I finally got bit!

[JRLongton]

Just this morning as I was getting ready for work.

My sunkissed diffused corn, Cirice, is the offender. I don't want to say she's dumb, but she certainly isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. When feeding, she has a lot of trouble finding the head part of her mouse, despite having bitten it. She'll even seem to lose the mouse altogether sometimes, despite being wrapped around it. By the time she eventually finds the head and starts swallowing, the mouse is pretty well battered in substrate. So I started using a feeding tub for her and have been using it for some time.

At dinner time, I take her out, place her in the tub, giver her the mouse, and while she's constricting, I place the tub back in her enclosure, then she slithers out after a while.

Well, last night was a pretty heavy feed and I noticed that she just lay in the tub for a while after eating. Then this morning I noticed she was still in the tub and thought that maybe she was so stuffed she couldn't crawl out.

I'll be a nice guy and help her out, I thought.

I took out the tub grabbed Cirice. Right away she was in feeding mode. Just the way she turned her head I knew it was coming. She struck and coiled right up my arm. And I needed to catch a train! I peeled her off but the coils went back up. She even had her teeth hooked in so I had to carefully pry her off.

It was clearly a feeding response. Of course, I've heard of cage aggression but I didn't really think that Cirice was smart enough to associate a tub with feeding. I mean she can't even find a mouse that she's wrapped around!

Well, it was inevitable. I've been keeping snakes for a while and this was my first bite. I was so audacious as to think that maybe I'd never get bit!

I'm actually kind of happy it happened, though. That "first" is over and done, and I can carry on and look forward to my next bite!

And I even made my train!

[AnnieHeart]

Ouch!

[Skyrivers]

Congratulations! I guess.

Sent from my N9560 using Tapatalk

[Zincubus]

I think I went three years before my first bite then I got 'done' three times in as many weeks .

Maybe I just got complacent.. who knows . I still get the occasional nip and it's always my fault ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[tttaylorrr]

pics or it didn't happen!

i tease. welcome to the bite club! that's why you should just feed in the enclosure.

[Bogertophis]

Thanks so much for giving me a good laugh!

Some snakes seem to have better eyesight than others...but very few identify things visually anyway, they go by motion, scent & sometimes warmth.
You'll know for next time... She was still in "feed mode". Much easier to put a container inside her own cage & entice her there with the prey, so
it doesn't get full of substrate. And use feeding tongs...

[JRLongton]

And use feeding tongs...

Oh, I always use tongs.

What really surprises me is that she seems "trained" to expect food in the feeding tub.

[67temp]

Welcome to the club. It's gotten to the point for me I just laugh it off most of the time. I've lost count of how many times I've been bit. The worst is when you recoil in surprise and punch yourself in the face. lol

I was working with someone else's retic this past weekend. I put a hand under his belly to support him and he got startled. For the first day you could see all rows rows of teeth. Now it's down to just a couple of dots and a bruise.

A week ago I was working with my baby ATB. The feisty little thing must have tried biting 30 times in the 10-15min I was working with him. Eventually he realized I wasn't going to eat him and just gave up being defensive.

[Bogertophis]

Oh, I always use tongs.

What really surprises me is that she seems "trained" to expect food in the feeding tub.

Remember that to you, it's just a feeding tub...but to her, it SMELLS like DINNER. Glad you're using tongs, I wasn't sure so I mentioned.

In the wild, snakes have to learn their way around; to survive weather extremes, they must find their way back to safe hideaways, so don't under-
estimate their ability to remember & recognize important things. And scents are a big part of that.

[Craiga 01453]

I'm actually kind of happy it happened, though. That "first" is over and done, and I can carry on and look forward to my next bite!

And I even made my train!

Welcome to the club!! You always remember your first!!