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Greetings everyone.

I am new to this forum and have been browsing online forums recently to get new and valuable info on how to better care for my baby cali king. He is about 5 months old and I got him as a baby. Basically I wanted to share some differences about my baby king that I find to be out-of-sync to behavior attributes of a typical king. I just wanted to get some feedback on why my king behave differently.

1) I've read on several different forums that Cali Kings enjoy water and will often soak in water esp. when they are ready to shed. But my king seems to be a reincarnated cat because he HATES water. In five months time I have NEVER seen him voluntarily dip himself inside of water. In fact, a couple of times I've had to soak him in some water because he hadn't shed properly. He became a mad man! He was thrashing around and going nuts. He musked in the water and pooped! He tries like hell to get out of the water. Is this unusual for a king?

2) Most people say that kingsnakes--and baby kings in particular--are very nippy but I must say with extreme proudness that not once since i've had my king, has he tried to bite me. He has never ever even attempted to bite me, even when he's really pissed. The most he will due is musk me and on extreme occassions poop, but he's never attempted to bite me, not even when I first got him. He is very sweet and extremely friendly. As silly as it sounds, I forced him to bite me one time because I became concerned that maybe something was wrong. I got his mouth open and got him to bite my finger but he let go after a few seconds. The bite didn't hurt at all and he didn't even break skin. He did try to bite me once when I let him roam free in my dining room and I cornered him against a wall. He formed into the classic "S" shape and vibrated his tail and he striked but that was the one and only time. Is my kings unwillingness to bite a unique case or quite common?

3) My king is very smart. He recognizes my face and tends to stare me down and look me directly in the eyes. I think its the cutest thing in the world. He will just curl up in my hand and let his face hang over the edge my hand slightly and just stare at my face. And he likes to slither off my hand and crawl over my face too. Another weird thing is he often will get aggrivated if I try to pet him with my hand but if I rub him against my face or kiss him he won't ever flinch. He never lets anything get too close to his face but if I approch him with my lips he won't budge. Strange huh?

4) My king became relatively tame very fast. After trying to flee like crazy when I first got him he never tried to get away like that again. He usually won't even run anymore when I try to take him out his cage. And more often then not I can get him to stay curled up in my hand for well over 30 minutes. Then he starts to get fiesty and wants to get away so I'll put him back in his cage. Again, is this normal for a baby?

5) My biggest concern was why my king hadn't really grown since i've gotten him but I think I solved that. I've been feeding him pinkies all this time why he definitely has outgrown them. It got to the point where he was eating THREE at a time. So I went to Petco and got one fuzzy to try it out. This fuzzy was enormous and I didn't think he could eat it but low and behold he sure did. I bought three more pinkies this past weekend and fed him one last night. These pinkies are smaller than the first one I got and seem more managable. He ate it with no problem. Hopefully he will start to grow.

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