I have been keeping kings for over fifty years and during that whole time, I keep kings together in pairs an groups, there whole life, as I am now. I throw in piles of food and they eat it without problem. Bluerosy also does this. So why on earth do you or other folks have problems, or perceive to have problems or come up with what your saying? What we are working with is ethology, which is behavior. Behavior is driven by loose rules, which are non exacting, as in trends. Even trendy. Which in this case means, if something works, repeat it. If something does not work, avoid it. That's how snakes work and learn.
In the case of being social and bonding. Nature is a cruel mistress, a couple of mistakes and your gone, toast, turned to poop. So how do they do this, Well its so very simple. like with all animals, this occurs early in life, very early.
Snakes nest, in with kings they lay eggs. The eggs are stuck together. Which means close. They slit the egg and poke their heads out. they stay this way for a period time. They leave the egg and stay in the egg chamber for a period of time. We know snakes have an incredible sense of smell, but we have no idea what that means. What it means is, they can smell lots and its important in their world. If they can track a mouse running, they are smell so so so much more.
We know they all have scent glands, but dismiss what that means. It appears that scent is how they navigate the world. Their world is a world of scent trails left by animals, prey, and those first scents in life. those of your littermates and mother, the nesting chamber is full of the mothers scent. All folks who work with animal behavior understand, imprinting. When a animal bird or mammal is born/hatched, it imprints on the first thing it sees/smells. While this is logical, its also something easily tested. end p2

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