Hi guys, I'm new to the forum as well as to the world of ball pythons. I got my first bite the other day and was hoping to trouble-shoot what I did wrong with some more experienced snake owners.
My boyfriend and I have both handled "Rachel", our four-month old spider female, quite regularly without previous issue. She's a super sweet girl, loves to curl around your wrist and chill there, or weave in between your fingers and make herself into a knot . The other day, Rachel was curled around my wrist, and had started to weave in between my fingers when she bit my pinky. The whole thing was super slow, I watched the whole thing and didn't even realize what was happening! She opened her mouth (I thought she was yawning) and while doing so, very slowly came to the direction of my finger and then very casually grasped my poor pinky in her jaw and clenched. It didn't hurt that bad, and only drew a small amount of blood, my main concern is making sure I didn't do anything wrong, or if I did, to learn what & how to fix what I'm doing. I really love my little girl and don't want to be causing her undo stress.
A little bit more info, when I pick her up out of her cage, I always pet her a bit to let her know I’m there, and then gently scoop her up out of the enclosure. I then sit down to hold her (I’m always afraid I’m going to drop her or something) and let her explore. I do work with animals, so I can have animal smell on me, but that day I had just showered & was wearing clean clothes. She’s just out of her first shed with us; it was the day before her feeding day, but it didn’t seem like a feeding bite/strike, it was suuuuper slow. My boyfriend saw the whole thing & is convinced it was an accident, as in Rachel was yawning and accidently got my finger in her mouth, but I thought I’d go to some more experienced people before buying into that theory.