Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i own a 6 foot bullsnake, can a bullsnake choke a person badly? i know my bull wraps around my neck a couple of times a squeezes and he can make my face turn red. can he squeeze more than that? a few people want to hold my snake on thier shoulders but im not sure if it would try to choke them. comments on this please.

of course they don't want to fall-they'll hold on. I have a 6 footer that has a huge cage, gets plenty of exercise and is held on a weekly basis, and I've never felt the type of squeeze I sometimes get from my male (5') Surinamese Boa.

yes bullsnakes are constrictors, thats why i asked on here if the can squeeze hard enough to choke someone cause my bull squeezed hard enough to turn my face red. bull are constrictors just like boas and pythons.

I would not recommend it, I have a 4 foot male dumeril boa that could def kill someone, he once wrapped both my hands together and I couldn't get him off very easily, If this where my neck, I would have def passed out before freeing myself, any larger bodied constrictor should never be put around ones neck, EVER! , you would never think by looking at certain snakes that they could constrict that strongly, a big bull could lay a hurting on someone under certain conditions, especially younger individuals.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

get a black racer, oh wait, bad idea, he may bite you in the face!!!! Bottom line is never put any snake near your face in my opinion, I have to admit to being bitten on the chin by a 5 foot black racer once!! oh and on the nose by a baby blood python!! ouch!!!
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

"Boid" instead of constrictor. I stand corrected.

oh yeah, something spooked my biggest bull while i was cleaning his cage about 20 years ago & i was going down for the count. i raced to the mirror to unwrap him & i was absolutely purple! i couldn't have taken much more by the time i finally got him unraveled.

There's a great story by Raymond Ditmars which was very much like yours, Dan. The same thing happened - he was being choked by a six-footer, thought he was "down for the count," and then found a mirror. Constrictors are relatively easy to unwrap if you do it tail first, but if you can't find the tail, you may be in trouble.

Tim

it isn't so much your breathing you need to be concerned about (at least right away). the bloodflow to your brain (carotid arteries) is fairly superficial in the neck. where these arteries bifurcate there is a little bundle of nerves that when you press on them, (all biochemistry/physiology aside,) your heart rate will slow down or stop. its enough to make you turn purple or fall and crack your head open. when i scrubbed in surgery it was something the surgeons watched for during carotid surgery. this procedure is sometimes done (in a controlled hospital situation) to help control very fast heart rates.
i would have to say...hold snakes in your hands or with the proper equipment. if you have to put one on your shoulders, do not let it go around your neck. not only for the above mentioned, but i would not want to have any snake, especially a surprised/PO'd 6' bullsnake close enough to my face to strike.

daveb

Mine almost choked me out a while ago. Make sure you sit down to unwrapp it! Being choked out isn't a new experience for me (judo, bjj) so I stayed calm and finally got him off. Had I started panicking and made things worse I would have been out! So be careful of course but its not something people should ever be paranoid about.

I read the posts about people having trouble getting they're snake off they're neck and thought I would share a tip I learned a long time ago when breeding lots of hungry kingsnakes that would fly out of their cage and bite my hand and wrap on for dear life. All you have to do is put a dab of rubbing alcohol on the tip of your snakes nose and the fumes will make the snake release immediatley with no harm done. Whether its a kingsnake latched onto your finger or a large constrictor wrapped around your neck it always works! To bad the fire department uses the jaws of life and a steak knife to get all those burmese pythons off people when all you need is a little rubbing alcohol. Kevin

>>i own a 6 foot bullsnake, can a bullsnake choke a person badly? i know my bull wraps around my neck a couple of times a squeezes and he can make my face turn red. can he squeeze more than that? a few people want to hold my snake on thier shoulders but im not sure if it would try to choke them. comments on this please.

i would be more worried about loosing an eyeball.The calmest snake can have a bad moment.I would doubt any size bull could strangulate(sp)a healthy human being.I could see someone freaking out and hurting your bullsnake or themselves.

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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?

Hot water will make a constrictor release immediately.