Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What was this delightful experience like?

I haven't actually been bitten myself but I know two people that have. One had no reaction at all and the other had some swelling.

If you do a search for "false water cobra" and find Patrick's page, he has pictures up of his experience with being bitten. I think he said that it stung pretty good and he had some swelling but that was about it.

From every tidbit of information I can gather on this, I've come to equate it with a bee sting on someone who is mildly allergic to bees.

However, I do have a pair coming this week...I have one female already that is so sweet that I can do anything I want to her but come next week, I may be able to give you my own experience on it. LOL!

you'll hear being batted around the fact that Hydrodynastes gigas is a toxic as a rattlesnake. This statement deserves the reply 'so what' since by and large (notable exceptions of course) the rattlesnake venoms are quite weak, requiring 100 milligrams for a lethal envenomations. For their size, the FWCs are remarkably poor venom yielders, an adult giving less than five milligrams. Thus, they are rather unlikely to produce a significant let alone lethal envenomation. The one or two well documented bites with prolonged chewing (in one case the keeper let the snake chew on him for a reported 45 minutes!) can likely be taken as about the maximum. Effects are largely localised and include swelling and itching. This is consistent to what we have found out about the venom, that it is mostly large, hydrophobic enzymes and poor in the low molecular weight peptides.

Cheers
BGF
Venom & Toxin Database

Hello.
We have with a friend observed the inside of the mouth of one of this Cyclagrases gigas a long time without seeing the least trace of hooks ever!
Himself it is made bite already without any consequence.
Another friend some to raise during some times, him also it is made bite repeatedly without any consequence (nor even no reactions).
In short, the two friends who have some didn't ever have a reaction following a bite of gigas.
There is what I can tell you.
Thomas Leclercq
www.ophidien.com

I've had a female for a little while and she never bits. I've wanted to breed them and the pair I ordered just arrived. I felt I should double check the sex on these two, just to be sure who was who.

I took her by a friends; I held her head while he did the probing but she managed to bite me. She didn't like that nasty probe! LOL! I thought I had her head well enough but she squirmed and nailed me. Their heads are so darn flexible.

The experience is this...nada, nothing...zilch. She chewed on my right hand a bit and I'm perfectly fine. Because I'm right handed, it took me a bit to get her off with my left hand, giving her a bit of chewing time. I didn't want to damage her, so I was being careful. Then, as I got her unhooked, she grabbed my left hand. LOL!

It's now been a half an hour. There is no swelling, just several rows of teeth marks. I expected some stinging but it was no different than a bit from anything else. I did wash my hands right away but that was it.

Oops...that first line should have read, "...that never bites."

Follow up on getting bit.

Amazingly uneventfull. I didn't even feel the bite itself... I knew I had gotten bite but all I felt was the pressure from her jaw, that teeth were sharp enough that they just slid in and out several time without even the sensation of a pinprick. She got me on my middle finger halfways between the knuckle and first joint of the finger. Bleed very nicely for a while, but that was it... no itching, no swelling. Then again I can't even promise that she envenomated. Bottomline, no worries.