Warning please do not let your pet pythons to get near your face

[longqi]

View attachment 201788View attachment 201787

This morning l was attacked by one of my captive breed Olive Pythons on my face as you can see in the photo, the Olive that bit me on my face is the one you see in the photo on my hand.

Not once in mylife since l have been keeping Pythons since August 1989, have l ever come this close to being bitting on my face by a Python.

Just curious now
Has this snake ever bitten you anywhere else??
What warning signs did it give before hitting you?
It sounds like a feeding response because it latched on?

Im asking the last question in particular because a 4metre retic hit and wrapped me one day
That snake was a pussy
Never ever attempted biting anyone before or since
Afterwards I remembered something
Earlier that day I had been sorting out rats
One had jumped onto my shoulder
Even though I washed my hands and arms there was enough scent left to set off the retic

 

[mysnakesau]

...... Its teeth punctured her eye lid and shattered her contact lens. All I can say is thank god she had the contacts in!....

How did she manage to not cut her eyes on her broken contacts? Your friend was really lucky.

 

[reptilian1924]

Just curious now
Has this snake ever bitten you anywhere else??
What warning signs did it give before hitting you?
It sounds like a feeding response because it latched on?

Yes this young Olive Python as bitten me a few times previously, the last bite was Last Thursday evening when l was about to feed it, it deciding to grab my right hand least it did not hold onto me, so l did not have to force it to let go of my right hand.

There have been times when this Olive Python will come over to one of my hands, and what it will do is force its head againt's my hand or fingers then before l know, it will slowely open its mouth and try to grab hold of my hand or finger.

From what l can see this Olive Python will always be snappy or try and bite me if it can, this just goes to show all Pythons do have different personalities, none of my other 3 Olive Pythons have ever bitten me, but one of my 2 wild caught Olives will some times lash out at me but not bite.

l would like to thank everyone who so far as responded to my thread here on APS.

 

[Darkhorse]

How did she manage to not cut her eyes on her broken contacts? Your friend was really lucky.

I really not sure how she got the contacts out... all I know is that her eye is ok. Very lucky!

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

I hope the snake will recover ok les.

 

[ianinoz]

Invest in safety googles. Least that way if this ever happens again your eyes are protected.

Obviously the snake was pissed off about something or surprised or fealt threatened otherwise it wouldn't have attacked you. Will this change how you interact with that snake ?

 

[SYNeR]

Eeek.. I always give my Stimson and Jungle pythons 'kisses' :\

I'm definitely not game to let my Woma near my face.. She likes to put on a show.

 

[reptilian1924]

I hope the snake will recover ok les.

ssssnakeman, ( Baz ), l'm sure my young Olive Python will recover from biting me on my face thank you.

Invest in safety googles. Least that way if this ever happens again your eyes are protected.
laninoz, thanks for letting me know what l should invest in to help protect myself from any future Python bites or attacks, l will look into getting 1 pair of safely goggles.


Obviously the snake was pissed off about something or surprised or fealt threatened otherwise it wouldn't have attacked you. Will this change how you interact with that snake ?

My Olive Python was not pissed of or surprised or fealt threatened in anyway what so ever, the photos you can see here shows you a air gap between 2 enclosures, each day l let my Olive Pythons out so they can get inside this crevice to hide and keep warm and secure during the day.
l went to see how they were going inside this crevice this morning, then one of the 2 young Olive Pythons decided to come over and suss me out,View attachment 201826 before l know it it lash out at my face and bit me, so from what l can tell it was only trying to protect its little
hide-out that you can see here..
View attachment 201825

 

[tsbjd]

Any chance of infection? For you - not the snake lol. Still better than being bit by a monkey

Anybody had any dramas with snakebite infection?

 

[snakehandler]

I am in two minds with this, one side of me says you should never trust any animal, yet I allow my 4m olive to often move all over my face, I have had her since she was 12 months old and she has never bitten anyone, we have used her in photoshoots, catwalks, tv shows, promotional activities and no problems......but I have another olive @3m and she has never bitten, but is not as easy going as the big girl. To trust an animal 100% is irresponsible, when working with animals you know that a bite can happen, you do everything you can to avoid it (and you can "socialize" a snake to be more tollerant of being touched, petted, and held), then if you are going to allow others to handle it you take out a very good insurance policy and hope you never need it!

 

[longqi]

Reptilian
The second bite you describe seems to one that is rarely found in other species apart from waters and olives
Because of my job I keep an exact record of bites or attempted bites
In 30+years I have had exactly that bite repeated by 9 different snakes and have heard of it in 2 others
5 were olives ,,,,, total kept 11
3 were waters......total kept 5
1 was a jungle......total kept 37

All were adult or young adult so it might not apply in this case??
In every instance the bite/chew came after I had handled smaller snakes and usually if the smaller snakes were of a different sub species or species
I called it bite/chew because it was nothing like any other bite
Just a sniff around where the smaller snake had been
Open mouth
Close mouth
Chew for a few seconds maximum
Let go

 

[jinjajoe]

Poor snake !!!!! I'd bite if a big head like that was getting too close also !!!! I love you really Les !!!!

 

[Boidae]

I am holding my 6ft Olive right now, Ill try and keep her away form my face :|
Very lucky she didnt get your eye

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

I am in two minds with this, one side of me says you should never trust any animal, yet I allow my 4m olive to often move all over my face, I have had her since she was 12 months old and she has never bitten anyone, we have used her in photoshoots, catwalks, tv shows, promotional activities and no problems......but I have another olive @3m and she has never bitten, but is not as easy going as the big girl. To trust an animal 100% is irresponsible, when working with animals you know that a bite can happen, you do everything you can to avoid it (and you can "socialize" a snake to be more tollerant of being touched, petted, and held), then if you are going to allow others to handle it you take out a very good insurance policy and hope you never need it!

I totally agree here snakehandler. I have some large snakes that as just normal handling are very very good, but I never trust them 100%. When tucker times comes, all I can say is that a person that gets between a large python & their food deserves evrything they get.
Now Reptilian this is not what happened with you, but it does show how complacent we can get.
I can tell you that I have had a couple of good python bites & not proud of it, but I have learnt.

A young Srubby (only 2.5m ) that I was taming gave me a couple of good ones that left full teeth imprints on ribs & forearm and left briusing.
Another one was my large male Diamond got my hand at feed time & would not let go & chewed in.

Now a bit of advice is that Metholated spirits works well, not for drinking to make you feel better, but the snakes absolutly hate it & a bit on your finger dabbed in front of their face or in my case with the male Diamond I poured it over his head, THEY LET GO IMMEDIATLY.

I allways keep a bottle of metho on my bar.

Cheers
Ian.

 

[Recharge]

You know what's crap... if that was a dog, there would be calls for it to be put down... but because it's a snake... OOH it's just its natural reaction..

Would not have been fun either way, thanks for sharing and super lucky you didnt get tagged in the eye

really? what? a dog is a domesticated animal, TOTALLY different to a reptile, which CANNOT be domesticated, a reptile remains wild, no matter how long you keep it, they aren't pack animals and they don't have a social hierarchy in which you can become an alpha.
so you're way out of line even comparing them. *sigh* *shakes head*

Now a bit of advice is that Metholated spirits works well, not for drinking to make you feel better, but the snakes absolutly hate it & a bit on your finger dabbed in front of their face or in my case with the male Diamond I poured it over his head, THEY LET GO IMMEDIATLY.

I allways keep a bottle of metho on my bar.

Cheers
Ian.

you should only use alcohol as an absolute last resort, go stick some mouth wash in your mouth and not spit it out and see how you go, your snake cannot spit, and the alcohol burns for quite a long time. try the usual alternatives first, snake under water or under running tap etc if you can.

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

Just another bit of advice,
ALLWAYS wash your hands & forearms with soap after feeding or handling mice/rats/chicks whatever befor handling a snake.
This should also be apropriate between handling snakes so as SMELL IS NOT left to provoke a feeding response from another snake.

I can tell you that it saves you embarresment as well as pain.

Cheers

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

snake under water or under running tap etc if you can.

Lol, the snake was hanging off his face, you could see who could hold their breath the longest, haha.
I blow in their face, sometimes it works, lol

 

[mysnakesau]

Another idea is to grab the wooden spoon. No don't spank the snake. Use the handle and slide it between your nose and the corner of the snakes mouth. Next time it tries to re-arrange its grip it will have no choice but to let go because he can't close his mouth while there is a stick in there.

 

[eipper]

credit cards are even better slide one in from the front at the top and another on the bottom and slide the finger hand etc out with major injury

 

[reptilian1924]

Another idea is to grab the wooden spoon. No don't spank the snake. Use the handle and slide it between your nose and the corner of the snakes mouth. Next time it tries to re-arrange its grip it will have no choice but to let go because he can't close his mouth while there is a stick in there.

credit cards are even better slide one in from the front at the top and another on the bottom and slide the finger hand etc out with major injury

Mysnakesau and Eipper, Thanks for the advice on what l or anyone else should do if we ever get bitten by our pet Pythons again, in regards to get them to let go without causing any harm to them at the same time much appreciated.

l will do what ever l can to make sure none of my 4 Olive Pythons ever get to bite me on my face again, next time l may not be as lucky if l get bitten on my face.