How's the newbie doing? We just had another beardie surrendered a the place I work who was just the opposite of yours...so spoiled she was used to being hand fed baby food from a syringe.

As far as the snake goes, the best advice I can give is the three P's: Patience, Persistance, and a Pair of gloves

Snakes don't want to trust people. Period. We're big, scary, and we grab them from their nice warm hiding places. So find a pair of gloves that are just thick enough so the little bugger can't get it's teeth through them and start touching him/her once and a while. Just start out by running a finger along their back, stay away from it's head, but make sure the snake sees you. Don't sneak up on it... you're already scary to it, don't become terrifying!

Try and do this every day (except for the few days after feeding, you don't want to stress him/her into vomiting), it won't take long until the snake tolerates you.

Once you've gotten that far try gently picking it up and letting it crawl through your fingers. I wouldn't take it too far off the ground until you're comfortable together, you don't want to drop it and hurt it.

Just have some patience and don't leave your snake for too long without contact with you, even if it's just for a few minutes.

I'm writing with a little experience on this one. I adopted a ratsnake in February that was so bitey at times, that I nicknamed her Gator (her name's Gatorade aka Aida). Now, I can pick her up out of her tank (her last stronghold, she's very defensive of her hide box) without gloves on and hold her for a decent amount of time with no problems, the glove gets put back on when I have to take her out of her feeding bucket...then she gets snappy and very scared.

A last note to mention, don't feed your kingsnake in the same enclosure it lives in. Snakes start to associate food with fingers or your scent even if you feed them with tongs. You're better off putting them in a seperate tank or a small lidded bucket (that it can't escape from) at feeding time.

Good Luck!
Sarah

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