Why do some people return their ball pythons?

[Bogertophis]

That is how I got my beautiful Dum. My buddy and I went to an expo and he picked her up. I helped him get everything set up and all was good until the snake put on some size. Then he started telling me "it comes at me!" I tried to explain he was dealing with a hungry Boa but it didn't matter. Before long he started asking if I knew somebody that wanted it and offered it to me. I told him I was good at the moment. Some more time goes by and he was ready to flat out give her away. At that time I said "ok."

He brought her to me at work and I took her out of the tub right away to check her out. He jumped way back and was visibly afraid of her. This was funny because he is a big ol' corn feed country boy you would think could handle a 4.5 ft Ground Boa. I handled her a bit and then put her back in the tub without issue. I had her for awhile and then one night when I was giving her water she tagged me GOOD! Hit me like a missile on my left hand that was just hoovering outside the cage. Of course made me bleed and actually caused a bruise over the next week, but like all my other bites I had no damage. I sent him a picture of my bloody hand and he flipped and said something like "See! Told Ya!" I just laughed because I know that if you keep snakes long enough you are going to get tagged and having been tagged many many times I was not worried about it. So in the end I got a beautiful snake for free that was one on my list of wanting. It was only win win for me.

Out of the snakes I have owned only my big Blood, Carpet, and ETB have not tagged me......well and my new Boa but she is in shed and settling in so I have not done much with her. All the others, including my Ball, have tagged me at some point. For snake bite pics check my gallery. I have a few before and after rinsing pics to show how bad they may look but how little damage is actually done.

Nice pick-up- I've always loved Dums!

And for sure, getting tagged by pet snakes just goes with the territory. Mostly avoidable and rarely any concern, but if you keep dogs, you get nipped in play or scratched...if you have a cat, same thing; if you have a bird, they can take a chunk out of your hand, & horses, heck they can just kill you accidentally, or step on your foot, or nibble your fingers (oops, sorry, yuck-yuck). Nearly all other pets do FAR more damage than snake teeth, but it doesn't take much before most people's nerves to turn to Jello over a few little snake teeth in their hand. More snakes for us, KMG!