New Owner, First Bite!

[seaharbor]

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.

[seaharbor]

I forgot to mention, Rachel does have a pretty severe wobble. It's gotten better after she's gotten use to the enclosure and to us, and she feeds well, etc. I'm not sure if that would have anything to do with it or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

[200xth]

Snakes don't bite in super slow motion. I would say your boyfriend is correct.

[dgring]

Dosent sound like it was anything to do with feeding or being hungry or smelling of animal as a feeding bite is ussaly a latch, (they bite then constrict [squeeze] your hand and dont let go until forced) but it sounds like a defensive bite (when their scared) but it sounds like you did everything right (letting them know your there…) also they strike very quickly and your theory may be right, (if its possible…) but otherwize, no idea

- - - Updated - - -

Wobble?

[Naom9Anne]

BP's only tend to bite in defence or in a feed response and they move fast. I don't think it was either of these and your boyfriend may well be right. They don't bite from aggression and if they did this also wouldn't be slow.

Sounds like a one off, if it happens a few more times then it may be something to question.

[seaharbor]

Thank you all for the quick replies! I feel a lot better knowing I didn't do anything obviously wrong. She wasn't squeezing my hand at all, as if to constrict, and she let go easily. In answer to your question, dgring, she has that head wobble thing spiders can have, where it looks as though she's dizzy at times, and at others it seems like she can't quite catch her balance. It gets worse with stress, I noticed. Now to tell the boyfriend he was right... lol.

[dgring]

Thank you all for the quick replies! I feel a lot better knowing I didn't do anything obviously wrong. She wasn't squeezing my hand at all, as if to constrict, and she let go easily. In answer to your question, dgring, she has that head wobble thing spiders can have, where it looks as though she's dizzy at times, and at others it seems like she can't quite catch her balance. It gets worse with stress, I noticed. Now to tell the boyfriend he was right... lol.

Thanks for the clarification

[satomi325]

Sorry that happened, but it sounds really silly in my head. haha

It was probably an accident like your BF mentioned.

[seaharbor]

No problem, dgring, I should have used my words a little more to begin with lol! And yes, the whole thing was kinda silly. Scared me at first, but it's now a bit of a joke. If you can't laugh, you're not living, right? I do wish I had taken a picture of my finger right after though, it was a PERFECT indent of a snake jaw!!!