Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok i've had my cal king almost a year now and when i got it it was THE nicest snake i've ever seen. anyone could hold it or pick it up and would be super placid. In the last 3 months since i moved it has gotton ultra nippy at me, not from being scared or pissed off but because it thinks my hands are food. i used to feed him on my coffee table and he was always fine. the second i saw him getting a little jumpy i started feeding it in a small carrying tank. it didn't really work and he's worse than ever. now i'm placing a large piece of newspaper in the tank and placing the fuzzy on it so that he won't start swallowing on top of the substrate and he won't associate me holding him with feeding time. He is still real bad and actually starts darting around against the glass when i go to remove his lid. sometimes he even strikes at the glass at my hands. when i get him out he usually coils up like he's about to strike the second my hand twitches. he tagged me the other day when i was putting him back in the tank too. right now its only about two feet and i want to avoid the bites to protect his teeth but the last think i want is for him to be like this when he's 4 feet and can actually do some damage. any suggestions?? i'm desparate (oh and i always wash my hands to remove the mice scent when i feed him)

how often do you handle it?

A lot of snakes will associate your hand with food,especially Kings. Anytime I walk near my king's enclosure he comes out of his hide thinking I am going to feed him but he doesn't bite me or anything. You should AWLAYS wash your hands after handling another reptile or any type of rodent before handling a king. Your hands will smell like the prey item you just touched and your sure to get nailed. I always feed my king in a seperate enclosure now but sometimes he will eat in his own enclosure with some paper towel thrown over half the tank to make sure he doesnt swallow any subtrate.Before when he seen paper towels he would think its feeding time even though I haven't fed him in his enclosure in the last 5-6 feedings. Now when I place him in the plastic feeding container he KNOWS he is going to eat.

First, I would buy a medium size tupperware, drill holes in it (size of the snake) and to make the outer edges of the holes soft melt it with a lighter (so the cal king doesn't hurt it self) . I then place his f/t mouse in the middle or live, using gloves or sandwitch bags over my hands. I place the container in the middle of his cage and wait till he eats. He then hides and I take out the container. I fed him yesterday and all he had to see was the container and he darted for it. He associates the object with his feeding rather then just moving objects in his enclosure. Hope this helps.

kyle

great idea, i'll try it right away. yesterday i put a glove on and put my hand in the cage just to see what he would do, he got realy interested and smelled it for a minute, then bit it. i've never touched a mouse or anyhting with these gloves so i know smell isn't the factor he's cueing onto. it has to be movement, but i haven't fed him anything alive in 6 months. at first he would only take live prey and i got him on frozen/th by shaking the mouse but i haven't had to do that in a long long time. its really really frustrating since he was super nice at first.