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Learned a Lesson and Lost Some Pride...

K

Kate

I Love Herps!
Well, we took Gaia over to meet Jonathan's little sister today, and at first it went wonderfully.... Brianna was very scared at first, but I had her sit on the bed with me with Gaia and get used to the snake, and eventually was wearing her as a necklace! We explained to her that she's very mellow and has never bit anyone. Then we gave Gaia a break back in her travel box to drink some water and hid under her log, and Brianna brought in her Russian Dwarf Hamster to play with. We played with her for a while and put her up.
Now, trying to be good, I had us wash hands before playing with the snake again. She was wearing Gaia as a lovely scarf and I saw Gaia sniff her bicep and the red flag went off- she almost always sniffs her meals like that before striking. Before I could grab her she bit, AND Brianna instinctively tugged....
Well, I managed to grab her hand before she tugged hard, and calmly told her to hold still.. watched Gaia and sure enough it was a feeder bite, she re-positioned to try to swallow and realized this meal was rather too large, and promptly let go (THANK YOU GAIA). After Brianna breaking my heart asking teary-eyed if I was SURE Gaia wasn't poisonous, we cleaned, iced, and Neosporin-ed her (actually REALLY cool looking) bite mark.
I am ashamed, that hamster climbed all over Brianna, and I am knowledgeable enough to have known better.
Gaia gets fed once a week (we are trying to up her weight) and was actually just fed yesterday. I know the typical practice is to give her more time alone to digest, but she always recovers fast and is out and about happy and nosy in the next morning, and always has beautiful poops. (Yeah, I know they are nocturnal, but I'm not sure Gaia knows that!)
Anyway, I explained Gaia's instincts to a much calmer Brianna and that she wasn't 'attacking' her Brianna, but rather smelled the hamster and thought she had found a meal. The positives is that Brianna understood, and actually handled the snake again later on tonight she just made sure I held Gaia's head positioned away from her! She even said the bite was more surprising than painful!

So, it didn't end as bad as it could have by any means, but I would rather have been bitten for what I consider MY mistake, then a girl I am slowly teaching to adore our slithery acquaintances. Tonight was a kick in the head with the obvious: wash ALL the hamster smell off, no matter HOW full the snake is.

P.S.- No bite club pictures, luckily Gaia let go in fairly short order, so I didn't have time to consider it.
 
Oh the guilt! I'd be mortified. But she's probably at school right now showing the other kids her war wound and telling them about the MASSIVE cool snake that tried to eat her!
 
Well, she probably won't be afraid to be bit by a snake now! And who would have thought about the hamster smell up that far on her arms. But you _are_ taking a risk handling the snake that soon after feeding. A regurge and the resulting treatment will _really_ delay her growth.
 
Me and my boyfriend had a hamster (he just died last week of old age). We never held the snakes after holding him because hamsters stink. You may not notice it if you are around them all the time. But they do have a smell and they also like to crawl all over you rubbing that smell everywhere they go. Take it as a lesson learned and avoid the hamster next time lol.

I wonder if she would have noticed the bite if she hadn't of seen it. My nephew was holding one of my snakes and he was grabbing her instead of letting her slither through his hands. I told him to stop or she would bite him. Just as I said that she bit his hand real fast and let go. He didn't even notice it and didn't believe me when I told him the snake bit him.
 
I have this snake, Cherry, mom of the milksnake Miami babies. So she's always been my ambassador snake- super-friendly and people oriented. I had some friends come over, who had never seen my snake collection, and I got Cherry out to show them an example. So she strikes my hand, hard, like she's going to kill it, wraps my hand, starts trying to swallow it...She bit me so hard I had bruises! Great ambassador snake...
 
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