Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I worked with kingsnakes for years and years. Some of the challenging ones, too, like Cal Mt kings and AZ Mt kings. Blair's and other Mexican forms, and a few getula here and there. Kings are not always easy to get feeding, especially hatchlings.

One day I found some truly outstanding Okeetee corns from wild bloodlines. Okeetees are common but outstanding individuals of any species can turn my head so I got several. One day I had their Sterlites laid out in a row on the floor of my snake room, each with a mouse defrosting on the lid. I had checked each Sterilite before defrosting something for the occupant, to be sure I wasn't defrosting a mouse for a snake that was shedding. I did not close one of the lids properly and when I came in to see if the mice were ready, one of the baby corns had escaped from its Sterilite and stopped to eat the mouse off the lid of its neighbor's tub. That's a corn snake for you. "I'm free! I'm free---ooo food."

At that moment I wondered why I had tortured myself for decades with kingsnakes.

Most ratsnakes keep their attitude until they get handled regularly. I had corns that I never handled, and they were killers. Talk about attitude--they all acted as if they were auditioning for the sequel to Snakes on a Plane.

But some of the most relentless attitude comes from my Aesculapian rats, Elaphe longissima. The longis are the least interested in being handled and the most willing to dish out what can only be called longi-tude.

How many of you saw that coming?

"I'm freeee...oooo Food! "
Ha!
Having never had a glades rat it's nice to know getting a docile animal is possible.
I was shocked one time when I went into a petshop years ago and saw an adult snow corn marked dirt cheap. It was a fairly nice looker so I just asked to check it out. I just reached in and grabbed it, looked it over and said " I'll take it" and put in a bag the owner offered and went home. I put it into a cage and left it alone for a day or two. I checked on it after that and it "exploded" at me with a fierceness I've never seen from a cb animal. From that day on it was like a crazed demon! Even as slow as I am, I figured out why it was dirt cheap....
I guess I caught it off guard that day just reaching in. Lol

LOL!!!

Too funny Bob!, and very believeable too. Quite often the best strategy for taking out a nasty snake is just reaching in with an open palm and go down on it, covering and grasping it in one motion without hesitating. Hesitation and uncertainty can often give them just enough time to get positioned and zero in on your hand..LOL!. If you don't give them enough time to prepare and think about defending themselves, it works pretty well most of the time.....................yes, "MOST" of the time..LOL!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Lol! I have a female granite that is mean as any cornsnake I've ever seen!Jeff

LoL
But a Snow Corn?!
It hurts your mind..
After handling loads of CB Corns it's like handling white mice.
Like picturing your typical white mouse going all Tazmanian devil or Gremlin on you! Ha!
Wonder what made it act like that?
Maybe as original post said, never being handled?
Abused? There was no scarring and weight was good.
Certainly provided a "memory" lol .

Got wet or fed after midnight?
(sorry, had too)

It doesn't matter how gentle I am, how confident I am, how brave, how slow, nor how fast, if the critter is going to bite I'm going to get bit!!!! If I let biting deter me I wouldn't be keeping snakes (Lizards and Turtles are the same!!!!) Of course mammels and birds react the same. I even had a Red Oscar fish draw blood!!!! But hey, it's no big deal!!!! Of course, I do not keep nor handle Hots for obvious reasons!!!! And Retes will verify this!!!!

Pat G-C

I used to enjoy the challenges at times of Retics and ornery snakes when I was a kid and watching peoples faces when they saw a big water snake or Bullsnake nail you with all the blood ( good times) but as I'm getting older I'm just getting tired of it lol. With my kings it gets old to get chewed on for no apparent reason. That's why one of my all time favorites is my Black Milks. They don't do the chew thing even though they have the feeding response of an Eastern king. And they are content to just hang out. That beautiful shiny black isn't a drawback either lol
I used to have a great little yellow rat when I was younger. I'd take him out and put him up high somewhere while cleaning cages and he'd just stay put enjoying the show he was just the coolest thing. Mellow alert camper. Kind of why I came wandering over here to the land of Rat snake folks. Lol

This strange looking W/C aberrant/hypermelanistic Miami corn was one of the meanest snakes I have ever owned. This girl was like Satan himself I tell ya!. She looks quite normall there looking up, but don't let that fool ya!. She would back-up, constantly vibrating her tail, coiling and striking repeatedly at anything that moved until you left her alone..LOL!

Check out the weird half jet black/, ehalf silver/dark gray on the lower right side of her body there. Most of her was a very darker silvery/gray than normal Miami's, but there were certain half parts of her dorsal area that were SOLID BLACK!!

Wish I would have kept her and introduced her to an amel, then line-bred some offspring to hopefully create some of the most insanely white "candycanes" on the planet in the very early 90's, but that didn't happen unfortunately..LOL!.........too bad though, she was unique as all heck..

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Hey! I remember that beauty! I tried to buy it from you not knowing it was an old pic!! Jeff

LOL!!,..oh, that's right Jeff, I do remember that you asked about that girl a while back..HAHA!.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Very cool Doug.

Thanks Bob!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Doug that is a beauty! Okatees are pretty but I prefer the miami corns and that you had in the photo was special.
I have kings too and find them to be much easier to get feeding than most of my rat snakes.
Don't know why what I have differs from what 53kw have.
Comparing my kings to my rats the kings are eating machines blindly striking, biting anything come feeding time be it a mouse, hand, branch, or even themselves.
They are not nasty just tend to be "kingsnake stupid" at times.

Rat snakes tend to be thinkers and much more aware of whats going on around them. I've found them to be moody at times. Gentle mostly but sometimes full of piss and vinegar. My blue beauty will strike at me with a closed mouth as if to give a warning that he isn't in the mood to be pestered with that day.
I've had baby rats that I will try every trick getting them to feed. I also have two tiny speckled louisiana kings that are voracious feeders.

My corns are also very gentle never biting. Go figure.
As for evil...I have a white lipped python that was a wc juv and is huge now. It is not a nervous snake at all. It is calm but will also calmly rip your face off.
When the cage is left open it will go out of its way to reach around corners to nail me. Evil for sure.
Mike.

Thanks Mike!......yes, I can relate very well to every single word you mentioned there..LOL! But don't ever under-estimate the ability of some kingsnake hatchlings to be stubborn as ALL HELL about initially feeding as hatchlings though. I have had some floridana, Outer Banks, and a few Easterns like this in the past, and know quite a few other "well-seasoned" keepers that have tried just about every single trick under the sun with theirs to no avail. The important thing that I personally do is simply keep them alive with a few force-feedings if they lose too much weight during their stubborn period. They always seem to come around eventually though, it is just a matter of keeping some of these stubborn individuald ALIVE long enough to have their feeding response "switch" flipped on..LOL!. Then it is smooth sailing..

cheers, ~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Ya Doug, I shouldn't have said anything about kings being easy because I probably jinxed myself
Going to have some new experiances this year as two pair I've had for several years now finally decided to mate and I just got eggs this weekend.

That would be five eggs from my Kunisar rats(4 look good), and my Pueblan Milks finaly produced eggs, 6 looking good.
I have no idea what I'm in for in getting hatchling p-milks to feed. The eggs are big so I'm hoping the hatchlings are too. That will make it easier.
The Kunisar rat eggs have me excited and I so hope all goes well with them.

Incidentally I have an 2010 mandarin which is the sole survivor from 7 eggs laid and left to dryout for two weeks before being found.
I had been on vacation and the person looking after things, well didn't.
Well that little mandy is growing and healthy but won't feed on its own dispite everything I have tried. I have to assist feed it every time. With it being that only one of that clutch to make it I happy he's doing this well.
Mike.