Blood Python Bite

[HARTSOCK]

SIGH ---
why does stuff have to always go wrong in the weirdest way for me?
I got a Blood python (short tail Borneo) about a week ago and she is quite the nasty little thing, but she's a young blood so what do you expect right? I am willing to take the tags from her and work with her to calm her down. Well today I figured she's had enough time to adjust, I need to start to give her some handling time. (I have held her a couple of times throughout the week when necessary but pretty much left her alone.) So I get the little hook (she's maybe 18"), she hops on the hook, I get her tail and up she comes everything is fine and she let me stroke her back with my thumb (front of her still on hook tail end in hand) after about 4 minutes she starts to huff and puff a little and at 5 minutes I figure she's had enough for the day and she's done good. All along, I am thinking "wow, she has really calmed down." My daughters are watching and as I am putting her back down into the cage, one of them says to me, "you are going to get bit." I say, "awww, no she's a good wittle baby." in my best baby talk voice. And I made the simple mistake of raising her head higher than the tail when using a hook. Got a little tag on the finger....

Nothing major, shocked the kids a little and I did get "I told you so" before "are you okay?", but what made matters worse is that as quickly as I was bit, I put the little monster down and she comes lunging at my hand striking over and over before I can get it pulled back out of the cage! I got it out without another bite. put the top on, send the kids for the camera so I can save the bite for all time. And I take a pic of her and I notice something on her head that I hadn't noticed when holding her...take a look...

Do you see it???? DO YOU SEE IT????? A partial retained shed from the night before when she shed!!!!!!!!!! Of all the snakes, of all 19, why o why did it have to be this one and why did it have to be the head???? Trying to just use the hook to rub it off, wasn't working nor was it putting the blood in a good mood. I decided to wet her down to soften the shed so I got the spray bottle and misted her. sounds simple right??? As soon as the spray starts coming, she starts striking at the water!!!! At the water!!!! and I dont' mean snapping, I mean full body lunges with mouth open 180 degrees, jumping upward falling on back type strikes!!!!!!!!!
So I got the hook/pinner combo that I got off of Snakehook --- didn't know why I got it at the time, but was sure glad I have it now --- pin the girls head down, which she didn't seem upset at. and used hemostats to remove the shed, which came off very easily and probably would have fallen or been rubbed off tonight. Everything was now good right??? Wrong!
I had to uncover her from the aspen when I started all of this and she was really stressed at this point (me too!) So I went to cover her back up with aspen, no way!!!! My hand was not coming back in there as long as she had breath! So I got the bright idea of using an empty papertowel roll to flick the aspen on her. Any ideas what the heck happened now??
Yep, she decides that isn't going to happen so she strikes at the flying aspen and gets a mouth full. (sigh) Now I am at a panic, the snake is ticked beyond belief that she can't get her mouth close and is thrashing a little so I grab the pinner and the hemos and reach in there. As sure as I am typing this now, that snake who was acting like it couldn't get the aspen out of her mouth, spit it out to the point I heard the phattooiee and came after my hand again!!!!! I swear she was faking the aspen thing and just knew I would reach in there to try to get it out of her mouth!!!! I can see many more bleeding days ahead of me!

[LdyDrgn]

haha, sounds like she could be offspring of Evil Ethel, but I know she's not.

You might want to get rid of the aspen. It's horrible for humidity. Make a humid hide box for her with some damp, soft sphagnum moss and use newspaper for substrate.

Good luck with her and that shed!

[HARTSOCK]

Originally Posted by LdyDrgn

haha, sounds like she could be offspring of Evil Ethel, but I know she's not.
You might want to get rid of the aspen. It's horrible for humidity. Make a humid hide box for her with some damp, soft sphagnum moss and use newspaper for substrate.
Good luck with her and that shed!

Yeah, I plan on making some changes as soon as I stop by the local S.W.A.T. department and pick up some riot gear!

The shed is good now thankfully. Thanks for the advice, I plan on using another substrate but just trying to hold off on the newspaper, I don't mind the way it looks, just hate to have to move all the stuff to replace a sheet.

Thanks LdyDrgn for the advice.

[ssjsmits]

II've heard numerous times that they have a tendancy to lunge their whole body when they strike. Neat snakes

Sorry about your finger though

[tbowman]

Lol Nice story.

[HavocovaH]

Lawl! Thanks. That brightened my day.

[Adrya]

Haha... i'm so lucky I ended up with a huffpuff, yet mellow blood python. lol I have neeeever been bitten by him nor has he so much as struck at me. He's a good boy.. lol


Good luck with yer lil' devil.

And I was expecting a big bloody messy bite from your blood, too, how disappointing... lmao