Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone else notice that Spilotes bites are itchy? My lil' 4ft baby always tags me whenever I show him off for company, and the bites always itch! Same as with my Japanese rats, which allegedly have mild Duvernoy activity. I don't know if tiger rats do as well, I can't find a lot of information on them besides the same basic stuff. None of my lampropeltine snakes cause the same itching, even when I get about the same amount of blood.
Just a thought, as I sit here scratching my bitten hand while I read posts...
Alex

The one bite I received from my spilotes (straight out of the UPS box) DID feel different than other bites by colubrids and by my JCP. Didn't itch, but did tingle. Could be that they have a protein or enzyme in their saliva that you are slightly allergic to. But I did also wonder.
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~Sasheena

Like most colubrids, they probably do have a venom (Duvernoy's) gland, and that probably has some neurotoxins in it - not enough to worry about (after all, plenty of people have been bitten by these, so if there was a serious risk, we'd almost certainly know by now) but perhaps enough to manifest itself as described here. Interesting observation, BTW.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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WW

WW Home

Thanks for the replies. The first time it happened, I thought maybe I'd had some other chemical on my skin that got chewed into the wound, but it's happened enough times that I doubt that's the case (I'm not really one to use handcreams or scented products) Once the area around the bite even turned slightly red and puffy (like a cat scratch, almost)My E. climacophora, while they also have itchy bites, have never given me local inflammation like that.

What's strange is I don't remember this happening with local mildly venomous snakes, such as our wandering garters, which have actually been studied for Duvernoy's secretions. I've had lots and lots of bites from aggressive wanderings around here, and I don't remember itching. I'm going to have to go get bitten and pay more attention

Alex

This is interesting, because I've been observing my young female lately very closely when I feed her.
She only takes live adult mice, despite being a captive-bred animal (produced by Dr. Phil Blais). She does not make any attempt to constrict her prey. She ALWAYS grabs the mouse by the head so that it's face is well inside her mouth; she then just hangs on and the mouse dies VERY quickly. It may struggle momentarily, but then it just goes limp and she swallows it. It's actually quicker than constriction in young ball pythons, which I've timed, and takes about 45 seconds.
I wish I could make a video of it to show you all how it happens.
I have not been bitten by either of my pair, so I don't know about the effects of their bites. However, I do have a reaction ( severe itching, swelling) to pretty much any snake-bite. The worst one was actually from a Solomon Island Ground Boa (Candoia carinata paulsoni). It itched like hell for five days!

Very interesting...perhaps a project for Dr. Frye (if he hasn't already tested them?)...?

Cheers!

Simon

>>This is interesting, because I've been observing my young female lately very closely when I feed her.
>> She only takes live adult mice, despite being a captive-bred animal (produced by Dr. Phil Blais). She does not make any attempt to constrict her prey. She ALWAYS grabs the mouse by the head so that it's face is well inside her mouth; she then just hangs on and the mouse dies VERY quickly. It may struggle momentarily, but then it just goes limp and she swallows it. It's actually quicker than constriction in young ball pythons, which I've timed, and takes about 45 seconds.

This is exactly what I notice with my spilotes too.. I've never seen her constrict, but she does vigorously bite, and moments later she is swallowing a motionless mouse.
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~Sasheena

Hey, you've got a sibling to my baby. He eats f/t, but still consumes them very quickly and aggressively. He will eat them the wrong way. He also absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES f/t hamster fuzzies, try some of those for your girl if you want to see if she'll take f/t. I use them when he's a bit skittish right after he sheds to get him back onto mice.

I know, I was just thinking it's kinda too bad I'm doing the DVM instead of an MSc, because I've already done an undergraduate project on cannibalism in lampropeltines, this would be a nice project with prey handling if I could find someone to take me.