Watch: Pet Boa Attempts to Eat Owner’s Finger, Expert Explains Proper Way to Release Snake Fangs
They say don’t bite the hand that feeds you, but obviously this snake didn’t get the memo. A new video posted on YouTube shows a pet python attempting to eat its owner’s finger. Although the footage may be difficult to watch, according to a snake expert, behavior such as this is rare.
In the video, we hear a woman calling in pain as she asks for help getting a python off her finger. “She’s trying to eat me,’ exclaims the stunned woman. Eventually we see blood trickling down from the woman’s finger as she attempts to remove her finger from the snake’s mouth. After several minutes of struggle, the woman succeeds in getting the finger out, and we see several puncture wounds on it.
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According to Bruce C. Jayne, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati, incidents such as these are most often the result of improper behavior by the pet owner, not the pet. In the video, the woman claims that she didn't stick her finger into the python’s mouth but that the snake grabbed her digit on its own accord. According to Jayne, the woman may have had the scent of another animal, such as a cat or even a mouse, on her finger. This may have confused the snake.
“Many pythons and boas eat a wide variety of mammals, and odors provide important information about the identity of things in their environment,” Jayne told Newsweek. “Hence, it is prudent for any snake owner to wash their hands before handling their snakes to eliminate odors.”
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In the video, we see the woman and a second, younger woman applying alcohol to the snake’s mouth to try to get it to let go of the finger. But Jayne suggests that there are other ways to disengage a snake’s fangs while ensuring minimal harm to the reptile and its human prey. For example, owners can hold the snake under cold water to cause it to release its jaws voluntarily.
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“Another trick I have used for more stubborn snakes is to slide plastic credit cards underneath the teeth, from the tips of the snake jaws to the back of the mouth,” Jayne said.
While he notes that occurrences such as these are rare, Jayne reminds us that snakes are wild animals and should be handled with extreme care at all times.
“No pet of any kind is 100 percent predictable, and so even with responsible pet owners, accidents will happen every now and then,” he warned.