Bite question?

Ok I just got bit by my ball python for the first time. Now she is just short of three feet long, I had such a hard time getting her to let go (she must of thought I was food) I just had to wait til she let go. Now I always kind of thought the whole "when they bite the direction of their teeth means you cant pull your (insert body part here) out of there mouth" was generally meaning prey. Boy was I wrong. My question is; when a large python or boa mistakes you for food and is capable of coiling your body nit just your hand how the hell does one deal with that if no one is around to help?

most people do not handle large constrictors alone. i believe it is six feet of snake per one man or person, is the general rule for boids.

Actually, I will disagree to an extent...The AFH recommendation is that you have another person at least present when working with snakes over 8 ft long (or it was, back when I worked with large constrictors. The bottom line is that most people do work alone with snakes larger than that. There have been debates on here on the topic of at what size a snake becomes dangerous - I am not going to rehash those (feel free to search them out, there are a few interesting statements). In reality, having another person "present" is absolutely useless if they don't know what to do, or if they are inclined to panic (or, if they aren't paying attention, lol - I think I told that story here someplace, too).

What does one do? First, one makes every effort not to put themselves in that situation. Knowing the snake, and being aware of things such as scents, distractions, irritants are key. Even so, things can happen - if they do, stay calm, and don't do anything stupid. The worst thing you can do is get both hands/arms pinned, because then you are powerless to help yourself. Don't try to focus on getting the snake to release its bite, that will just make it hold tighter. Assess the situation - What is the snake constricting? Can you safely wait for the snake to start to relax? Can you start to undo the coil(s). Do you have at least one hand free? Do you know where the snakes head is? Is there a way to get help? These are pretty important questions, and you have to think of them quickly...especially if the snake is around your neck, or has a good wrap around your chest (wasted effort/struggling at that point leaves you in a very bad spot).

One of the most common recommendations is a bottle of alcohol - in a spray bottle, or not. The idea is to spray/pour it into, or around, the snake's mouth. The burning sensation is supposed to get the snake to let go...BUT, releasing the bite is a small part of the problem. Hopefully, it will be enough to make the snake think in terms of getting away, and it will release you entirely. Another interesting option is a taser/stun gun - incapacitating the snake briefly to allow escape. There is the foolish macho defense of having a large knife nearby - but the likelihood of being able to wield it effectively is fairly slim (unless you have another party present, in which case they should just unwrap the snake). You will have to cause serious injury to the snake to free yourself, and make one hell of a mess in the process; but I suppose if it is a life or death situation, anything goes. Don't waste your time with things like trying to dowse the snake with hot or cold water. Those are pretty ineffective...and DON'T be stupid and jump in the swimming pool - you'll end up dead. If absolutely necessary, meaning you have no other option, there is always 911. I consider that a last resort for a # of reasons: including time, bad publicity, some of the stupid things they try, and the fact that the snake will frequently end up dead or taken away.

The best thing one can do is to avoid being in that situation to begin with. Unfortunately, people are stupid, and such things happen occasionally.

yup, I have a small bottle of mouthwash near the animal room for these situations. ha ha. it works!!! I have had to use it a few times thru out the years, once on a savanna monitor, and a few times on ball pythons. one tiny drop, or a little on a q-tip and they will let go. Not always in a pleasant way though.. cuz they wanna get away asap, so the release can be a bit painful. lol

Originally Posted by hhmoore

and DON'T be stupid and jump in the swimming pool -

After reading this all I can think is that for you to bring that up someone must have tried it lol. That is sooo funny I cant even begin to express how hard I just laughed. All I can picture is some guy with a 11/12 foot anaconda/burm/retic jumping in a pool lol, I am sure that will really make the snake let go.

I have run into the problem of finding people to help me out with my larger snakes from time to time. All you can do is minimize the possibility of incident as Harald said, and be prepared. I always bring the bottle of alcohol, phone ect with me when I am handling the larger animals and have no one to help me. I remember two times when I asked different people to give me a hand that I ran into problems. I had gotten in some new adult retics that I knew very little about(14' and 17'). They were definitely big enough to put me down if they went for it. I asked these two kids I knew to come down and just basically be in the room if anything went wrong as it was my first time handling these new guys. I ended up in a huge argument with one of the kids. I explained that there was a bottle of alcohol right here and if something happens I will ask you to give it to me and to start uncoiling from the tail first if the snake were to coil, and that I would talk them through the situation. Anyways the one kid goes that, if it does that I am pulling out my knife and cutting its head off....thats where we ran into problems, do not ever, ever threaten one of my animals! I told him if he did that I would procede to walk upstairs pull out my prized and favorite sword and remove his head in turn, and I would have lol, my temper is terrible and you are safer threatening my life than one of my animals. He didn't like that too much lol, I then kicked him out of my house, and the other kid stayed and helped out, and nothing went wrong thankfully.

About 2 weeks later with the same snake(17') I needed help again and asked another friend to help me out who has a couple ball pythons, so he has some experience at least(if that counts lol). I noticed as I am trying to bag the retic(who was struggling as all retics do) he is shaking holding the bag...so I said, whats wrong? Are you afraid?? I told you I would take the bite if one was to be had, and that I am keeping the head under control, so whats up? He said he was afraid and I made him leave the room, the last thing I need is someone afraid in the room and getting my kicked because of it. I have only two people in the world who I trust completely to help me with any snake, and they aren't always available to help out, so I have had snakes over 10 feet out by myself hundreds of times and have been lucky that I have never taken a bite off of anything over about 6 feet(and of the bites I have taken I could have avoided all of them, just don't get too concerned with the smaller stuff). I intend to keep it that way. A big part of safe handling is consistency and reading body language. Those in my opinion are probably the two most important aspects. I know all of my snakes well enough to read how a dayshandling is going to go before I even open that cage. I can tell who is not "in the mood" to be messed with and who is going to be effortless. I do not condone handling alone, but there are times when it must be done, and all you can do is hope for the best, but expect the worst. The biggest problem of why we see these people killed by their snakes, or badly injured is sheer ignorance. I remember talking to someone once who told me there was no way a 100 pound snake could EVER kill them...I spit my drink out needless to say. He was convinced he was too strong, and it scares me that he handled bigger snakes alone. To many people get too complacent, or that it could never happen to me attitude, or get over confident in their handling. I am very confident in my ability to handle snakes, but I know I could make a mistake and pay dearly at anytime, its just something you have to be ready for. Sorry for kind of rambling on about nothing, but I figured I would drop my two cents in the bucket and share some experiences here. Take care, Dan M.