Reptile & Amphibian Forums

getting bit or close calls?
My last"near miss" was pulling a new 7 foot Boa out of the box. I went to show my wife the new snake. Just as she(my wife) entered the room, the Boa struck and grazed my right cheeck. I'm so glad she missed because her mouth can open up about as long as my face is. I've never had a facial bite , but that was the closest.
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I'm just the snake room janitor

Yess.. i always say move slow and easy around newbies and babies, i enter the room where mine are kept and shadows are all over with my moves. But i handed one of my babies to a friend and told her to move slowly, she didn't in the sunshine and sure enough my first strike from them, proof positive slow is better. No one got it but hey big or small go slow.
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"Have you hugged your snake lately?"

Hmm... My best bite/near bite story would be...

My largest female about 8-8 1/2' has quite a temper, she bites me about any chance she gets. Well I had her out of her enclosure in a tub, I go to put her back in her enclosure which at the time was waist high. Well I'm a big guy, (6'4" and a tub of goo. I have a small waist though so the pants I have to buy to fit my legs are always baggy around the waist) Well half way into her enclosure she decided to launch and latches onto a mouth full of pants... on my crotch. Thank goodness all she ended up with was denim.

Other then that my only other decent story is when I got in a 9' retic which I found out later was wild caught. He latched onto me while he was still in the shipping bag. That wasn't fun.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

I've got a 13 yr old that was raised on rabbits. The bigger the food the bigger the snake. Anyways I was throwing in a 15 Lb. Opossum and did not get my arm back quick enough. Bam, Got hit in the wrist by a 10 ft. 40 lb. hungry boa. I bleed alot. But it did'nt hurt all that bad. It was my fault. Had the smell all over me from putting the rubber band around it's mouth.

I was bathing a 7 foot, wild caught female boa that was a little skittish. I was drying her with a strip of paper towels when they got all twisted up. I wanted to straighten them but only had one free hand. So, without thinking, I gave them a snap in the air. The boa nailed me on the back of the hand but good. There are good sized bloodvessels there, so the floor got a little bloody. Over the next few days my hand turned some of the most incredible shades of purple you ever saw.

This was all my fault, of course. She turned into a pretty decent captive over the next few months.

Paul Hollander

Come on really you feed your boa a Opossum ,do they take wild animals?Next time open a Opossum up and see how loaded full of worms they are.Man i ain't kidding,they are full of hook worms and tapes...I just wanted to let you know that,hook worms are the worst they get everywhere in a animal.

Greg VanZweden
http://www.vanzwedenreptiles.com/

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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

Well, back in 03 I only had 10 boas at that time and I had an adult male around my neck. He was six foot or so. and I was just messing around listening to the radio and was singing while listening. And next thing I know he had bite me across the mouth. I guess he didn't like my singing!. Or mabey he thought I was going to bite or something. He had never attempted to bite before that. Now I'm alittle more cautious when haddling a boa around my face. Lesson's learned, Thanks Daniel Culbertson.

A few years ago I took a bite to the face by my big sury female (she was in shed )she was in the 6-7ft range at the time, I got very lucky it was a straight on hit but all she got was the tip of my nose and chin I bled alot and it did hurt a bit cause of the force behind the strike. I give her her space now especialy when she is in shed

Like anyone with lots of snakes, I've been tagged too many times to count. One that sticks out in my memory was from a BRB. Not a specifically bad bite, got my hand. Problem was, she tagged my hand and then coiled around it. Believe you me, the crushing was way worse than the bite. I put her under cold water and after a bit she loosened her grip and let go.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
13.26 BRB
11.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Last year, I had put a dozen or so newly born baby BRB's in a tub. When I opened the tub to seperate them into individual shoeboxes, every head was poking out of one communal pile and each was tracking every movement of my hand. Was funny, it looked like they were all ready to strike in unison.... safety in numbers?
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
13.26 BRB
11.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats