke the skin in several places, and left a rather sore bruise.

This earned the snake the name "Nippy". She's an aggressive feeder, though, and we're wondering if the skin oil my wife had put on might have triggered a feeding response. The oil contained some cedar extract, and if the mice that Nippy was fed before I got her had been kept on cedar shavings (not a good idea, I realize, but that wasn't in my control), that might have been enough.

[oorob00]

I have only been bitten once by a RTB. It wasnt bad at all, just like a needle prick. He bit me on my ring finger nuckle and pearced the skin and drew blood in about 7 or 8 places.

[Ginevive]

The only bad BP bite I have ever gotten was completely my fault./ I was feeding Goblin a rat and he lost interest in it, possibly because I had not heated it up just enough after thawing it. I was going in to remove the rat and he assumed I was food, and Wham he bit me and actually coiled a bit, but I reflexively jerked my arm away and he let go before he could coil around me. It hurt mildly afterward, but itched more than anything! And I had some funny teeth marks in my hand for about a week. But this was an extreme example; normally a bite is really fast, as in a defensive bite, and it barely even hurts. This one was my idiocy in putting my hand in his cage while it smelled like rat, so it is an xtreme, rare example.

[petie]

for the most part if you do get bitten it will be your fault, handling a rat or mouse and attemting to handle your snake without washing your hands. But if you did get a nip, it wouldn't hurt much anyway.

[EyeLashViper]

Ive been nailed several times by my big male Apok and it wasnt anything to even trip about....just a lightning quick strike, a short stinging sensation and then some little pinprick holes where the teeth penetrated my skin. Nothing really to get worked up about. Now a snake like an Emerald Tree Boa is something to NOT get bit by, what with those four huge fangs that they have !!!!!!!!!!

EyelashViper

[TheDoctor]

thanks. reason i asked is just for info and to be prepared.
other than you smelling like rodents and sudden movements, what are the other causes of bites?
thanks again.