Bonkers is the name of this snake (pic in the previous post) because I've never had a king act like this one.
Here's a list of the wild thing this snake does:
1. Can't eat enough (not so unusual for a king)
2. Has flown out of the cage at least 20 times trying to grab whatever it can (sometimes she's snatched the mouse right out of my hand - no joke) - her cage is her domain...period!
3. Has attacked her own water bowl and knocked it over (and we're talking a heavy crock) after I accidently scented it when I changed her water after handling a Bull snake.
4. Killed a small rat, turned to sniff it, moved the tail of the rat, thought it was still alive and then bit her own tail and spun and thrashed around for like a minute before figuring out what was going on, then went back and beat up on the already dead rat.
4. Has grabbed my wrist thumb, and fingers, then chewed, bit and bloodied me so much that her saliva was all gooey! I watched just because it was so wild! I got her to let go by placing her under warm water for a moment - works every time.
5. Get near the cage and she zooms toward the movement and will strike the glass without hesitation.
6. Once bit my sweater at the wrist (again, the scent of another snake on me), wouldn't let go, so I pulled the sweater over my head and worked her off my lower arm, she then starts contricting the sweater and gnawing away at it before she realizes it's nothing to eat.
7. Once again, after sitting in my snake room holding one of my blotched that was moving around my pants, I let her out to move around - she gets near me and wraps my fuc#ing ankle and wouldn't let go until the crazy thing realized it wasn't food.
8. Cracked a critter cage while trying to pry/get in with my terrified yearling blotched after I she sensed the cage about two feet away - had I been out of the room 30 seconds I'd be without my prized blotched.
9. And I handled this snake as a hatchling on up all the time!
I can still handle her fine but I have to be really, really careful - I'm more worried that she'll tear out teeth on me than a bite.
10. The only way to calm her down is to get my big Georgia boy (or another 5 footer), hold him where he can't strike, and then let her fly over to him only to crap on herself and totally freak and go into hiding for like 2 hours after she finds out that she'd be a snack.
I'm sure you guys have your extra "special" king that is even more amazing than kings in general.
-John
