Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I won a Cali King in a raffle a few months ago, and he has been great up until two weeks ago. He has started to bite me. He is almost 4ft long now. I have him in a 20 gallon tank with a medium sized hiding rock. I have been feeding him Adult Mice once a week, but some one recommended that Cali Kings have a fast metabolism, so I have started feeding him twice a week now. And he still bites me even a day or two after he's been fed.

The biggest thing that has changed that I've noticed is my GF got herself a Ball Python. We keep both snakes in separate tanks across the room from each other. They are glass tanks and the snakes can see each other. I know King snakes get there names from eating other snakes. Could my King be biting me because he's become territorial or that he is trying to attack the ball python and biting me instead? Thanks for any help

Its mid summer, the hotter they are, the more they need to eat.

This subject supports lots of discussion, as everybody keeps them differently.

The point is, snakes control hunger in two basic ways. Of course one is feeding. The other is dropping there temps.

We all know that in winter they do not feed because its cold. What is rarely thought about is all degrees between cold and the constant heat of midsummer. Particularly in captivity.

In nature, if they cannot find food, they go down and find cooler temps, therefore do not wasting energy, in constant warm temps. Even in nature, there are times and places where they must find food because of the heat.

ALso you mention metabolism, and wondered if kings had a higher metabolism. All snakes metabolism is base DIRECTLY to temps, and activity. No snake has a constant metabolism like a mammal.

All snakes and kings are territorial, having a home range and such. Eating other snakes has nothing to do with territory. other then they seek to include other snakes in their foraging range.

I am not sure a king would know what to do with a ball pythom. My bet is nothing. And if it was going to eat it, it would have to be a really big king and a really small ball python. Ball pythons tighten up in a ball, to protect themselves from being eaten by other snakes. Best wishes

Are you handling the ball python before the king? I don't know if it is true for balls, but whenever I handle my corn snakes before handling my cal kings, they bite me because they smell the other snakes on my hands. I just put some hand sanitizer on my hands and I no longer smell like food.

The king may also just smell the ball in the room, you could try moving them into separate rooms and see if the biting behavior changes.

Anyway, just a couple ideas you may want to try.

Glen

I actually rarely hold the ball. And I have been washing my hands before holding my king regardless of what I was doing before hand.

More than likely, it is not the ball python that brought about the biting. It is not a territory dispute, at least this is my guess.

Cal kings are very zealous feeders.

I have had a few adult males in the past that were well fed, and sometimes (usually before breeding season, and then again in June/July) they would bite my hand as if trying to eat it. Obviously they were hungry, even if they had good body weight. I bet yours is hungry too.

Yours will probably stop biting once Winter approaches.

Regarding "once-a-week" - yes that will keep the snake maintained. However, it does not mean that the snake will not want more during certain times of the year (and less at other times). Once-a-week is really an average value. It does not take into consideration the activity or temperature in the given moment.