Meet the gang!

[guidofatherof5]

Then she unleashes a big smelly load of poo on me. I love her so much...

That is true snake love

[kibakiba]

I spent a bit of time with my loves and had Mama laying on my bed with me when my back pain was acting up. She seemed to enjoy sleeping and relaxing on my blanket and getting nice long neck rubs. I want to get a blanket to cut in pieces for her so she can feel like she's living "the life" all the time, instead of only when she's on my bed. I'd probably have to replace it every day, though, because she loves having soft, pretty surfaces to smear her poopy behind on.
After I put Mama back I went over to look at my babies and Snap was sleeping soundly under the lamp and looked up briefly before going back to bed... She usually doesn't like my big scary face staring at her... Ember got all excited to see me and was rubbing his nose all over the glass. When I put my hand in the tank he was excitedly slithering all over my hand and through my fingers. It was such a cute sight, I wish I could have gotten it on video. Runt let me rub her neck for a little while while she was resting under her log, this almost never happens, as Runt is extremely skittish. Tiny was tucked away in her tree hole sleeping...

I must have done something right yesterday at feeding time to have such calm babies. They're usually skittish and begging for food, or wont let me touch them if I don't have a treat for them. They are such silly little snakies.

[guidofatherof5]

It sounds to me like someone is spoiling their snakes.
Keep up the good work

[kibakiba]

-sighs-... Yes, I am guilty of spoiling them. I can't help it though, they are like my only friends that I can hang around with in real life. Ember and Snap are especially spoiled. Snap will only poop if I'm holding her, so I hold her a lot just so she can have the "honor" of pooping where she likes... And Ember really loves his pinky parts and worms, so meal time for him consists of a little fish, worms and pinky.

I want to spoil Tiny more, but he's a garbage gut kind of like your radixes, Steve. He takes anything now, it used to have to be salmon scented, but he's taken pinky parts, fish, worm and a slug, eating all of it as if it were his favorite and looking for more.

On that note, I accidentally left the food dish in the adults tank and Mama is constantly looking at me, then at the food dish. She even coiled up in the dish and kept watching me. She ate a pinky and all of the left overs a couple days ago and is still super fat... I need to change her name to Miss Piggy.

[kibakiba]

I was giving the snakes some food today and... well lets just say it feels like my finger will fall off. I really enjoy interacted with them on a more personal level, feeding them by hand and letting them slither on me and wipe their dirty faces on me... But, both Ember and Snap are getting so big (Ember is about 13-14 inches and Snap is about 10-11 inches) that when they miss the food and bite me, they've been piercing the skin. I haven't really had an allergic reaction from them, yet. But after them I was giving Mama and Snakey a little snack to hold them off while they are in shed and decided to feed them by hand, too. I do this every few feedings so they stay used to my hand being in the tank and they appreciate how hard I work for them Snakey got me a few times, but none of them broke the skin, and I was very cautious with Mama because she gets in a frenzy when she's got food near her. I understand the risks of feeding them with my hands and being allergic to their saliva, but honestly, it seems like the pain is worth the relationship I get from it and having them trust me more. It's only after they bite me and my fingers start turning red, swelling up and stinging as if a bunch of hot needles were pressed in my skin, that I almost regret feeding them like that. Mama bit me hard, it made me bleed and there are teeth marks in my fingers. I know she didn't mean to bite, but it sure did startle my boyfriend and my mom because it actually made me scream, I almost never make a peep if I get bit or scared other than saying "ow".

You'd think I would have learned not to feed them like that after the first few bitings... But I'd go an do it again once the swelling and pain dies down.

[guidofatherof5]

I know she didn't mean to bite

Yes she did. She just didn't think she was going to getting a mouth full of human

[ConcinusMan]

They really don't mean to bite you but are reluctant to let go once they get in a feeding frenzy. Like Steve said, they didn't know they were biting you. They thought they were biting prey (food) They'll bite anything that smells like food. They'll even try to bite glass walls and of course, each other.

I've never had much of a reaction from concinnus bites other than a little itching, and that's when a full grown adult draws blood and chews and drools in the wound. Any time a snake pierces the skin, it's good to let it bleed a little, or even squeeze to force a little bleeding. That helps to get the saliva out of the wound. No matter what kind of snake breaks the skin, you should disinfect as soon as possible. Peroxide or rubbing alcohol is advised. Never leave any snake bite untreated.

If disinfectants are not available, flushing the wound thoroughly with warm water or salt water is better than nothing. If any pain and/or swelling is present, it's usually caused by enzymes in their saliva, or simply from bacteria in their mouths. Flushing or disinfecting helps remove both of those causes of discomfort.

BTW Steve, I found the other hemostats I had stashed in my bathroom cabinet first aid kit. I noticed that the last 1 inch of them are exactly the same as the pliers I was using! One big difference though: the metal they're made of. No rust with hemostats.

Chantel, I would highly recommend that you "tong" feed the babies with a pair of hemostats from here on out. They're getting big and since you have a bad reaction, it's best that you avoid getting bit. It doesn't build trust with the snakes since they don't even realize what they are biting. They just know it can't be swallowed and eventually let go. Could be bad for their oral health too such as broken or missing teeth, and really bad for you if one of those little teeth break off in your wound.

It would only take a few stamps to send you a pair of hemostats. I have 3 pair. I don't need all of them. Will you use them if I send them? You just use them like pliers to hold the food. Once they bite, you just let go.

If you will use them, they will be in the mail tomorrow. Let me know and I will pay Steve's kindness forward to you. That will still leave me a pair for my snakes, and pair for my first aid kit.

[kibakiba]

No, thank you Richard. Steve offered me some last night. I think one pair would be enough for my 7 little pigs.

As for dis infecting, I know what to do and I do it. The reaction isn't as bad as it used to be, or I don't notice it as much. When I first got bit, it was only a small area on my thumb that had gotten bit but my whole hand turned purple and swelled up... 10 bites later, I've only gotten bit on my fingers, but instead of my whole hand swelling up, it tends to just be that finger. This time it stayed around the bite area.

I just hope the babies won't be afraid. I've used tweezers with them and they wouldn't have it. It scared them, Runt didn't seem to mind too much but Ember and Snap wouldn't go near them. Tiny saw them and musked all over as he fled behind a log.

They'd be good for Mama and Snakey, when I have a pinky with the tweezers they try to get my fingers instead. There's only about an inch and a half between me and the pinky. Luckily I haven't been bitten that way but there has been some close calls.


Also, I didn't mean that letting them bite me builds their trust, but since I started hand feeding them, all of them welcome my hand in the tank now, instead of staying away completely. All of them will come up to my hand and if I don't move it they'll even coil up on me. The only one who won't allow me to lift her up out of the tank after crawling on me is... Snap. If I do anyways, well I get a hand full of poop on it

[ConcinusMan]

Hmm... you just must have got some oddball babies there. All the rest of the litters readily take food from the hemostats. Always have. It doesn't scare them at all. In fact, some of little boogers use them to climb up when I'm trying to feed them. Your two were always fed this way before I shipped them.

[kibakiba]

It might just be because they look different than what yours look like. They are probably a lot thinner than yours were and probably smelt different. I clean them after every feeding with soap and water and a little bit of alcohol and rinse them before and after feeding. They definitely didn't like them the first 2 weeks I had them. After a while I gave up on feeding them with the tweezers because they just took it from my fingers so much better.