My first kiss......(bite)

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My first kiss......(bite)

Postby sgmpanza5 » Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:55 am

Hi,

So I've been keeping snakes for a little over a year and a half now (2 RTB's and 1 corn snake) and have never been bitten since......well until yesterday. I was feeding my juvenile RTB and accidentally dropped the mouse (F/T) inside the cage. I then wanted to pick it up so that I can wave it in the snake's face to get a feeding response. As I put my hand in to pick up the mouse, almost without any warning, she tagged me. (Man, she's fast). Anyways, it wasn't as bad as I always anticipated it to be. In fact I was super stoked that it happened. Don't get me wrong, I did not intentionally seek to be bitten nor am I promoting carelessness but I really wanted to experience it so that I know what it feels like.

So I want to hear from you, how long did it take for your first bite and how did it happen?
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby rolandslf » Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:37 am

I think that all of us have been tagged at one time or another. In your case it was inevitable, smell of Rodent, body heat of hand and arm, yip, a tagging on the way.
Anyway, congrats on joining the bite club.

My first one was from a very territorial female CalKing, she took exception to me cleaning her cage. This was about 2 weeks after I got her.
All in all, I must have kept snakes foe around 2 years before that first bite occurred.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Ruan Stander » Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:50 am

Unless you really try to avoid it, you will probably get bitten by harmless snakes quite frequently. Unless they are accustomed to regular handling of course.

My first bite happened a year before I started keeping snakes, it was a brown house snake hatchling I found in my garden.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Naneek » Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:00 pm

My RTB tagged me once when moving her from the feeding tub back to her cage.
it Wasn't sore at all, i think it's more the thought of it that's shocking lol.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Bushviper » Mon Aug 25, 2014 1:06 pm

That why you use tweezers or small grabsticks to feed snakes. The heat signature for those with heat pits is also smaller and accidents can be avoided. We all get tagged from time to time. Feeding strikes are the worst.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby sgmpanza5 » Mon Aug 25, 2014 3:56 pm

Yes, I'll probably get a pair of tongs as my RTB gets bigger. I'm kind of glad it happened while my wife was around. She saw for herself that a bite isn't as bad we think it should. I only have a few needle holes on my hand. However, I'm not being cocky/arrogant about the whole thing.

@BV - I've heard/seen that with feeding strikes, they tend to hold on to your hand......eish that must be a little sore (I guess it depends on size as well).
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Cornelius » Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:19 pm

Ha They are the worst, wait till he reaches 2m. My first tag happend exactly the same way.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Mitton » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:25 pm

Took a bite from a 2m Jungle Carpet Python a couple of months ago. She was sleeping and I wanted to take her out to show people at my place wanting to buy babies what size they get to and that they are very calm snakes. :-? I have taken her out the same way 1000's of times before.
She must have thought it was food and grabbed my hand and started constricting and only after about 90 seconds she let go. I went to the bathroom to stop the blood and when I took the toilet paper away it looked like I had a golf ball under my skin. My hand was swollen and blue for about 10 days after the bite.

This pic was taken a few hours after the bite.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Ruan Stander » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:42 pm

That swelling is a hell of a lot more than I would have expected, why is that ? Simply due to the trauma ?
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby scalybunni » Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:03 pm

I've never been bitten & to be honest I'm scared, yet a part of me hopes it happens without me seeing it coming just to get over it.
They say it doesn't really hurt that bad I guess I'm just afraid of the whole idea but as soon as that happens I won't be so scared of my tiny little boa who doesn't seem to like me all that much.
The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Mr Venom » Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:13 pm

In the 6 years that I've been keeping, I've been bitten 7 times. All non venomous of course, never been tagged by a mildly venomous or extremely venomous snake yet, and I don't want to either. Not excited for the day that it eventually happens.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby Ruan Stander » Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:55 pm

A bite from a fangless snake is really insignificant. I think a bite from a large gecko or agamid is worse on average.
Large pythons and boas are obviously a different story.
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby croteseeker » Tue Aug 26, 2014 2:47 am

predator678 wrote:A bite from a fangless snake is really insignificant. I think a bite from a large gecko or agamid is worse on average.
Large pythons and boas are obviously a different story.


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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby rolandslf » Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:00 am

Here are some pics of a typical Feeding Strike, these are the worst tags because they normally end up in a holding on bite with constriction in relation to a warning bite which is normally just strike, bite, release.

The pics below are from a 2m Taiwanese Rat Snake Feeding Strike.

Image

Image

The End Result

Image

Image

Image
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Re: My first kiss......(bite)

Postby sgmpanza5 » Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:15 am

Eish......looking at Rolands and Mitton's bites, mine was just a prick. Those look pretty nasty. I guess even non-venomous snakes also need to be handled with a certain degree of respect just like venomous snakes. One cannot be care-free about being bitten (of course the really harmless snakes are an exception).
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