# Soft bites



## dragonlover1 (Dec 23, 2017)

Question for long time python keepers.
Yesterday my Spotted python bit me;nothing new about snake bites but this was weird!
I was handling her and for some reason she slowly opened her mouth and deliberately bit me.
This wasn't a feeding bite and it wasn't a defensive bite,it wasn't feed day and she wasn't in shed.She is a bit weird in that sometimes while handling she randomly snaps at open air,never at me.I have had her about 1 year and never been bitten before.I also have had a couple of pygmy banded pythons for a couple of years with no dramas.
The only time I have seen this behaviour before was when 1 of my son's (male)stimmies did the same thing to another stimmie (who we thought was female but wasn't)
Any thoughts on this?


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Dec 23, 2017)

Love bite.


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## pinefamily (Dec 23, 2017)

Like a slow yawn that turns into a bite? We've had the same thing a few times when we've had pythons out. It's not like a food response bite, but it is the python deciding you're worth eating.


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## dragonlover1 (Dec 23, 2017)

So it means I taste good ?lol.. 
Yeah it was really weird,so slow and deliberate and then she didn't want to let go of my hand.
I ended up putting a bag over her and sliding her off my hand because nothing else seemed to work.


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## Yellowtail (Dec 23, 2017)

dragonlover1 said:


> So it means I taste good ?lol..
> Yeah it was really weird,so slow and deliberate and then she didn't want to let go of my hand.
> I ended up putting a bag over her and sliding her off my hand because nothing else seemed to work.


Thursday I sold a Darwin het hatchling and the buyer was choosing between two females, one was really tame while the other had a beautiful pattern but had this same biting syndrome, I had it loosely in my hand and it continually moved around mouthing my fingers and hand sometimes biting hard enough to penetrate the skin but not deeply in fact I only had a couple of spots of blood. This went on for a good 10 mins, it was not striking just mouthing, when fed she has a good strike but this was different. The buyer was quite intrigued by this and picked the bitey one. A lot of hatchlings will make an inquisitive strike at fingers when held but they usually relax when they work out you are not food.


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## dragonlover1 (Dec 23, 2017)

As I said this isn't a hatchy,she is a year + old and first time for this behaviour


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## GBWhite (Dec 23, 2017)

They'll do it when feeling stressed or feel frightened. They will also do it if they can smell what they believe may be food. This can happen if one has been cooking or handling meat, especially chicken of chicken products (broth, stock, chicken salt, chicken flavoured crisps or crackers). You'd be surprised how long the scent of meat will linger and it only takes the slightest amount of scent to provoke a bite. Same can happen if one has handled or patted a pet before handling the snake.


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## Yellowtail (Dec 23, 2017)

GBWhite said:


> They'll do it when feeling stressed or feel frightened. They will also do it if they can smell what they believe may be food. This can happen if one has been cooking or handling meat, especially chicken of chicken products (broth, stock, chicken salt, chicken flavoured crisps or crackers). You'd be surprised how long the scent of meat will linger and it only takes the slightest amount of scent to provoke a bite. Same can happen if one has handled or patted a pet before handling the snake.


I had been handling parrots and maybe that left a trace, It was not behaving like stressed, more like curious, I'm used to the food scent response and it's almost impossible to wash the smell of rodents off your body (I clean my phone with Glen 20 before I photograph snakes) completely but this one was different.


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## GBWhite (Dec 23, 2017)

Yellowtail said:


> I had been handling parrots and maybe that left a trace, It was not behaving like stressed, more like curious, I'm used to the food scent response and it's almost impossible to wash the smell of rodents off your body (I clean my phone with Glen 20 before I photograph snakes) completely but this one was different.



I'd say that was more than likely the case.


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## dragonlover1 (Dec 23, 2017)

No this is definitely not the case here,totally clean and had been out for 20 minutes or so and then started to bite


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## pinefamily (Dec 24, 2017)

GBWhite said:


> They'll do it when feeling stressed or feel frightened. They will also do it if they can smell what they believe may be food. This can happen if one has been cooking or handling meat, especially chicken of chicken products (broth, stock, chicken salt, chicken flavoured crisps or crackers). You'd be surprised how long the scent of meat will linger and it only takes the slightest amount of scent to provoke a bite. Same can happen if one has handled or patted a pet before handling the snake.


Our son learned that lesson. He had been preparing chicken for his cousin and himself, washed his hands and disinfected them, and got one of our more placid pythons out for his cousin to hold. The python did the full food response, biting and wrapping. Lesson learned.


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