Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a male albino Ruthven kingsnake a month ago. Until 2 days ago, everything seemed fine. Hid in his cave during the day, active at night. Has had no problem eating a fuzzy once every 6 days so far. Temps are around 84 hot and 74 cold.

Two days ago I added another hidebox on the cool side (there is one over the heat pad as well). This is the only thing that has changed, that I know of. For the past 2 days he's been frantically trying to get out of the tank...trying hard to push thru the top just to come crashing down..over and over again. I have checked the temps, water is fresh, etc. I took him out last night and he was fine the entire time I held him. Put him back in his cage and the strange behavior continued.

Any ideas?

I don't know how old your snake is,...but odds are that it is in search of a mate!. This is VERY TYPICAL behavior this time of year, many times they will not eat during this period as well. It will get back into the "swing" of things after the spring...................................................Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

He is about 2 years old. Looking for a mate, huh? Makes sense to me! Thanks for the heads-up as I was concerned that something in his environment was 'off'.

That was the magic piece of info.. 2 years old and male. Yeah, what DMong said. And to reiterate, he may not be interested in feeding for a month or more.

BTW, if you can, try and make sure that the hot part of the cage is just at one end. Ruthveni do very well in cool cages as long as they have access to a warm area when needed (and you can turn that off at night.)

Once when we lost power during Feb, of course just after I had fed all of the last year's babies, the thayeri and ruthveni digested the food just fine when cage temps were in the low 70's. Cal kings puked.
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Mark

Thanks for the info Mark!

-Eric

Posted by: markg at Mon Mar 19 11:01:03 2007 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

That was the magic piece of info.. 2 years old and male. Yeah, what DMong said. And to reiterate, he may not be interested in feeding for a month or more.

BTW, if you can, try and make sure that the hot part of the cage is just at one end. Ruthveni do very well in cool cages as long as they have access to a warm area when needed (and you can turn that off at night.)

Once when we lost power during Feb, of course just after I had fed all of the last year's babies, the thayeri and ruthveni digested the food just fine when cage temps were in the low 70's. Cal kings puked.
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Mark

Funny I was going to ask this question which you just answered my Ruthven is 2 years old roughly 3 feet long (little less) His enclosure is 38 inches long and 14 wide 13 high.
His warm side is 85 yet as a whole he prefers the coller side which drops to 68/70. He will go in warm side after eating or now and than but as a whole prefers cooler.

Something IS OFF in his environment.....NO FEMALE!!lol...,at least that's what the snake thinks!lol.....seriously though, yes two years of age is when the males reach sexual maturity, and typically go in search for females,.....in the wild, you will typically find a much higher percentage of male snakes being caught because of this very reason!.....and, like I stated before, don't be shocked if he doesn't eat as much, or stops eating altogether for a while.....if he does, he will resume normal behavior later in the spring/summer time..............Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

ethibode - Out of curiousity do you any female snakes that have been brumated close to his tank? I am curious if he is picking up her signals or if it could just be instinctive?

No female. I bought him off a breeder who had a female Ruthveni. The female fell ill and died and the breeder abondened his project and sold the male to me. I got him just about a month ago.

Thanks Doug. Feel much better after all the responses. Also, learned something new

n/p
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!