primarily starting this thread because i wanted to see how frequent this behavior is in big snakes in general but here’s the thing - tho i don’t live in Australia, i am also a member of Australian snake keeping forums and when i have seen scrub python keeping discussed it has been a common thing to talk about the size of their fangs (which are p extreme ngl) and “litres of blood” referencing the outcomes of being bitten and i have elsewhere seen them described as “guided missiles with fangs” and while every snake is an individual all of this is the direct opposite of my own experiences with my Southern Scrub Python, Irwin and i have actually noticed something extremely interesting which is this fake biting thing

ordinarily Irwin is extremely docile but also extremely active, reactive, curious and like hyper-intelligent and there have been 2 times he has “tagged” me - once on my right hand when i had eaten egg rolls prior to holding him without washing my hands and the other i was trying to adjust and stabilize his climbing perch and he again “tagged” my right hand but in both instances what I’ve noticed is it seems like he is make conscious decision to strike but to not use his teeth because in both instances if he truly wanted to bite me for real he absolutely could have but didn’t - it reminds me v much of observations in shark research where sharks are said to ram or bite out of curiosity so i was wondering if this was the case with big snakes, it’s frequency and is this a widely observed behavior and so on