How many ball python owners let their snakes wrap around their necks?

Question

So some friends have a ball python about 3 feet long that they often carry around and let him wrap around their neck. I was reading that you should never do that, but I was curious how many BP owners follow this rule and/or if anyone has experienced ill affects from doing so.

Answer 1

i do but i don't let her go around more then three times at once

Answer 2

i do

Answer 3

as long as they are only resting on your neck and are not wrapped around it you should be fine

Answer 4

I let my 2 1/2 foot Ball do that but not my 4. I guess it just depends on how comfortable you feel with your animal. My youngest one is not old enough to do that yet but i may let him.

Answer 5

as many people who have died from python related death

Answer 6

Hello; I have a twelve year old, three and a half foot long male Ball python, and I do let him around my neck. However I don't ever let him go around the front of my neck, just as a precaution.

Apophis (my Ball python) is incredibly docile and I would trust him around just about everyone. However, snakes reflexively 'tighten' around whatever they are holding onto if something startles them; similar to a human grabbing their significant other's or friend's hand during a scary part of a movie. I had an incident once where I had him wrapped around my entire neck when I was preparing to clean his terrarium, and I unthinkingly shook out to 'open' a plastic bag in his line of vision. Of course that startled him, and he tightened a bit. Not so much that I couldn't breathe, but it was definitely uncomfortable.

I dropped the bag, raised both hands up, and pet him to calm him down with one hand and used the other to find his tail and pull him off of the front of my neck. Snakes muscles are a tad weaker when you pull them from the tail and are less likely to resist than when you remove the snake head first.

After that; while I still let him around the back of my neck and around my shoulders; I put my hand in the way and redirect him whenever he is thinking about going to the front. While I don't think that he would ever intentionally hurt me, as I learned; accidents can and do happen.

Anyway; that is my two cents. ;)

I hope this helps, and if you have any further questions at all on the subject; please feel free to message me and I will be more than happy to assist you.

Good luck!

Answer 7

I do not personally own a Ball python but I belong  to the southwestern herpetological society and some people thier have Burmese pythons and have them around thier necks.

I think it all depends on the snakes attitude.

Also if a snake is doing something you dont want it to, use it tail instead of its head to get it free of whatever it clinging to.

Answer 8

I use to until mine got to the point where he would actually squeeze (around 3 feet). Now I refuse to let him because it scared me when he did squeeze.

Answer 9

Check out the forum I started on this topic:

http://www.rcreptiles.com/forum/viewtopi...

Answer 10

i do but mine are only 2-3 feet long but i dont let my red tailed boa hes over 6 feet long. there was someone in ohio a few months back that was killed by their rer tailed boa because of that. it was like 11 feet long.

Answer 11

There is only four documented real deaths attributed to the boidae family of snakes they were all caused by wild caught large pythons . a ball python is not likely to kill a human by wrapping around someones neck. it is just not advised to let any type of snake to wrap around your neck to be safe.