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One of my cages is a large 6'L x 3'H ex-boa cage that I have modified for my large colubrids.

I've made it into a 2-tier cage with a "floor" in the middle, thus taking advantage of the much needed extra height, so I can house one snake on the bottom level and one on the top.

On both leves, I had cut a hole the size to recess a pan of water, so as to maximize the amount of crawling space available for the snakes. Various indigos have occupied both levels for about 2 years now with no problems.

At one point this spring, I found myself with enough extra space that I didn't acutually NEED the lower level, so I decided to be nice enough to allow my large female California king snake to have this section....and my adult male Texan was on the top level.

You can probably see where this is going.

Anyway...I have had this king snake for 14 years! (longer than any snake in my collection. I got her as a yearling) and she has produced more perfect little black and white banded babies than I can count over the years.

She's easily the largest Cal king I've ever seen...5' long...eating med rats with ease.

So...it's only now I feel up to sharing this this story. A couple weeks ago as I was going to do my cage cleaning routine. I opened the cage to find the cal king missing. hmmm. the doors were tightly shut...how could she get out?

It's not possible that she could some how push up a the pan of water and get onto the top level is it? The pan of water was full...and it was wedged tightly into the hole that was cut slightly smaller than the pan itself.

So I take a look at the Tx male on the top floor...uh oh...he hasn't been fed in over a week and he looks fat. I pick him up...

I can see the outline of a large snake in his belly.

sigh. Damn damn damn. This has been a bad year.

I bet the poor girl put up a hell of a fight...but no way was she a match for this large Dry.

No visible battle scars at all on the Texan...and he was looking for rats.

Bad judgement error on my part.
Bad summer.

Dean

Not many things are really a match for a big hungry Indigo. How did the Cal King get into the Texan's enclosure (or vice-versa)? Did you ever figure that out?

The only thing that makes any sense at all is that she managed to push up the recessed water dish enough to squeeze into the upper level.

I cant think of anything more depressing(Snake wise) than raising a snake up for years only to lose it to another snake in YOUR collection eating it. I have a little story about such a thing happening to a friend of mine several years ago, here goes....: Several years back friend of mine that has dumerilsl boas produced a really nice pjnk baby. At the time I had no debts(Unlike now) and was in a pretty good financial position(unlike now), so I asked him if he would sell this particular snake to me, on the condition that I would breed it either back to the mom or to another HYPO looking dumerills I picked up(Keep it in the family so to speak). It had 60% more pink coloration than its litter mates, and was ventrally pale off white. I dont know if one would classify it as hypo-melanistic, but it was a stunning snake. my friend initially said "Yes" to holding onto it until I got paid, but later on decided that what he was charging me for it was to little and that he wanted to hold it back for himself. Such is the green monster of greed that can affect us all. So, he held it back and it began to grow. To consolidate cage space he put this stunning snake in with another of its normal colored siblings.
I was hurt by this, but got over it quickly. About 1 month later I asked in passing how the "hypo" was doing and was asked to look into the box where he was at. I did so, only to find one FAT little BROWN dumerills boa in there! Turns out that the brown dumeril ATE his hypo sibling! A FAT hypo meal!

moral of this story: Separate your neonates, and sell to your friends

Take care

Fred Albury

P.S.
Dean, sorry to hear about this loss.

Sorry to hear about that. Especially with a snake that had so much sentimental value.

I had a terrible accident like that in my herp room last year. I had a beautiful adult New Mexico milksnake that I had raised from a hatchling and was planning to breed to my male for the first time. She escaped when I accidentally didn't close her cage all the way. I tore up the room for 2 days looking for him.
A couple days later, I was taking a nap when I woke up to a large banging sound. I went in the reptile room to see one of my red tegus chomping down on that poor milksnake and slamming her into the side of the cage. By the time I seperated the two, the milk was mortally wounded. Apparently, the milksnake had wedged itself between the glass panels in this 8' long cage to seek refuge in the cypress mulch. I should have just let the tegu finish but I was too angry to reward him for killing my snake. I froze it and ended up giving it to a friend for her banded crate a couple weeks later.
It was really frustrating...I can only imagine how terrible it would be to lose a 14 year pet to an accident like that.
Chris

Dean, ditto on the condolences too. If you're not sitting on eggs from her, I'd be happy to send you one of my queens neonates later this summer to ease your loss.
When I read your header tho....it was a much worse story I was expecting; like big king gets into a little guardian...
How big is your tx? I'd think a 5' king is in the realm of serious big-game prey.
I once recovered an AWOL zonata (Cal Mtn king) from one of my vivaria that contained native skinks & alligator lizards. There was a flash of color under one of the logs that just didnt look right...That zonata was one series of lumps from neck to cloaca; im sure it thought it had died n' gone to heaven!

Thanks for the generous offer regal, but I actually am waiting for the dozen good eggs she laid this year to hatch...I'll hold one back for sure.

It amazes me that she was still able to produce at 15 years old!

The male Texan is large ...but not enormous...he's about 6.5'
it was a prett good meal for him.

He's one of the most aggressive feeders that I have. He's gentle when out...but it's darn right SCARY to try to get him out of his cage, or even fill his water bowel for that matter, if he's even a little hungry!

Thanks for the generous offer regal, but I actually am waiting for the dozen good eggs she laid this year to hatch...I'll hold one back for sure.

It amazes me that she was still able to produce at 15 years old!

The male Texan is large ...but not enormous...he's about 6.5'
it was a prett good meal for him.

He's one of the most aggressive feeders that I have. He's gentle when out...but it's darn right SCARY to try to get him out of his cage, or even fill his water bowel for that matter, if he's even a little hungry!

Guess we know who the real KING is now huh?

all joking aside, that has to be one of the most gut-wrenching stories of snake loss I've heard. Best of luck to your clutch so you can find a replacement.

Van

I feel your pain Dean and that is nothing that you should blame yourself about; sometimes weird things happen. We have all been there before (I could give you several accounts on my end of very similar situations). A number of years ago, I was a serious leopard gecko breeder and had a large clutch of high yellow babies hatch out. I took them to work to get them ready to ship out to a customer. They were in an open topped sweater box that I placed on my desk while I ran downstairs to get a shipping box and deli cups. The mistake I made was that I placed the container right next to my 14 year old male veiled chameleons cage that shared my office, along with my venomous snakes, and lived in a large parrot cage....well, like your story, it's easy to figure out where this one is going. When I got back upstairs, much to my amazement, all of the babies (12 in all) disappeared...no way could they get out. And then, I saw a tail of the last one sticking out of my veiled's mouth. For quite some time I felt horribly about what happened. Now, as a I look back, I can put a little grin on my face...sometimes, weird things just happen in this hobby/profession. Sorry again to hear of your loss.

Sorry Dean. What more can I say.

I have an Indigo and a King that are about the same age and I have often thought of the mishap of them getting together in the future. I brought the subject of "King vs. Indigo" up on the kingsnake forum and what a thread that started.

Needless to say I don't want mine getting together because I love both of them and don't want to risk the loss of either one.
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Gregory S. Hake

repeat my story about Magnum, the uni monster, and my friend with the tree pythons...I've told it a few times, so I won't repeat it unless asked!!...Sorry for you Deanno...You have my sympathy...CG
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

Mojo used to love that story @ bedtime...& senile me..i forgot it or mixed it up w/ Freds Carpet Python loss. Mojo just loves em all. So one moe time...pretty please....
Mas cervezas amigos....rr

Magnum, a close to 9' MASSIVE Uni male..Very gentle, kids love him etc...Makes an impressive show and tell animal...

A friend wanted to use him at a presentation, but I was going out of town, so I just took him over to my friends' in his cage...Friend has separate room for his herps...Frequently lets animals out in the room while cleaning cages...Lets Magnum out to change his paper and lets him run the floor...Gets a phone call from another room and goes to answer it...Forgets for a while, then goes back in to put Mag up...Magnum is now extremely heavy!!!Friend forgot his 6' JCP was out as well...

Magnum is now staring at the ceiling which is draped with Tree Pythons on over head lines...Luckily he's just too fat now to go after those too!!!

Never under estimate the appetite of these guys, you young folks!!
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

!

I am sure it feels terrible, but at least you were not directly at fault.

I just got home from helping a friend dose a few animals up for RIs. While there he showed me the new clutch of Green Trees that he had hatched out. The third he showed me had a reasonable tongue flick, but lay on the bottom of the cage which is not an entirely positve sign with Green Trees.

Anyway, I get home after a 45 minute drive and as soon as I get in the door my cell phone rings. It's my buddy stuttering "J, I just blended a chondro baby." Not understanding him, I responded with Huh? He repeated what he said before and explained the animal had been blended in a blender. At this point, I was wondering what the hell he had been doing, but he was audibly upset and shaken so I decided to joke with him instead of scold - so I said, "You know your really taking this diet thing too far." He responded with a half hearted laugh, obviously being in no mood for my humor. He then explained to me that he had been cleaning its cage and that he had taken the chondro out on its perch from its sterilite and let it hang over the blender as it was the only thing around that would hold the perch with the little snake (Chondro's generally hold on to their perches not moving when he does this). He informed me that this was the snake that had not been looking so good and had been laying on the ground of its cage.

Apparently, as soon as he looked the other way, the snake was on the bottom rotar part of the blender. He reached over to pick it out and some how tripped and hit the blender. Long story short, Jamba Juice - flavor Chondro.

Cheer up my friend, unlike my buddy's situation (who may deserve a swift kick in the nuts and then a hug), you couldn't have guessed that the king would be able to push up the water bowl when significantly larger drymarchon housed in similar conditions were unable to.

Best regards,
J

That poor little Chondro..I don't know what's worse. Getting eaten by a Texas Indigo or blended in the old Waring. But, like you said, at least Deano's accident wasn't really his fault. The other guy is at least guilty of Chondroslaughter or Negligent Chondrocide.

The worst part, though...just think of the sick jokes to follow..."what's green and red and goes 100 mph?" I hope Ron Popiel doesn't get wind of it..."The amazing Popiel's Super Snake-O-Matic!"

We can't let this story get out....

that reminds me of an e-mail I got years ago... It was a frog in a blender & he was just daring you to push a button. The little frog kept saying "Go ahead, you aint got the balls!" Well, guess what? I made frog soup outta him! LOL

Eric

Ahh yes....frog in a blender. A timeless classic.
Frog in a Blender

well I always wondered about KING vs INDIGO, that has been answered. I wonder about INDIGO vs KING COBRA. Same size would have to be a hypethetical must

I spoze its just another sad charter/private skool success story...
Giving benefit to doubt...that mebbe this is serious & not a trol-job...guardians & kings are sympatric (live in overlapping habitats) so who eats who, particularly among the adults is of interest in understanding possible ecological relationships (trophic structure), your King cobra, an ocean removed from guardian-land, would likely happily gobble an appropriate sized guardian w/ mucho gusto. They are ophiophagous (snake-eating) specialists [like my name- sake...drumroll please... the regals], guardians by contrast are the consumate generalists, as are the getulus kingsnakes.

I once read a story where the horrified author described visiting an animal farm & watching as the keeper throw an indigo to a king cobra saying they were the kings prefered meal!

Eric

Too bad King Cobras don't get big enough to eat people.

If you can recall the source...id like to nab a copy.
Doesnt surprise me tho...Their venom seems to be... as one would expect...especially tuned to other snakes. I have heard tho, they refuse the keeled scaled vipers, which our guardians devour!
At the risk of being cyber-tarred & feathered...I intend one day...to evaluate that which occurs when the neonate guardian encounters the most deadly denizen of the mexican leaf litter....Diadophis regalis!