Late to the party again. But better late than never! *ahem*
The California King at the school is a fan of biting. He gets me, or very nearly misses me, every time I open the cage, regardless of what mood he's in. Most of this is because kings in general are just nippy snakes, but none of the bites ever hurt; they leave pretty clear tooth marks once the bleeding stops but even after a good wash they don't throb or hurt or scar. I picked him up (gloves and hook, the whole nine yards) once just to move, and he was calm as a bomb, then decided that scenting around my arm would be fun. I was willing to give him a chance to figure out I wasn't food. Nope. Scenting for a minute, then a casual bite, then a very determined wrap.
But, the other two snakes have never even tried to bite me, even when they're grumpy that I woke them up or when I smell like frozen mouse. The difference is that they were well cared-for and oft-handled family pets in their former life, and the King is an ex-display animal at a local state park's nature center, who probably dealt with a lot of annoying kids tapping on the glass and not being handled enough at all; like I said, Kings are also known for biting to begin with, so fearing it for biting is like fearing a cat for purring. So I would encourage others to always know the individual and the specie's tendencies. People who don't like the idea of reptiles look at me sideways when I talk about them, but really, they're not so different from other animals at heart.
