Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm new to the Dumerils world, but fairly up on the common sense practices that will keep the chance of a bite to a minimum. I recently purchased a 2yr. old male dum. with a supposed mild temperament two weeks ago (easy to handle thusfar). The previous owner fed in his enclosure. I feed mine in seperate containers. I fed him in a rubbermaid for the second time. No issues with getting him out of his enclosure, but about 5 minutes after the rat was down I picked him up from the rubbermaid (no issue). When I got him up he turned and bit my hand. I'm at a loss for the real reason this happened. Did I pick him up too soon after feeding? Could he smell the prey on my hand though I'd just washed them? He was already in my grasp when he bit. I would surely appreciate any help that would keep this from happening again. By the way, this was my "first" bite and was not too bad though he lost a tooth in my finger. Sorry for the long winded post.

Thanks for any help,

Tony

1.0 Dumerils
1.0 Anery redtail
0.1 Anery corn
1.0 Snow corn
1.0 Ball
0.0.1 Great Plains gopher

My opinion is that, only 5 minutes after being fed, he was still in feeding mode. You may have picked him up without incident but, after his little reptilian brain registered warmth and movement (your hand), he decided the second course of the meal was waiting. My own Dum stays alert for food for quite awhile, even after a decent size meal. The same goes for some of my other snakes, although I do have others that go into "snooze" mode after they eat one item.

My suggestion is that you feed him in his enclosure. I believe the rationale for feeding in a separate container is to minimize the chance of a bite. To me, that doesn't make sense. You still have to transfer the animal back to its enclosure (increasing the chance of being bitten) and it's also not good for the snake to be handled right after it has eaten. When I want to get my Dum out of his enclosure, I tap him on the head with a snake hook. He knows that means he's not getting fed, so he's never tried to bite me when I do that. IMHO, this method works very well, making my life easier and reducing stress on my animal.

Maybe we (me and the poster) could learn something. I just fed my dum inside his cage. I use reptibark for a substrate. I am concerned of him swallowing some and getting impacted.

Is this something to worry about, or does it not happen. I am new to snakes, just got him a couple weeks ago.

I feed inside the cage because he is very shy, and only will eat at night.

Impaction from swallowing substrate is a legitimate possibility, especially if the snake is small or the substrate pieces are large. However, IMHO, it's not a great concern. Dums are big animals, so they'd have to swallow large or numerous pieces to create a health concern. If the rodent is dry, little should stick to it and you won't have anything to worry about. I don't use Reptibark myself so I'm not sure if it comes in different grades or not. I use aspen. It's cheaper, readily available, safe and clean. I feed my snakes in their enclosures and haven't had problems with them swallowing substrate.

I've owned about 5 Dumerils and I have yet to see them strike once in hand so I would that he was still in feeding mode.

Most of my Dums have struck at the glass and anything I put in the cage, but don't even flinch once out. It's a feeding response and you definitely picked him up too early. My current Dums feeding response can last 24hrs. T

They are ambush predators and seem always to be ready to spring into action when in their enclosure. They are also sloppy strikers. Only snakes I've owned to routinely get a mouthful of Aspen and even bite themselves. There are no plastic tubs or newspaper in the wild so I wouldn't worry too much about them swallowing substrate.

Just feed the snake in its cage, then you wont have to worry if its to soon to move it. IMO there really is no point in moving a snake to feed it. In fact it can be seriously dangerous in large snakes like burms and retics. I've fed my snakes in there cages for years and none of them are aggressive....except maybe the amazon but I'd be concerned if he didnt try and bite me...LOL
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Jason

Thanks again for all of the feedback!