Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a california kingsnake who seems to be intensely moody. I know this is typical for them but this one seems to take it to the extreme. there have been multiple occasions where I have gotten bit and more recently she has tried to eat my finger twice. She gets ahold of one of my fingers when I attempt to change her water or clean her cage and will not let go. She constricts up my arm and it usually takes a minimum of 5 minutes of holding her head underwater before she will let go. Aside from wearing gloves any time I reach into her tank, is there any other suggestions anyone has? She is just over 3 feet long and growing rapidly even still... she's very strong for a kingsnake and my other king - or any of my other snakes - have not given me such problems.

Use a snake hook when removing the snake from the cage or even just to keep the snake's head and neck away from your hand when you reach in to get the water bowl. Snakes react much less to a snake hook compared to a warm, mammalian arm. Check out www.beanfarm.com or www.bigappleherp.com for snake hooks.

Also, it sounds like your snake is still hungry.
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Mark

sounds like it needs more food. you may also want to evaluate/ reestablish your routine so that it does not expect food every time you enter its enclosure. the previous suggestion to use a hook is a good idea to acclimate the snake to a no feed time zone.
other things to evaluate include
-plenty of hide spots, and enough time where it can truly be hidden from you.
- check your temperature gradient. just from personal experience, sometimes snakes that are in a higher temp gradient than what they prefer are more aggressive. not referring to a big difference in temps, maybe a degree or two- you would know if it was too hot by constant wandering or soaking in the water bowl.
good luck,
daveb