![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My stupid snake bit me. Again.
I love this critter, but he's making my life heck on wheels. I'll admit I don't have quite the emotional attachment to him that I do to my cats, but I am fond of him, and it's him in particular I like, not just the idea of having a snake as a pet. He's pretty, and friendly, and fun. But he's also dumb as a brick, and, I can no longer deny, dangerous.
The great goon didn't eat for at least six months after I acquired him (found half-frozen in the basement of an abandoned house). I cleaned up his mites and force-fed him and nursed him back to health, and he continued to emulate a sculpture. Until the beginning of the summer, when for some reason instead of ignoring or slithering over the mouse I offered him, he gobbled it like it was going out of style.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, he's not the brightest creature I've ever met. He's stupid even for a reptile. Half of the time, when he's trying to eat, he misses on the first and second strike, and when he eventually does get the mouse, he tries to swallow it sideways. He bit me once before - after the first time I fed him, when I went to handle him a few days later he struck, apparently assuming that open cage meant food (in spite of having been frequently handled before then).
He hasn't tried that again; I can still pick him up and handle him and carry him safely. But tonight, in spite of me holding the mouse with long tongs and dangling it down by the tail, he went to strike, and missed, and got my thumb instead. He let go fairly quickly, but the damage is already done. Thank all the powers that be that he's not poisonous, but I'll have a nasty bruise.
I don't know what to do. I can't have a pet that injures me on a semi-regular basis, and I don't want one that I need to wear gloves to handle. On the other hand, I can't just get rid of him - even if I wasn't attached to him, there are very few people I'd trust to take proper care of a snake. I can wear gloves to feed him, and hope that eventually he figures out how to eat without hurting himself or me, but if something like this happens again.... I don't know what to do.
I love this critter, but he's making my life heck on wheels. I'll admit I don't have quite the emotional attachment to him that I do to my cats, but I am fond of him, and it's him in particular I like, not just the idea of having a snake as a pet. He's pretty, and friendly, and fun. But he's also dumb as a brick, and, I can no longer deny, dangerous.
The great goon didn't eat for at least six months after I acquired him (found half-frozen in the basement of an abandoned house). I cleaned up his mites and force-fed him and nursed him back to health, and he continued to emulate a sculpture. Until the beginning of the summer, when for some reason instead of ignoring or slithering over the mouse I offered him, he gobbled it like it was going out of style.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, he's not the brightest creature I've ever met. He's stupid even for a reptile. Half of the time, when he's trying to eat, he misses on the first and second strike, and when he eventually does get the mouse, he tries to swallow it sideways. He bit me once before - after the first time I fed him, when I went to handle him a few days later he struck, apparently assuming that open cage meant food (in spite of having been frequently handled before then).
He hasn't tried that again; I can still pick him up and handle him and carry him safely. But tonight, in spite of me holding the mouse with long tongs and dangling it down by the tail, he went to strike, and missed, and got my thumb instead. He let go fairly quickly, but the damage is already done. Thank all the powers that be that he's not poisonous, but I'll have a nasty bruise.
I don't know what to do. I can't have a pet that injures me on a semi-regular basis, and I don't want one that I need to wear gloves to handle. On the other hand, I can't just get rid of him - even if I wasn't attached to him, there are very few people I'd trust to take proper care of a snake. I can wear gloves to feed him, and hope that eventually he figures out how to eat without hurting himself or me, but if something like this happens again.... I don't know what to do.
