Old story…
Lots of big snakes, the 9 ft male burm is no longer “scary” come feeding time.
Late at night, getting tired (stupid), feeding thongs are just a bit too far right now, will just use hand…
Drowsily dangles rat in front of snake-face…WHAM…brum hit and wrapped hand before I could blink.
Well 45 min, lots of cussing and blood later, the burm is back in his viv, happily munching on the intended rat…
Hand=shagged, wife=pissed, me=painfully embarrassed, burm=none the wiser, happily munching down.

Why do I post this embarrassing mistake?
Cos we all make em and I was just lucky that it wasn’t one of the bigger guys/retics…would have needed stitches if not worse….
Feeding/working with big snakes when tired/stupid/drunk/in asshole mode or when you get sloppy…DON’T!!!!!!!!!!

THE (ego bruised) Beast

PS-The cam was out of action last night...

PS-The cam was out of action last night...

Probably just as well eh :)

Lesson learned, I'm sure.

Quig

Honesty at its best....hope the hand is okay.

The wife will be okay too, she's mad cause she was scared. I would have reacted the same way I'm sure.

Damn bro! Thanks for reminding us all these animals we love are still wild animals and some can potentially do harm if we dont respect them for what they are....

Just glad your hand is ok and good lesson learned

I know the feeling. I had a feeding accident with my albino tiger when I was using 10" tongs, and he seemed to like the heat off my hand more than the rat. I mean, what was I thinking.. 10" tongs? Luckily, he bit and released just as quickly. Sunday night I wasn't so lucky, but it was with a BP. I decided not to go find the tongs, and dangled rat in front of face, BAM, I have a spider wrapped around my wrist. I was gonna let him sit there till he let go, but damn it hurt, and he just kept squeezing tighter as he felt my pulse to my hand. I ended up dousing him with some water, and he let go.

It is easy to make a mistake. We all need to be extra vigilant when dealing with the bigg'uns.

Glad to hear it ended well, and hope the hand is OK. It is a good reminder to not get lazy or to comfortable with some of these guys. It is good to have rules in place that you stick to regardless of how you feel at that time.

The hand is a bit swollen, and writing up reports at work was not as much "fun" as it used to be...
Yes, always good to get a little reminder now and then. If you forget, its gonna hurt....
No 1 rule with big snakes...RESPECT!
THE B

You were almost known as the one arm B...

Glad your okay and thanks for the reminder :rockon:

daaammm beast,
good to hear you're okay, we've all done "stupid mode", glad yours ended so happily.
i've always been grateful that when tragedy has struck, it wasn't something worst. surely you could handle anything a 9 footer can throw at 'ya, but like you said, could've been a biggun'.
i'm bettin' you'll be poppin' broken off teeth outta your hand in the coming months, they'll be there to help you not forget.
sure you know, watch for infection.
good luck my african brotha,
ck

thanx for posting that by the way.
only way we can learn from other's mistakes is when others share their experiences.
your story may save some wise little american punk's ass in the future.
ck

Damn B. Glad to hear you're ok man! Bet you won't be doing that again :D. I had one of my balls do the same thing to me when I was feeling lazy one night. Luckily she was just a little one so it wasn't so bad but if she was much bigger I'd have been hurtin!

RESPECT :master:! They may be our animals but they're still predators! :rockon:

Glad to hear your ok and Thanks to for the reminder of how careful we need to be around these bigger snakes.

That reminds me of the night my 10' burm bit me on the knee and coiled my leg when he missed the rat. Not really any pain and little blood but the wife freaked out when she had to help get him unwrapped off of my leg......

Thanks for the post, Beast. We can always use a reminder not to muck around with the big boys!