I certainly wouldn’t go back to that shop. Oi. As for her lying with her head out, my fiancé and I run a rescue. Not a “I beg for free animals on Craigslist and call myself a rescue” rescue but a rescue where we take in injured wild snakes and nurse them back to health (an ever waging war on pond netting) and we work closely with a vet who calls us when she needs a foster or ongoing aftercare for a snake. One ball python we rescued came to us with layers of stuck shed and horrible eye creasing. She was almost always hiding until her next healthy she’d where we got all her layers off. Suddenly she could see! After that she would lay on top of her hide always watching. It could be that after getting those layers off your ball is just taking in her surroundings now that she can actually see them.
As for being bit and constricted, very unlikely. When a snake is being defensive and tags they tag and release. Unless you smell like dead rat it’s unlikely a pet ball will actually bite you with the intention of trying to eat you. I say this knowing full well last night our baby black rat snake randomly and for no reason tried to eat a remote 12x it’s size so you know, there’s always an exception. But I can tell you from experience you will likely not be mistook for a meal. Once I waved a dead rat at my BCI. He seemed to have his head under his body and not reacting. I took the rat out and stuck my hand in to adjust his hide so he could see the rat and no sooner had I stuck my hand in and he tagged me. He saw my pink thumb poking in that hide and thought I was the rat. 100% my fault. It’s amazing actually how quickly he lunged, closed his jaw, realized I was not a rat and immediately let go. They know what their food is.
Also, I’ve been bit by a lot of snakes between our rescue and our relocation service. It happens. I’ve been bit by Dekays up to red tails. And I will without hesitation take a hundred snake bites over a cat or rabbit or gerbil bite. Sure some snake bites sting but those furry devils will take a chunk out of you.
Reply With Quote