A feeding response bite usually happens when the snake strikes out for a mouse or rat and catches the owner’s hand by mistake.

Snakes have very basic instincts, if it thinks it’s caught a food item it will hang on and try to throw coils around it’s victim (your hand, or if it’s a large snake, your body!) to try and constrict it.

Below is a very rough guide as to what you can expect from bites of different species of snake commonly kept in the hobby.

Colubrids                Boids           Giant Snakes

Hognoses

(I’ve dedicated a section to Western Hognoses as these are rear fanged snakes and need special attention)

Jim Lind