Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If king snakes are cannibalistic, like say the easterns who seem more so than others, then why don't they try and eat themselves? Guess they must put out some sort of scent huh?

Kings are not canabalistic but are opportunistic feeders. If they are hungry and another snake is available they will eat it or a frog or a mouse or a lizard etc.... Also I have seen Kings eat themselves at least partially. Sometimes the feeding response is so great anything that smells of rodent etc... will do and seeing as they constrict their prey they often get rodent smell on themsleves and will chew on those spots. I think Will Still has a male that has swallowed his own tail more than once. They are tough hombre's but smart they aint
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I had a strapping big male eastern awhile back. He was "An old pet," as my wife described him. He was also a bottomless pit and rapacious eater. Once he got so excited he accidentally bit his tail. We nearly died laughing!

He knew something had him by the tail, and was desperately trying to pull it away from whatever had it. At the same time, he had something to eat in his mouth and he wasn't about to let it go! We watched him tug-of-war with himself and generally thrash about for what seemed like 20 minutes. At some point, a light went on dimmly, and he decided he needed to spit out whatever it was he had ahold of, so he could deal with whatever it was had ahold of him. It took him another 5 minutes to yank his firmly embedded teeth out of his tail.

At the moment of release he seemed frustrated and genuinely puzzled. He'd got his tail free, but the snake he'd had ahold of had got away!

About 2 weeks later I was holding him and happened to feel something sharp in the skin on his tail. With tweezers and a magnifying glass, I extracted one perfectly formed, needle sharp tooth! It was suprisingly small - about 3/32nds of an inch.
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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"
0.1 Desert Kingsnake "FATTY"
0.1 Black Rat (WV Rescue) "Roberta"

here's one of my kings not only biting himself but actually constricting himself and he tied himself up in a knot to do it.
He is usually very hungry and would eat everyday if i let him.