Reptile & Amphibian Forums

its feeing day for my male ball. he ate about a week ago a small rat. to day i went to pull him out to feed and he was in one hand and he struck at my other and bit me. he has never done this before. before anyone asks his temps are perfect and hes in a 41 qt rack that i built. please help

It could be a lot of things. He may be about to go into shed? He maybe hungry? He maybe getting used to the fact when you open the rack it means food. This is a learned response quite often. Especially when they are hungry. Try feeding him more often or larger meals.

he is help all the time by me and my little sisters. i feed him in a seperate area and he eats a rat every week to 2 weeks at the latest.

Snakes are wild animals. They have mouths and they bite, end of story. Their brain is primitive and their actions governed by simple stimuli such as movement, heat, etc. Regardless of how often you handle a snake, they have the propensity to bite - especially if the snake is on a specific feeding schedule that begins with you reaching in with your hand. The snake does not "know" you; the snake merely tolerates being handled. Movement and heat usually means one of two things to a snake - predator or prey, and both warrant a strike as far as the snake is concerned.

How old is he? Have you moved up his meal size or frequency as he grew? Move up his meals to once every 10 days or once a week. It won't hurt him.

These are the fun parts of having the snakes. You get to figure out the little things about them through trial and error. If he is still testy the tries to bite try something else.

Remember he is an animal and sometimes some of them will be a little more temperamental then others. You just have to be careful with the ones that are and figure out what works.

Oh, congrats on your first bite. It happens to everyone.

hes not to old. i bought him at the 2006 daytona show. i started with adult mice then rat put now small rats. i think med rats are too big but thats just me. should i just try a medium next time.

Just be glad he isn't a dog. You would be getting stitches instead of typing. Claude

I feed my snakes in separate areas as well. One drawback to this is that we condition them to expect a meal through routine. (this even happens when you handle them often. If hes hungry, he will assume you are reaching in to feed him) What I do is use a glove when I take them out to feed. First, the glove is cooler than my hand, which reduces the chance of a feeding response. Second, the snake will associate the glove with food, instead of my scent. Lastly, if you are bitten, it won't hurt!!!lol. Be that as it may, we all get bitten, so consider yourself initiated into the herp world! Conrats!!!!
Really, the main reason I do this, is so that the snake doesn't bite the wrong thing, and risk injury to itself. (I know when I get bitten, my natural reaction is to pull away. BPs have delicate teeth, and my #1 priority is to keep my animals from being injured)
Hope this helps!
-----
James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

In my opinion snakes are never tame......most are just very tolerant of being handled thats just the way it is, you are bound to get bit sooner or later you will take a hit and 99% of the time is human error as the cause......
" alt="Image">
">Image

Because he's a snake.
-----
www.strictlyballs.ca

I like snakes that bite. They are usually more aggressive eaters and grow faster because of that. If you keep a wild animal, expect wild things to happen. I think it's funny that an animal that is exponentially smaller than us can scare the bajeezus out of you with a simple little strike.
-----
Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

it doesnt scare me. i just thought he was sick or something and decided to bite. i know when im sick if someone touches me while im sleeping i might take off a finger or two.

cool. just part of what goes with the deal. best of luck
-----
Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.