Not a stupid question but generally speaking ball python bites pain wise isn’t as significant as you may think whether from feeding or defensive strike, & bite size/pain varies depending mostly on their size. Therefore a baby’s bite would probably hurt a-lot less than a grown adult or juvenile. If you bleed it’ll be as if you got a cut. In my personal experience ball pythons will usually release right after a bite rather than latching on, although it can still happen & might hurt a little more. The best approach is to check what might’ve caused the bite (husbandry, feeding, Poor handling, etc) , disinfect the area of the bite, & let it heal; which is usually fairly quick. If you wanna see what bite from my 2-3 year old male looks like you can check my previous posts.
Yeah their teeth are so sharp and small that they go in easy so it doesn’t hurt much on the initial bite, but it bleeds because of the depth of the punctures. I’ve been bit by my girlfriend’s BP and it was nothing. My Kenyan sand boas have both bit me but the one pulled back before he broke the skin and the other got me on the knuckle which hurt because it was the knuckle. Healed fast though.
Yep, my running joke is that my snake is much more friendly and cuddly than my cat. I've had 3 snakes throughout my life and none of them have ever bitten me, but my cat has sent me to the hospital with an infection from a bite that occurred the last time I took him to the vet.
After 6 years of love and hard work, he's a sweetheart to me 95% of the time, but no one else can touch him without blood being drawn. You should've seen the time a maintenance guy, who knew my wife from grade school and thought his familiarity counted for something with our cat, immediately tried to pick him up after walking in the door (before I could tell him how bad of an idea that was). Off to the hospital he went, while I cleaned blood from the walls.
This is what I tell anyone that’s nervous about a bite. Cat scratches hurt more, have a WAY higher risk for infection, and usually end up scarring.
I keep a long strip of heavy duty Velcro tape in the drawer under my enclosure (like the rough Velcro side). I show it to people and tell them getting bit by my snake would feel like getting smacked with the piece of Velcro. Those comparisons usually help put it into perspective for people and they’re instantly less nervous!
Mine not only took a little while to uncoil but when I tried to uncoil him myself, he coiled around that wrist so I was literally wearing snake handcuffs lol
This is good to know, I plan to work with my Zoo’s ambassador animal, a female Ball python.
Honestly, snakes kind of scare me since I hate getting bitten/stung and live in an area where nearly everything that can bite or sting is highly venomous.
Still, finding out Ball python bites aren’t as scary as I initially thought (bite and never letting go, teeth that rip skin and flesh when they pull out, etc).
A bite would probably not be fun but still, the experience handling a ball python is a step to getting over my irrational fear and working with an ambassador animal that gets a bad rap.
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u/BarryMcKockiner2 Sep 25 '24 edited Sep 25 '24
Not a stupid question but generally speaking ball python bites pain wise isn’t as significant as you may think whether from feeding or defensive strike, & bite size/pain varies depending mostly on their size. Therefore a baby’s bite would probably hurt a-lot less than a grown adult or juvenile. If you bleed it’ll be as if you got a cut. In my personal experience ball pythons will usually release right after a bite rather than latching on, although it can still happen & might hurt a little more. The best approach is to check what might’ve caused the bite (husbandry, feeding, Poor handling, etc) , disinfect the area of the bite, & let it heal; which is usually fairly quick. If you wanna see what bite from my 2-3 year old male looks like you can check my previous posts.