Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I just got a 4-5 foot banana stripe kingsnake from the petstore about 2 weeks ago. My boyfriend has an albino kingsnake.

Anyway, his snake is pretty thick, not as long but about 5 or 6 years old, mine is considerably thinner.

I don't know how old it is, not sure of the sex, I just call it a 'he'.

Anyway when I purchased him, they told me they fed him one mouse a week. We purchased a couple mice at the time, figured to feed one to his snake and one to mine. His snake didn't eat, mine however struck and fed immediately. We left the mouse in with his snake for about an hour, she never ate so we fed him her mouse too.

Fast forward to a week-

We purchased 3 mice, thinking maybe his snake would be ready to eat by now (It's been a month since she's eaten last). We fed 2 to my snake which he gobbled up in rapid succession (fed about an hour apart from eachother).

His snake still didn't eat her mouse after 2 days so we fed it to my snake. He ate it quickly and seemed to be looking for more.

Mind you, he's eaten 5 mice in the last 2 weeks and 2 days.

I have read all over the net not to overfeed, etc. I have read you can feed 3, I heard you should only feed 1.. etc.

Now the only reason I am concerned is because he's kind of a nippy snake. I try to take him out daily to give him socialization- and it's not that he bites at me so much when I take him out (though he did try today), but, he is really skittish around any quick movement when he is out, and, he is constantly trying to get away.

My boyfriend's snake on the other hand does not bite, has not bitten and he takes her out to play maybe once a year. (hence why I got my own snake, so I could hold one of my own.)

So I was thinking maybe he is nippy because he is hungry?

Maybe he was starving at the pet store??

Any help would be much appreciated!

Becca

If you've been trying to handle the new snake every day, he is probably extremely stressed out right now. After you purchase a new snake, it is recommended to put them in their enclosure and not disturb them (i.e. handle them or try to feed them) for at least a week. Handling in general can be stressful to snakes, especially young ones; I don't think it is a good idea to handle any snake every day. The reason why your boyfriend's snake is so calm when taken out is because it is handled infrequently... Most snakes will not behave defensively if they are handled only rarely.

About the feeding issue, if your snake is eagerly devouring mice and still looking around for more food, he is probably still hungry. Depending on the bulk of your particular snake, he should probably be eating around three adult mice or small rats every week. My Mexican Black King is at least five years old (I am not sure as I bought him as an adult) and a bit under five feet in length, and he eats three smallish rats every 7-10 days, and any "extra" thawed rodents I have laying around (breeding season, a lot of my snakes are feeding unpredictably right now).

In summary, let your new snake settle into his new habitat, since he really hasn't had a chance to do that yet. Don't handle him or try to feed him for at least five days, and after that you can give it another go. Also, it would probably be best to convert your larger king to frozen/thawed food if you haven't already - frozen rodents are cheaper and easier to store (just stock up and throw them in the freezer, no more having to buy rodents every week), and there is also no chance of them fighting back and killing your snake. This would especially be important if you decide to start feeding rats.

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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

1.0 Banded California King
1.0 Mexican Black King
1.0 Goini Kingsnake
1.0 Bay of LA Rosy Boa
0.1 San Ignacio Rosy Boa
0.1 Ortiz Rosy Boa
2.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1 Saharan Sand Boa
1.2 Rubber Boas
0.1 Pickering's Gartersnake

Nipping is your snake's way of saying "I'm scared, leave me alone". Defensive strikes can easily be distinguished from feeding response bites - with the former the snake will not bite and hold on, and sometimes it will even have its mouth closed when it strikes. It will give a quick nip and pull its head back again, and often try to escape as well. Feeding response bites on the other hand, you'll know it when you see it - the snake will bite and hold on, and usually start trying to constrict your hand too (sometimes it can be hard to dislodge them).
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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

1.0 Banded California King
1.0 Mexican Black King
1.0 Goini Kingsnake
1.0 Bay of LA Rosy Boa
0.1 San Ignacio Rosy Boa
0.1 Ortiz Rosy Boa
2.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1 Saharan Sand Boa
1.2 Rubber Boas
0.1 Pickering's Gartersnake

I agree with Natalie. You should definitely leave the snake alone for a little while so that it can adjust. Can you tell us a little about your setup (i.e. can the snake burrow, temps., etc.)? Sometimes external factors can influence a snake's behavior. Sometimes, if my temps are too high, my Cal king can get a little testy.

With regards to feeding, how big are the mice you're feeding? You should feed prey items slightly bigger than the largest part of the snake. If you are feeding small meals, the snake will digest them quicker and start hunting for more faster than he would if you were feeding larger meals.

Hope this helps!

He is an older snake- I mean, if you can determine it by length, he's atleast a foot longer than my boyfriend's 6 year old snake. My snake on the other hand is about an inch thinner around the body than his.

He has only bitten me once, but bitten at me only one other time and that was yesterday when I went to take him out of the cage- I had him out for a while and he was fine but never really calms down. He keeps trying to lodge himself in the couch.

Anyway, the set up is pretty small, I purchased a 20 gallon tank. I will need to get him one closer to a 30 or 40 gallon tank when I can afford one. I figured at the time though it was better than what he was staying in (one of those 4 or 5 gallon terreriums at the petstore- he'd been there for 6 months).

We have a heat bulb on one side and a night light on the other. I don't have temperatures but I can easily check that later today when I am home from work and the heat light has been on for the day.

He has a big water dish and a few rocks scattered around. I use aspen substrate for him and he burrows underneath that pretty happily.

The only reason I took him out so much was because I was told to make them tame you have to handle them alot. I am fine only taking him out every now and then, but I do want to be able to hold him.

Also forgot to mention, when he did bite me, it was when I was trying to take him out of my hair that he'd wound himself around and in lol.

I just had read to be concerned about over feeding a snake- but from my experience with my boyfriend's snake, she just doesn't eat when she's not hungry...so I figured the same would be true with my snake.

I am feeding him adult white mice, live. But I stun them by (yes, cruelly) smacking them against the table. That way they don't move much. Not really interested in having frozen rodents in my freezer..ick lol.

Any more help is definitely helpful

Thank you !

First of all, I would buy a couple of thermometers for the tank - you'll need one for each end. If a snake doesn't have the proper gradients, you can have behavioral and other problems (i.e. if it's too cold, the snake won't be able to digest properly). You don't have to spend a ton of money. I just use the little fish thermometers (the kind with adhesive on the back) that go at least up to 90 degrees F or so. You want to place these right at substrate level so that you can get a good idea of the temps at the snake's level.

I would also recommend a humidity gauge. Fluker's makes some that are pretty cheap and reliable (for the price). If the humidity is too low, you run the risk of having retained sheds.

Also, a lot of snakes actually do better in smaller enclosures. My Cal king, who normally wolfs down food, refused to eat after I moved her into a 75 gallon tank.

Here's a picture of my setup. It's a 20 gallon fish tank (24"L x 12"W x 16"T). The two black things at either end are the aforementioned thermometers. I use aspen as a substrate, and all the plants are artificial. The warm side is usually around 82F and the cool side is around 76F. At night, I let the temps drop to about 74F. Humidity is between 30 and 60% during the day.

Sorry for leaving such a long winded reply, but I hope this helps.

Frozen mice aren't that "icky". They come vaccuum-sealed if you buy them online (cheaper than petstores). I've currently got two packs of frozen mice in my freezer, right below the ziploc bag of turkey that's been in there since Christmas, lol. ^_^ They aren't any yuckier than all the leftovers in your freezer, I'll warrant. ^_^ And they don't even smell! That's more than I can say for the squid and shrimp fishing bait my boyfriend left in there!!

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Holly

0.1 Lavender California Kingsnake (Lizzie Borden) (missing )
1.0 Florida Kingsnake (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Black Cat (Shadowfax)
1.0 Egyptian Arabian (Bagan) (Deceased )
1.0 Tennessee Walking Horse (Durango)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

The mice and rats actually smell better than some of the freezer-burned stuff in my freezer.

Ok I'll pick up something like that tomorrow then and will figure out the temperatures.

How often should I hold him though? I want him to be comfortable with being out and on me.

Anyway I am not worried so much about him being too cold but I do worry he might be too hot.

Thanks for the replies. Eventually I'll get a pic of him up for you guys to see. Loved to see your pics of your snakes

Over-handling won't necessarily make him more handleable, if that makes any sense. Everyone has different opinions, but I would limit handling him to weekly sessions. Once he starts to calm down, you can probably increase the frequency and also start with some additional conditioning.

Some people on here may not agree with this, but I like to teach my snakes to tolerate me holding their heads (gently of course) so that they are used to it and don't freak out if I have to do some routine work (such as removing a piece of a retained shed or something from around the eyes). It also makes less stressful for the snake when you go to the vet for a check up.

How much of this you will be able to do, if any, will depend on your snake. Some snakes will tolerate it, and some won't.