Bite Club - First Bite from BCI Behira/Hook Training

[dakski]

Behira left me a big present when I went to check on her today. Lots of poop, urine, and urate.

She was fine, but I did use the hook to stroke her gently, and then pick her up.

She is usually chilling, but last night was cruising, maybe looking for a spot to poop. I know what to look for now and will use the hook.

[Aedryan Methyus]

Any secrets to hook training?

Or basically, you just take the snake out of the tank with a hook?

Not trying to be snarky, or oversimplify, but wondering if there is more to it?

Sorry this happened to you... I'm still on a winning streak, but I know that becoming a member of the snake bite club is imminent... lol With hook training you do not want to pick the snake up with the hook, because it can damage their ribs. All you need to do is rub the snake with the hook gently then simply keep the hook between the snake's head and your hand as you pick it up. That in itself will help prevent a bite if the snake does happen to strike. The idea behind hook training is to condition the snake to realize that when the hook comes in it's time to come out and not time to eat...

[Sauzo]

Behira left me a big present when I went to check on her today. Lots of poop, urine, and urate.

She was fine, but I did use the hook to stroke her gently, and then pick her up.

She is usually chilling, but last night was cruising, maybe looking for a spot to poop. I know what to look for now and will use the hook.

My snakes are usually out and about most of the night unless they ate. And the closer to feeding day it gets, the more they are out and the more they are interested in movements around their cage. It's normal for a snake to be semi active at night. The snakes you see that are like fat logs that dont move are the ones that are overfed.

[Dutti]

I have never used a hook with my 21 months old BCI and I will never du. He is a bit over 5 foot and 2300 grams and eats only live. He is eating jumbo rats now, although he did not eat since 2 months now because it’s winter. He bit me twice, first time was the first day I got him, he was a month old baby not yet tamed. Second time was more of pushing me away than a bite. He was just stressed because of my continuous movement very close to his cage for a week long as I was trying to set up his adult enclosure. Even if he reaches 10 feet, I would not use a hook. I never used a hook with my ATB although he was nippy as hell the first 4 months when I got him. He is tamed now

[dakski]

So, I talked to a few other people I trust with BCI's and other snakes. Jeff Ronne, at Boaphile, who made my tanks, and has bred BCI's for 30+ years, had the best answer for what probably happened.

Behira was cruising for food, I reached in to pick her up, her head was around the house and couldn't see my hand, felt warm, and WHAM! Feeding response. Jeff said they know pretty quick if it's not a rat/food and she was totally calm after and let me pick her up etc. She probably thought, "damn, not food, oh well."

If it was an aggression bite, the consensus is there would have been more fanfare, hissing, biting, etc.

Jeff recommended, as many here did, to hook, etc. train. Touch her with something other than my hand before picking her up, so she knows it's not food time. He said he does this with all his large Boa's, as they can (like Behira does) have a strong feeding response.

I have been using the hook and no problems. I am glad I learned my lesson at 700G, not 3000G!

Now I just have to get my fiancé to NOT hold this against her. LOL. I am working on it. I grew up with reptiles, she did not.

Thank you everyone for the input! I'll keep you in the loop on my success with getting her not to think I am a rat!

Also, to be clear, I am more worried about her biting because of my fiancé and friend (my friend was over to watch the Super Bowl) who are now skeptical. I understand it can happen.

Thanks again and everyone be well!

[Godzilla78]

I'm in the bite club, but it was just snappy baby ball pythons. Like, barely needed a bandaid bites. After about 6 months old, they chill out. If I had a 6+ foot long snake, I might be a bit more careful I suppose.
If I had 8+ foot long snakes, I would consider hook training for sure.

[dakski]

I'm in the bite club, but it was just snappy baby ball pythons. Like, barely needed a bandaid bites. After about 6 months old, they chill out. If I had a 6+ foot long snake, I might be a bit more careful I suppose.
If I had 8+ foot long snakes, I would consider hook training for sure.

LOL. I can tell you that at 3 1/2 Feet or so and 700G, Behira definitely drew blood. However, I barely felt it. Again, more annoyed at me than anything.

She's calm 99% of the time, and I imagine with hook training, she will be raising that average percent!

I will say I've had BP's nail me in the past and if I had to compare, this was worse, but barely. Had she wrapped and gnawed, I probably wouldn't be laughing as hard.

Also, not so funny at 10 pounds either!

Patience, working with her over time, getting to know her better, hook training, and putting it in perspective. I've had snakes for about 20 years of my almost 38 years on this earth. Two bites ever! Seriously, perspective is important. I keep them as pets, not to breed, so I wouldn't keep an aggressive animal. Behira is not that at all.

Right now I am working on convincing my fiancé, slowly, that Behira is still chill. I'll give her (my fiancé) some time. Behira is already back to chill!

[cchardwick]

I have two retics and this is how I use my hook - I basically have it handy when I open the tub because I'm never quite sure what mood the snake will be in. With my big female albino retic that weighs about 35 pounds I hardly ever have to even think about using the hook. However, a few times she has been in a serious feeding mode and either jumped out or stretched out towards me real aggressively like she was looking for a rat. In this case I simply use the hook to move her head to one side, she basically 'gets it' right away and will immediately snap out of feeding mode.

My big girl is never aggressive but my 'smaller' super dwarf retic was a terror when I got him and snapped and bit at everything, sent out musk and pee every time you picked him up. He is much better now at about 20 pounds but still a bit more unpredictable. I almost always use the hook to touch my male retic just to get an idea of his mood. then I use it (sometimes) to guide his head away from me while I touch him with my hand to get an idea of his mood. Usually after about 10-20 seconds with the hook he knows it's not feeding time and I know he is not being aggressive so I put down the hook and pick him up. He is still a bit squirrely compared to my female and really doesn't like to be held. If he snaps at the hook even once I don't even try to pick him up or mess with him until the next day (or several days later).

Also, there are times when I never pick up my snakes. Never startle a sleeping snake and try to pick him up, they can remember that for a long time and get pretty mean. I usually open up the tub and wait about 30 seconds before even thinking about touching them or using the hook. If they are motionless there's a chance they are sleeping, move slow and cautiously. If they are moving around slowly there's a good chance things will turn out for the better.

Also, when my retics 'buck' when I touch them I don't even try to pick them up. That is their way of telling you to back off and leave them alone. If you push them they will be in a bad mood the whole session. Also, when my retics go into shed mode they don't eat and don't want to be handled. I don't even try to touch them until they shed out. However, I can still clean up around them and spray down the substrate, they pretty much stay balled up in a corner.

As everyone stated above I don't use the hook to pick up my snake or even try to pick up any part of the snake at all. I use it to gently and slowly touch them to measure their mood and for my more aggressive male to guide the head away from me when I first go in with my hands.

Hope this helps!

[Dutti]

I just don’t know why people make a big deal out of a bite. My ATB bit me countless times, last bite was yesterday and it bleeded. As long as it’s not in the face I don’t give a :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: about it. Actually i got used to it and find it sweet now

[Zincubus]

It's not the bites that hurt me it's when I jerk my hand away to dodge and smash it into the glass door ..


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