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Was just "spot-cleaning" one of the Honduran cages after having a nice pleasurable handling session with one of my brooksi. I went to place back the Honduran's hide real quick, and it got a fast wiff of kingsnake on my hand. The "haul-ass" instinct was immediate!.....I put the lid back on, and tucked her away and she calmed down just as fast as she was startled.

Just goes to show, and proves beyond question that MOST ALL snakes show an immediate life threatening reaction to flee from the all mighty King.........no matter WHAT part of the world they are from!

~Doug

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

Yeah, and I've had the same thing happen if I handled an adult then a juvenile.
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Muhammad Ali

Except for Indigos, your poor king would be toast. Oh and King cobras too. Oh and a number of other larger stronger, more powerful, more venomous snake eating species.

Yes, yes, kings are great, but they really are not the king. In the states, Indigos are the KING. In the world, that would be a great question, King cobras perhaps. Or better yet, cars, cars seem to smash them all, no matter what species they are. Been in the field for four days and seen to much of that. Cheers

>> "Except for Indigos, your poor king would be toast. Oh and King cobras too. Oh and a number of other larger stronger, more powerful, more venomous snake eating species."

Wrong,....not necessarily,....as far as all the other ohiophages are concerned, that would depend on MANY different factors and scenarios. First would be size, if BOTH snake's were the same size. Then, which one was hungrier and wanted to make the first move,...then you have to consider which one grabbed who where?. If a Florida King grabbed a King Cobra by the head, and constricted the crap out of it....goodbye cobra!,...even if a cobra managed to get a bite in, there's a strong possibility it would still die first by constriction. The other likely thing is, the king dies too, only a minute or two later if it WAS bitten. If the king wasn't bitten at all in the process,...yum yum !.....Same thing would apply for the Indigo, Mussurana, etc...how big, who grabbed who where, etc...there is NO absolute answer to any of these situations, each confrontation would be unique, and depend on many things,.....that's nature!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

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

I've had a similar incident w/ a WC Cal King and a WC San Diego Gopher. I finished handling the King and about 15 min later picked up the Gopher who flipped out!
A good time later I had a second incident w/ the same King and a WC Great Basin Gopher that came from a place where I'd never seen Kings before. I picked up the Gopher and she acted like there was nothing wrong @ all. Completely calm.

reako45