Snake Bite!

The other day I was reading some bite stories on the corn snake forum I peruse, and I was smugly thinking to myself that in 4 years of keeping my three snakes, I’ve never been bitten… 

Perhaps it’s because I keep them well fed…

Perhaps I just have really friendly snakes… 

Perhaps it’s my exceptional handling skills…

 

You know what’s coming, right?

 

That one, right there!  He’s the culprit!  Oh sure, he looks all sweet and innocent with his baby face and his big bug eyes, but don’t let him fool you.  He’s what they refer to as a hateling, or a cornobra.

Kek is squirrelly, he has been since we got him which isn’t all that uncommon in hatchlings.  He doesn’t really like to be held because, well… I’m a giant and he’s not much bigger than a pencil, you’d have reservations too.  For the most part I leave him alone; he’ll calm down when he gets older and bigger. 

I do have to take him out for feeding time though.  He gets weighed, and then he gets to nom on a nice juicy mouse.  That’s the deal, and usually it’s not a big one.  Sometimes I have to chase him around his tank a bit (they’re really fast when they’re that small) to get him out, but it’s no biggie.

Until I got smug that is…

I put jungle gyms in all of the snake tanks to encourage them to climb and exercise, and Kek LOVES his gym.  He’s constantly up at the top pretending to be an Amazon Tree Corn, which can make things a little dicey when I need to get him out for feeding time.  He wraps himself around the bars you see, and I have to pry him off to get him out while holding onto his squiggly little body.  It’s kind of like a juggling act, except the balls want to get away really badly, and they’re pretty ticked at you.

So last week I take a deep breath and dive in, holding him in one hand while trying to unwrap his very strong tail from the gym with the other.  Now I don’t know if he was really mad, or if he just decided that I smelled awesome, because the next thing I know he’s unhinged his jaws and is trying to eat my thumb.

I know you’re all going to ask if it hurt.  The short answer is no.  Not one little bit.  In fact, I’ve had showers that hurt worse.

Look at him, does he look like he could inflict any damage?  He may have startled me if he were bigger than an earthworm, but he’s not so instead it was pretty laughable.

It didn’t take him too long to realize that the meal he was going for was slightly too big for his stomach and he let go.  While he was distracted I did manage to get him off the gym, so thank heaven for small favors.  He looked at me with a “What?” kind of expression as I put him in his feeding container, and then happily munched down the correct food item.

Yet he wasn’t finished with me.  One chomp was not enough.  Oh no, I had been way too conceited about my snake handling skills, so I needed to be brought down a few pegs.  He tagged me again as I moved him from the feeding tub back into his tank.  Just a quick nip on the side of my hand to remind me that I’m not all that.

It’s ok, he’s cute so I’ll keep him, and just like a snotty teenager; this hateling phase will eventually pass.

Hugs,