The Tale of the Towel and the Burmese Python

by Petra Spiess

I have been asked "what was your most interesting experience dealing with reptiles?", and I reply by relating the tale of the towel and the burmese python.. I managed a reptile store for a year in Phoenix, Arizona, where my most interesting reptile experience occurred. Now, anyone who has ever worked a retail job knows what an interesting experience it can be dealing with the American public at large, especially when it comes to dealing with animals. Interacting with people who have little or no knowledge of reptiles and want to purchase one regardless can be an exasperating experience, and the VAST amount of misinformation regarding reptile husbandry floating around consumerland does not help. Many people seek to learn knowledge about the animals they have purchased after the fact, and they, and the animals., usually end up paying the price. This is example of what can happen when this occurs.....

Saturday in the retail world is usually the busiest day of the week. The store I managed was no exception. One crisp Saturday morning, a nice woman and her young daughter came in inquiring about burmese pythons. They told me that they had just purchased a 10 foot burmese python from their daughter's teacher and wanted to know how to take care of it. Out came the Advanced Vivarium Systems book on burmese care and my lecture (working in a reptile store allows you to perfect captive care lectures since you repeat them 100 times a day). They were very attentive and asked many intelligent questions. After the captive care lecture (which took about 20 minutes), they wanted to purchase two jumbo rats. Now they got the "deader is better" for another 10 minutes, and then purchased two frozen jumbo rats. They left and my busy Saturday morning continued. Later in the day, I received a frantic phone call from the mother. She told me that they had thawed out the rats and then dropped them into the snakes cage, but the snake had missed the rats and bitten a towel that was in its cage and would not let go. I asked if they had attempted to yank the towel away when they noticed the snake biting it. Predictably, she said that they had attempted with all their strength to remove the towel, but the snake was tenacious. I told her NOT to touch the towel. Snakes have a patterned series of behavior when their feeding instinct takes over. First, the animal bits the prey and constricts, holding on until the prey stops moving. After the prey ceases to move, the snake will release its bite and swallow. When they attempted to remove the towel by yanking it, they just convinced their burmese python that it had caught something good, since it was struggling so much. I advised her to watch the snake closely, once the towel had stopped moving, it would release it's bite and before swallowing, realize that it had constricted something that was not food. I have seen this occur in other species when they grabbed something other than food, such as my arm, and thought the same would occur with their snake. I obviously underestimated the mental capacity of burmese pythons (no offense burmese lovers) because the mother called back 10 minutes later screaming,

"He's swallowing the towel!!!!! What do we do? Can you come over to our house?" I explained that I could not leave the store, but they could bring the snake to me as they lived down the street. Within minutes and the screeching tires of a mini-van, they arrived and I went outside to observe one the most unusual sights I have ever seen. Their 10 foot burmese had half a 6 foot beach towel down it's maw, and was proceeding at a steady pace to swallow the rest. One person suggested trying to cut the towel, but I knew that this would not be acceptable. The snake already had such a large section of the towel down, it could die of impacted intestines before the object could be surgically removed. The only solution was to remove the entire object, half of which was inside the animal, not an easy task. I have had few epiphanous moments in my life, but one occurred just then. I remembered an article in the last issue of the Vivarium I had read about big snake bites by Dave and Tracy Barker. This article had a large photo of a scrub python skull, clearly showing the recurved teeth. I realized the only thing preventing me from removing the towel was the burmese python's upper recurved teeth. I ran back into the store and retrieved one of the guys and a long snake hook. My partner held the snake's head while I inserted the hook sideways under the upper jaw of the burmese, between the teeth and the towel, and then pulled the towel out easily. The daughter was crying with relief and the parents were thanking me profusely. I asked them why they had kept the towel in the cage with the snake in the first place and they told me it was to,