Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been away from my ball python for about a year until just this week. While I was away my wife never handled him, only fed him. Today I took him out so I could clean his tank. While holding him I realized he missed a large portion during his last shed. I was peeling on some of this skin, he has never had issue with this before. Anyway I'm walking through the house and I look down at him and his head a few inches my arm with his mouse open, completely open, as if he was realigning his jar. He then very lightly placed my arm is his mouth. He pressed against me for a few seconds and began to squeeze my arm very tight. The snake let go, curled up in a tight ball around my arm and wouldn't let go for about 10 minutes. I put him away and everything has been fine since.

So I guess the question is, was I bitten?

I would say you were 5 percent bitten and 100 percent constricted.

He was just giving you a little Kiss.......LOL

you were not bitten...but you might be pregnant....go to the doctors and have a good checkup....was there blood?.....get a rabies test too if so.....

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........JY

I get bit by snakes on a fairly regular basis. Once a month or so, just long enough to get complacent and get bit again. It is never really a bother.

Anyways, I mentioned this once to a Nursing friend of mine and she wanted to know if I got my tetanus shot. I certainly have. I am a clutz through and through which requires I stay up to date on such things.

What I wonder is, why does it matter? Can I get tetanus from a snake bite? I have never heard of this.
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25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

well....from the snake's bite...no...I think tetanus is not a problem...

as a standpoint of should we anyways...yes....every 4 years or whatever they say...we should all get tetanus shots....

...I personally cut myself all the time..every week and maybe every day....wire lids for aquariums...cracked aquariums...homemade tanks..plastic covered in rodents stuff....wire bottle holders...snake bites..rat and mouse bites...rat and mouse toenails....all kinds of stuff....the wire lids are the worst....

along with all else we do in life...like sticking a knife through a finger while bleeding out catfish....or cutting my shin to the bone with a machete buidong a duck blind...or cutting my finger to the bone with a machete building a duck blind.....or cutting myself ...wait..can you see I cut alot...and it involves the Susquehanna River alot...???...yea....
(actually went to hospital once I think....sometimes duct tape works....really)...

.....get one anyways....

now ask about "rat bite fever" or "cat scratches disease"...

.......longtime exposure to rodents and asthma or allergies?....
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........JY

hmmmm.....cat scratch fever..... that takes me back.

On a similar note, I can't remember the last time I had a tetanus shot. Also I get bitten on quite the regular basis. These things happen with baby burms and carpets among the other various incidents that happen....ie... catching a ball in a bad mood, or a boa that's a little too antsy....but anyways, the point of it all is not once in all the years of myself or my father getting bit(by a snake, now rats are a different story) have I ever had any issues, sickness or otherwise, from said bites. And it's a lot of bites!!!!! Nothing to really worry about......

...it is cat scratch disease actually....

Ted's too crazy...yea...waaaay back....to your daddies' records...LOL....still got the player?....(I actually need one).....Ted still sings the same songs....and I really don't remember seeing him...in a Tarzan thong thingy swinging onto the stage ..outside at the Pocono Downs Raceway....long day....7 bands and Texas red dragons....good thing I don't drink beer on top of it all...

I see you tomorrow...?...my last show.....wheeeee....buy me out...?...please...LOL.....or steal them like everyone else at Hamburg does....?....

this is not an ad....!.....

I miss my balls.....!!!
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........JY

Haha..... yeah Uncle Ted is one crazy dude......

Reminds me of someone else I know.....hmmmm...... LOL

Yeah, We'll be a Hamburg tomorrow. Hopefully I sell out, then I can come and buy up all your stuff!!! LOL How much stuff you gonna have up there???

Oh yeah, Dad still has his player.....though I think it needs a needle, maybe???? You need one?? I think Target actually sells em in a combo thing so you can burn off of em onto cassettes and cds?????

LOL! Yes, you were. Any teeth on skin is a bite. =)
What you experienced is what I call the lazy bite. I have a couple of snakes that do this sometimes. They nose up to the rats (sometimes move them a little) and slowly open their mouth and slowly close it on the rat. They then proceed to swallow the rat at a pace that would make a 99 year old man exasperated.
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-AnthillPython.com-