Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an 8 ft boa, a 6 1/2 ft Carpet, another baby Carpet and a blood. About the two longer ones...If they bit me with their huge teeth (Ive seen them) would I have to get stitches? I know its sort of a general question, but Ive only been bitten by small snakes. Also, I play guitar heavily. Its very important to me. Im planing on getting a pair of GTPs soon, and I wonder; If they were to bite me with those HUGE fangs, could it do tendon damage? I'd rather play guitar then have GTPs....
thanks john

Just kidding. You're right though... GTP's have some HUGE teeth (for a boid). I would say yes, but what the hell do I know. I was bitten by a large boa once and all it really did (besides small perforations from his teeth) was bruise my hand really bad. I'd be scared to get bit by GTP. It almost looks like they have fangs.

My largest snake right now (until some others grow up) is a ~6 foot black rat snake. I was always expecting that if he bit me it would hurt at least little bit. But the one time he has bitten me it was really just a 'warning nip' and I couldn't even get any sympathy (Hunny, could you get me a glass of milk? I'd get it myself, but Murmur just tagged me. No, see, right here, see it bleeding? No, there! Yeah. Chocolate, please).
So feeding strikes probably hurt a lot more than defensive bites. I have yet to be bitten by a boid any bigger than a baby sand boa, but I have a carpet who's more than willing to try, so I'll be sure to report.
GTP's may have long teeth, but I always wonder if snakes like that bite as hard as snakes with shorter, thicker teeth. I have a BRB myself, and she has long teeth too!

I think it'd be rare if any kind of tendon damage would occur. I play guitar as well, not too well though, but I can sing and play the harmonica at the same time(Bob Dylan fan??), not play harmonica and sing at the same time.Just make sure you use your strumming hand, when you reach out to grab your snake..hehe.I wouldn't worry about it at all.

hah thanks. No, not much dylon. More into Seals and Crofts and Yes. But i do know that one song..."youve got a lot of nerve, to say you are my friend. You say you lost your faith but thats not where its at".
That is bob dylan right? Anyway, Ive seen GTP fangs, and there pretty large. Ive also seen rough scaled pythons teeth, and while there not fangs, they are pretty huge too. Thanks

lol..Yep, thats him. That's "Positively 4th street" I've never been bitten by a GTP, maybe you could wear some gloves. Just a thought. Good luck.

4 or 5 years ago, when i was working in the last pet shop ill ever work in....wait, let me say soemthing else first...gtps dont have fangs, their teeth really arent very big, ive compared my less than one year old scrub pythons to a small adult gtp, scrub won hands down, longer thicker teeth. second, snake bites dont do much damage unless YOU pull back when they bite...now, onto my bite story, which will ease your mind, as im a guitar player/singer in a band.

i had a 5.5 foot long burmese python grab my left hand (my fret hand) and shred it...i do mean shred, it looked very similar to hamburger. it wasnt terribly painful for me, the snake went flying cuz he shocked the living hell out of me, but, if I didnt pull back and fling the poor thing across the room the damage would have been much less. so unless your working with some large burms or retics, scrubs or other very large snake its not too risky, and chances are a gtp wont be that painful, many times people say "m gtp tagged me, pretty hefty adult female, im surprised it didnt hurt"

As its been mentioned, no long term damage will be done. As for pain and whatnot, at about 8ft., BCI bites really aren't painful, even if it is a feeding strike(unless of course they don't let go). I good thing to develop too is delayed reflexes, with delayed reflexes you learn to get your hand out of the way a few seconds after the tag has been made. Doing this will result in minimal damage to the snake and your hand IF and only if he lets go by the time to move your hand, or that poor snake is flying against the wall. Note: this doesn't work if the snake is sitting on the hand it is striking. This has happened to me with a baby Macklot.
GTP's as far as I know don't have too long of teeth, it's the ETB's and ATB's you gotta watch out for.

Snakes bite and the bigger the snake, the greater the potential for a damaging bite.

Actually, there are snakes like thread snakes and worm snakes that don't bite unless you are an ant egg or a worm.
And there are snakes that really don't want to bite or don't bite as part of their defensive behavior, like sumbeam snakes or mudsnakes.

But most snake that are kept in captivity will bite. Some snakes bite only in certain circumstances (like a misdirected feeding strike,) and some bite anything that moves.

So part of being a keeper of snakes is the potential of being bitten by a snake. Get used to it, embrace it. Or--be careful, treat your snakes as if they are venomous, always use a snake hook to handle them.

Most bites from harmless snakes (nonvenomous) are harmless. Snakes have small thin teeth, lightly boned jaws, and not-particularly strong jaw muscles. Different from kittens or hamsters, when snakes bite, they don't bite hard.

They do puncture you with their several dozen teeth that are just long enough to penetrate to your sensory nerves and get your attention. It hurts! It's not excruciating, and usually there no real damage being done beyond a few small holes that might bleed a few drops.

I've been bitten thousands of times, and with few exceptions (some notable) I find that if I wipe off the few drops of blood with a damp Kleenex, I can't really see the bite. There's no bruise and there's no infection afterwards.

They bite, it hurts, they let go, it doesn't hurt.

The teeth of most snakes are recurved, and there's the problem. When a snake bites you, if you pull away, the snake CAN'T let go. Pulling away makes the recurved teeth dig in deeper--it can make a little nip into a big bite.

When a snake bites you, you cannot pull your bitten part out of his mouth without increasing the damage from the bite many times what it would have been if you had just paused long enough for the snake to let go.

Offensive bites (i.e. feeding strikes) potentially are more damaging than defensive bites. Defensive bites are not intended to latch on, while just the oposite is true for a feeding bite. Sometimes a feeding strike is followed with coiling and constricting. It's hard to do, but the best course of action to take is to just let the snake do what he's going to do until he releases his bite on his own. The exception would be if the snake is a 250 pound retic that is intending to swallow you after he kills you.

So always be extra careful around your snakes when they have reason to believe they are being fed. That's when most tame pet snakes bite their keepers--it's an accident and invariably it's the keeper's fault, either by carelessness or by lack of experience. And do not feed yourself to giant pythons.

The answer to your question about the damage you might incur on your hands from a bite from one of your snakes is a qualified "probably no serious damage will occur." At least, no serious physical damage will occur. Sometimes damage to your psyche can occur--you never trust a snake again. Sometimes damage to your ego can occur if you get bitten in front of people and you scream, dance, wet yourself, and kill your snake trying to get it off.

And if your eight-foot snake bites you and you drag your hand out of his mouth (makes me wince to think about it) there is a slight possibility that you could damage tendons or dig a long tooth into a joint.

So, I hate to lose a keeper to rock & roll, but it's happened before. I guess I'd hate for rock & roll to lose a future star due to an accident with a snake even more. You have decisions to make. Be careful!

All of you out there, be careful. Snakes bite. Usually, but not always, it's just a very minor annoyance.