When I first married my husband, Frank, he had three Burmese Pythons and one Anaconda. The latter was given to him and it died. My husband had a large wooden glassed in box built in a corner of his livingroom where he kept the snakes. It was interesting watching them in the cage.
Wiggly, a Burmese Python, was my favorite snake. She was friendly and not prone to bite. My husband and his father often did wildlife lectures and shows, explaining to the public about wild animals. Wiggly was the snake most used for these shows.
I was bitten by Wiggly only one time and it was accidental. She did not know it was me. Frank had put a rodent in the cage, but it had jumped out and we were on the floor trying to catch it, when Wiggly pushed open the door to the cage and saw my head and thought it was the rodent. I never even felt the bite on the side of my head. She bit me and let go right away, thank goodness. Frank got her and the rodent back in the cage and then came and got me up and to a chair. He kept pressing a rag to the side of my head and asking if I was okay. Of course since I did not know I had been bitten I said I was fine. Then it told me Wiggly had bitten me. The bite stopped bleeding right away and healed up just fine. It made me more careful around the snakes at feeding time.
Very good response. I was very lucky also that I hadn't got bit in the face, that might have been a bit more messy. I was thinking of the biggest reticulated python I had ever heard about or seen. Seems there was some fellow from SW Florida that had one and it was huge, at the time I saw it and it took like 10 guys to move it at that time. I thought I heard it had killed or badly injured someone later on, but I can not remember the details for it was a long time ago.
Recently while watching YouTube, I ran across an article about the troubles with Burmese pythons in the everglades and last year someone caught a Burmese python that was 17 feet and 7 inches long, and 1 foot wide, and was carrying 87 eggs. They said it was the biggest python, this group had caught so far.
They said on the video, that lots of these pythons were someones pet snake and when they grew too big, the owner set them free. Some who own these snakes do not have the proper permits to even have them and so short of giving them away, because they can not legally sell them, it is fact they let them go by putting them out in the woodlands and swamps. These pythons grow huge on a diet of deer and birds, fish and other reptiles. Burmese pythons can grow up to 25 feet long and Reticulated pythons can grow to up to 35 feet long. Not something most of us would want to come across out in the woods.
I had a ball python at one time and it only bit me once for the same exact reason. It bit my hand and it hurt a little. It was an accident though and I never blamed the snake. It does hurt though and it difinitely scared me more than anything. It's good to hear that the snake let go immediately. At least it knew what it had done wrong.
