Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went to handle my 6 foot Taiwan beauty today. He's got a strong feeding response, and I forgot that I had been handling fuzzy mice and eating chicken a few hours before, and never properly washed my hands. So, naturally, when I opened his cage he caught the scent and attacked the first moving object, my forearm. He was on there for something over a minute. My husband had to wave a kleenex with rubbing alcohol on it in front of his nose, and the snake let go, looking quite disappointed. Now I've got a nice copy of O. fresei dentition imprinted on my arm. It was pretty painful, but not as bad as when my 2 foot monitor lizard bit me. But if any of you guys are in a similar situation, the alcohol works like a charm!

I've been tagged by my Taiwans a number of times even after carefully washing my hands & arms. Sometimes I think they just go - "I'm hungry, you're warm - you must be dinner"!

Generally, I just don't do anything & they'll release after a minute or so - either because they think you're dead or they realise that they can't eat you and move on.

It wasn't that he smelled mice. He just thinks I'm a food source now. Someone is going to be fed OUTSIDE the cage from now on.

P.S. having your wrist eaten is much more painful than having your forearm eaten