Reptile & Amphibian Forums

last night i was cleaning cages and went to pick my female Bull up to put her in another enclosure. she grabbed me between my ring and pinky finger on my right hand and proceeded to pull and hiss very loudly and sink her teeth in! it hurt like hell!! she hung on and wrapped her body around my hand and forearm and was squeezing with everything she had, tighter than any Kingsnake i've ever held! i've pretty much had her since she was a baby and she's been known to be a little testy at times which is typical, but this has never happened before! i had not been handling any mice prior to this incident. i'm trying to figure out if she was just in a bad mood(she wasn't in shed), or just starved, but i can't imagine that because i just fed her 2 large thawed mice last week! she's around 3 feet and getting bigger everyday. could she just be going through a growth spurt and demanding more food? i'm used to this with Kingsnakes but are Bull snakes the same way? has anyone had anything like this happen before? will some Bull snakes turn on you as they get older? i'd hate to have to get rid of her. i welcome any advice/ideas.

thanks!
greg

>>last night i was cleaning cages and went to pick my female Bull up to put her in another enclosure. she grabbed me between my ring and pinky finger on my right hand and proceeded to pull and hiss very loudly and sink her teeth in! it hurt like hell!! she hung on and wrapped her body around my hand and forearm and was squeezing with everything she had, tighter than any Kingsnake i've ever held! i've pretty much had her since she was a baby and she's been known to be a little testy at times which is typical, but this has never happened before! i had not been handling any mice prior to this incident. i'm trying to figure out if she was just in a bad mood(she wasn't in shed), or just starved, but i can't imagine that because i just fed her 2 large thawed mice last week! she's around 3 feet and getting bigger everyday. could she just be going through a growth spurt and demanding more food? i'm used to this with Kingsnakes but are Bull snakes the same way? has anyone had anything like this happen before? will some Bull snakes turn on you as they get older? i'd hate to have to get rid of her. i welcome any advice/ideas.
>>
>> thanks!
>> greg

Sounds like you probably smelled like food. Either you had been handling rodents, something that smelled like rodents, or it was the wrong place and time. Do you use your fingers to feed her, or tongs? I've heard lots of stories about people feeding snakes with their fingers and the snakes eventually associating the smell of the hand with the smell of the rodent.

She might also be more hungry, have you tried switching her to rats?

All my bulls have been fine, my babies are nuts, but the older ones only come shooting out of their enclosure if its feeding time. They can smell their bowl of rats when I walk in the door to my snake room.

-cat
-----
My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

I've got a male that provided me with a similar experience. He came shooting out of his cage and attached himself in the web of skin between the thumb and forefinger. The only way I could get him off was to stick my whole hand under the faucet. I was still pulling little teeth out of my hand 6 weeks later!
I'm pretty sure (since I don't handle him or his mate much) that he's associated his cage opening to feeding time, and my hand was a victim of that strong pituophis feeding response. Now, whenever I go in there to clean, I give him a few moments to realize that I don't have food. He hasn't even attempted to strike since!
Cheers!

I would agree with the others. It wasn't a defensive bite most likely as a defensive bite is meant to scare something away, not keep it close range. Maybe you smelled like food, maybe the snake was expecting food, or maybe since it is about to shed it mistook your hand for a white rodent. Hard to say. But every defensive bite I have had from a snake has been a tag and go kind of thing. If it actually wrapped you up, most likely it was feeding response.
-----
Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine

Nearly all of my Pits are VERY food aggressive, and you have to be careful when just reaching in the enclosures because many will come mouths open even if they don't smell food. I slowly usually introduce a snake stick into the cage, touch them with it, and then prcoede to pick them when they've had a chance to smell around and realize that it isn't food coming into their opened cage.
P&S Pituophis