my male dumerils about 4.5 ft about 1400 grams just bit me - until now, even from arrival he had been perfectly docile - never any indication of agression in any way - never flighty when removing from tub - the last few days he had spent most of his time in the water dish - the only other time he did this was just before a shed - so i guessed it was the same again - i had opened his lid earlier - he seemed interested in coming out but i did not take him out then - his eyes are perfectly clear and its really too soon for a snake his age to be shedding again - at any rate my daughter was in from the army and she wanted to see one so i lifted the lid to retrieve him - he acted a little weird - not sure why but i had a weird feeling that i should just leave him but i didnt - anyways as i lifted him out he wadded his tail around the heat mat and seemed resistant to come out then he nailed me on the wrist breaking the skin on both sides of the arm - i had to twist him loose - i tried again to retrieve him and it was obvious that he would bite again so i left him alone - only 2 things are different about this handling attempt - first of all it was after the room light had cycled off so the room was dimly lit and secondly i had recently changed his feeding from weekly to every 10 days - maybe he thought he was hunting - i've read so much about people who have said that they had never seen a dumerils even pretend to want to bite - so much for that - thought you might share some thoughts and how to proceed from here - this is my first bite ever - thanks robert white

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