Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Posted by: demillar at Thu Oct 14 21:50:20 2004 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Hi everyone! I recently posted this on the venonous forum, thought I would run it past this one. My 7year old had brought back a book on King cobra's. It listed the reticulated python as a threat to the King Cobra. Anyone ever heard of this. I read on this board and in some snake books that a reticulated python sometimes becomes a meal for a king.
Does the retic have some immunity against a bite?
Is it possible for the retic to constrict a king without getting bit?
Obviously these two do not face-off with one another(like on Animal Planet)would a retic see a king as a possible food source?
In which country(ies), do these two share the same habitat?

A larger King cobra could eat a smaller retic. But a larger retic could crush a smaller snake, and could definatly kill another snake with a bite alone. As far as being imune and if they really are a threat to cobras etc.. i have no idea...

Im going to go put a cobra in with my retic, and ill let you know...
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-echo-

Grim but true-

About 17 years ago while visiting the Singapore Zoo, the keepers gave me a behind the scenes tour. During their rainy seasons they would find baby retics all over the zoo- mostly up in the rafters and around the base of the zoo roofs. they would catch the babies and freeze them and feed them to the kings- or feed fresh killed just pithed/ brain scrambled writhing baby retics to the kings.

They would be called by local police to remove adult retics which they would catch, kill, chop into logs sized pieces and feed to the crocs, monitors etc. and or freeze for later use as well.

Winslow

A King Cobra can definitely envenomate and kill a retic. Needless to say, a retic can also do some damage by biting back to defend itself.

My friend who keeps several King Cobras often feeds them with retics due to their substantial size. On more than a couple instances when he fed them live, the retic always succumbed to the effects of cobra venom. The fastest it took was 20 mins while the longest took 2 days.

In the former, the cobra bit and hung on even as it was being constricted. The latter took a very long time and it was a bite and release. It must be added that the retics had their jaws taped to prevent defensive injuries to the cobras. Maybe that was why the retic was not able to constrict the cobra more effectively.

Would a retic view a cobra or any other snake as a prey item? I doubt it as my friend has never come across this kind of behaviour before among his retics. However, I remember reading somewhere about about a boa constrictor eating its cagemate so I suppose this could be possible.

Regards,
Francis

I know of one instance for sure that a bci are another.

And your frined is a moron...
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-echo-

Why are you calling him a moron? Because he fed some of the retics live? kindly explain.

Yeah, that's a pretty good reason. Not to mention, if the mouths are taped, the tape is not a very good thing to frequently ingest.

That is also somewhat torturous to the retic, to let it lay around for two days awaiting a slow death...

Francis you say it took 20 minutes the quickest for the retic to die from a King Bite. Seems to me that a Retic has a fair amount of immunity to a bite, given that a King has copius ammounts of toxic venom, and that most victims die within seconds of being bit. How much immunity does a retic have?
Given the lenth of time for death, I'm confused as to why a Retic wouldn't constrict immediately after being bit? Certainly a retic could constrict a king in under 20 minutes. I would think a battle between the two would come down that since a King is going to hold on and inject as much venom as possible, until the prey dies. Are there battles were both snakes die?