Nerdhero
Not so new Member
Hey all, brand new snake owner here!
I recently purchased a 9 month old diamond python and today he bit me! Reading through everyones comments it seems most people agree when you've been bitten its generally your fault not the snakes. I would like to know what I've done wrong and how I can remedy this:
I got him from a local snake catcher who is a friend of a friend (completely captive bred she got a clutch as a gift) she only handled him when cleaning his enclosure but said he was quite docile considering the lack of handling, when I picked him up from her I handled him for about 5 minutes and he seemed comfortable and curious!
So I've only had him a couple of days and have been trying my best to just ignore him and let him settle in. I've just been changing his water twice a day and at the same time checking his hides/enclosure for any poo. He has seemed curious of me but not aggressive (albiet I'm VERY new to reading snake body language) and I grew comfortable/confident when shuffling things around in his enclosure to check for poo and double checking temps with my infared thermo. Today while doing a water change and check he bit me. I don't even remember what I was doing at the time but I was surprised he even reached me from how far away he was.
My concern hasn't been with the physical bite (as expected it didn't hurt at all) but with my reaction, aka getting surprised, pulling my hand back and potentially hurting him! Of course this is exactly what I did, crying out in surprise I've jerked my hand back and he has ended up falling outside his enclosure (about a 1m fall). I placed him back in the enclosure and just left him be now, he did spend quite a long time sitting out under no hides after that which I haven't seen him do yet.
I've tried to be as descriptive as possible here so please try point out what I've done wrong! Is he simply stressed in his new environment and I should leave him be? Is that fall going to hurt him, he has seemed to still be moving fine but i definitely stressed him out
To add: I am yet to feed him (was advised to wait a week) Before the clean I had been to the toilet and therefore just washed my hands. Also is there body language to look for? I didn't notice anying "s"ing up and was frankly shocked when he flew at me, the speed and distance was amazing!
Thanks in advance for any advice, he is a beautiful creature and I want to give him the best care possible.
I recently purchased a 9 month old diamond python and today he bit me! Reading through everyones comments it seems most people agree when you've been bitten its generally your fault not the snakes. I would like to know what I've done wrong and how I can remedy this:
I got him from a local snake catcher who is a friend of a friend (completely captive bred she got a clutch as a gift) she only handled him when cleaning his enclosure but said he was quite docile considering the lack of handling, when I picked him up from her I handled him for about 5 minutes and he seemed comfortable and curious!
So I've only had him a couple of days and have been trying my best to just ignore him and let him settle in. I've just been changing his water twice a day and at the same time checking his hides/enclosure for any poo. He has seemed curious of me but not aggressive (albiet I'm VERY new to reading snake body language) and I grew comfortable/confident when shuffling things around in his enclosure to check for poo and double checking temps with my infared thermo. Today while doing a water change and check he bit me. I don't even remember what I was doing at the time but I was surprised he even reached me from how far away he was.
My concern hasn't been with the physical bite (as expected it didn't hurt at all) but with my reaction, aka getting surprised, pulling my hand back and potentially hurting him! Of course this is exactly what I did, crying out in surprise I've jerked my hand back and he has ended up falling outside his enclosure (about a 1m fall). I placed him back in the enclosure and just left him be now, he did spend quite a long time sitting out under no hides after that which I haven't seen him do yet.
I've tried to be as descriptive as possible here so please try point out what I've done wrong! Is he simply stressed in his new environment and I should leave him be? Is that fall going to hurt him, he has seemed to still be moving fine but i definitely stressed him out
To add: I am yet to feed him (was advised to wait a week) Before the clean I had been to the toilet and therefore just washed my hands. Also is there body language to look for? I didn't notice anying "s"ing up and was frankly shocked when he flew at me, the speed and distance was amazing!
Thanks in advance for any advice, he is a beautiful creature and I want to give him the best care possible.