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Feeding time. I feed the snakes in separate containers. Dexter was in his cool hide, he stuck his head out when he smelled the mice, knew something was up. But he wouldn't come all the way out. So I grabbed him gently, mid body, and started lifting him out of the cage.

When he doubled back on me I knew it was coming. He clamped on to my index finger very, very securely. Then wrapped up my hand with a few coils and began what I only assume was going to be the Swallowing Me Whole process.

I think I read here that water works to get them to let go. Whether I read it or not, it does work. I held him under the faucet for a bit (maybe 15 seconds) and I felt him loosen his grip and let go.

It was bound to happen! It didn't hurt at all, so the whole thing was actually kind of a cool experience.
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Yeah, I hear ya!!
It is one of those things that for me, getting bit was no big deal, but the surprising aspect of it and the fact of how quick you can get bit is what really startles someone such as myself.
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Genesis 1:1

There are many types of bites. There is the obvious feeding response from a wc snake, which will be a little different from a cb animal used to frozen. There is also the bite when he smells another snake and a different one when he bites a mate in courtship. It sounds like you got a good bite from a cb animal, and this is also where you will be thankful for kings....The dentition is clean and the teeth are "moderate" compared to other species. Similar sized boids will generally be alot more damaging and arboreal species more still. It sounds like you were relaxed enough not to pull back and "set the hook", and thats 90% of it. Just dont let this experience leave you too relaxed or complacent about bigger animals...I remember Wayne Farrell being bitten on the hand by a retic and all the tendons were shredded permanantly. Keep your guard up!

LOL!!, these are some all-time favorites of mine!..hahaha!

enjoy!, ~Doug


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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Good reply, Jeff, thanks.

I was relaxed because I just knew it was coming. My only option would have been to drop him back into his cage (which would have been fine, it was just a few inches into aspen but I didn't want to upset him).

But I do think it was a good learning experience, hopefully getting it now when he's small will make me more cautious with him later and my bigger snakes now.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

For anyone else reading that doesnt know, even if you do get bit, unless you FIGHT it, it wont hurt that much but you will bleed like a stuck pig. I think snakes' teeth are designed to bleed out animals....maybe to create that blood trail should they get away, and likely to let in the digestive juices into the animal in the snakes' gut.

I didn't fight it (though I did protest with a "hey, knock that off!". But it didn't bleed either. He's still pretty small though.
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Sounds like a smaller one and you knew what you were doing. Problems occur when they start to swallow fingers or they get you in a awkward place. DMong loves that facial doesnt he?

Well I sure didn't know what I was doing! But he seemed like he wanted to swallow my finger. But he never got farther than the first knuckle, the same place he initially grabbed. The cool water worked fairly quickly and I felt him loosen up, then I got out of there just in case he was just going in for a better grip!

He is probably 20"-22".
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Jeff, we were at a reptile show once, and this girl customer was handling someone's snake for sale. It was a bigger snake, I don't recall what kind (this was maybe the show where we bought our first snake and I didn't know snakes at all). It struck her and she calmly handed it back to the guy who wasn't paying attention. He looked and said, you're bleeding, did he get you?

She said yeah, no problem, she's used to it.

He thanked her profusely for not throwing his snake across the room when it happened. I gathered that he made that statement from experience!!
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

LOL!,....yes, I can't help it, it's such a priceless classic shot of a...."don't let this happen to you" type of thing!..LOL!

As the old phrase goes,..."A picture is worth a thousand words"...well, it sure does apply well with the pic.

later, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

For non herp people who try to pigeon hole us,lol. Just send this out to people and say this happens to all of us all the time and people will give us an even wider berth!

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

It's good to know that water trick works. Thankfully, I've never had to try it as mine always release. The stinky human never has as good a flavor as thawed rat.