bp bites

[frankykeno]

I also wanted to ask about gloves. Someone posted once that he/she would rather see a confident owner wearing gloves than a nervous handler without. What kind of gloves do people use? I think I saw someone say thin leather once. Any other kinds work well?

Many thanks!

That would have likely been me. I know a lot of folks aren't big on using gloves with ball pythons but I figure you use what works for you until you feel ready to do otherwise. Just sensible I think.

Personally I keep a pair of medium grade gardening type gloves around. Not thick enough to lose fine control and touch but thick enough to slow down a bite. Any snake with larger teeth is going to get through most likely but not by much and the gloves will take most of the hit. You can find those at any major department or house/garden store.

I'd suggest you start a handling routine for your snake. I think these snakes do very well with simple routines for their lives - one for feeding, another for enclosure cleaning, another for handling. Just stuff like a certain way you pick up the snake or touching it first to let it know you are about to lift it, that sort of thing. Make handling sessions short, calm and easy on both you and the snake. Each successful handling experience builds a calm routine that reinforces for you and your snake that handling is no big deal and nothing to get tense over.

Take your time and go easy. This snake will be part of your life for many years so there's no real rush. Ball pythons aren't a social animal that needs to be handled constantly so once or twice a week for a few minutes is enough really to establish a handling routine. Avoid handling for 48 hours after feeding and personally I don't like to handle the snakes for anything other than maintenance purposes on the day of feeding since they know their feeding routine and tend to be very hyped up and waiting to strike at dinner.

Btw, of the two bites the quick slap and release bite is the far more common one, in my experience. Also bp's really aren't a big "bite first ask questions later" type of snake so most of them don't do a ton of biting preferring to withdraw into the safety of their coils (hence the whole ball knickname).

Just take it slow, wear gloves if you need to for now - you and you're snake will be fine I'm sure.