Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've never gone herping before, and I really want to go this spring. I've got several captive bred snakes, but I've only handled one wild caught (the black rat in this pic showed up right on my doorstep at the end of last summer). Even though I've been told that black rats are on the docile side, he was pretty satanic, has bitten me many times, and I'm expecting him to bite me many more. This spring I'm going to be looking specifically for black kings and chain kings - I'm not going to keep them, I just want look at and photograph them up close - and I was wondering whether I should expect wild kings to bite the crap out of me, too. Just as a note, I've never handled a king at all, captive bred or otherwise, so I really don't know what to expect.

Hey there "J". That pic is not really that clear, but it looks as if that snake in there may be an eastern king (are those cross-bands on its' body?). . .Could you post another pic please? I may be wrong. . .if I can see one more pic a little closer than I could verify for sure. . .
I own about 25 Kingsnakes. Kingsnakes generally do not bite. Very few wildcaught kingsnakes have bitten me, and when they did, they only did so once or twice and then immediately calmed down. Most wildcaught kingsnakes will usually musk & defecate on you when first picked up, but then calm down within seconds/minutes.

BTW:Here's a pic of the only black rat that I own (a young 3.5' female). This is a typical black rat, mostly black with a little white showing between scales and very faint blotches , if any. They darken with age.

Zee

Hey, Zee. I can see why you would think that he might be a king from that angle. The thing is that pic was taken with one of those disposable cameras and put on disk, which in my experience doesn't usually work very well. What you're really seeing, though, is the juvenile pattern that's left over. When I got him he was a yearling, and the pics were taken more or less immediately afterwards. Here's another pic where you can see both the solid black, and the juvenile pattern, even though it's really blurry (again, sorry for the bad pics). You can also tell by the head shape in this pic. I really like that snake of yours. The black rats I've seen around here, though, don't tend to be as dark as yours. I'm not sure whether that's an integrade thing (now that I think about it, I can't imagine what it would integrade with this far north [northern Delaware]), or a locality thing, or it varies from individual to individual.

Also, thanks for the info on the wild kings. I just hope I can find some in this area. It's pretty well developed, and the only reason the rat snake showed up at my apartment was that they were putting up a parking building in the vacant lot next door, and I'm pretty sure that's where he came from.

Not at all like what Im accustomed to growing up in MO. He is a wild caught '01. He hadnt even had his first shed when I got him. Shed about a week later and has never slowed down eating!!!
He was at 66" last August when I last measured him. He has put on some size since then, and I need to get an updated measurement.

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RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Yellow rat snake "Wolverine" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

MILKS
0.0.1 Eastern Milk snake "Cable" (KY locale)
0.0.1 Eastern/Red milk intergrade "Omega Red" (KY locale)
Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I grew up in northern kentucky and "black" rats looked a lot like the one in the pic...reds, yellows showing through, a distinct pattern on big adults, etc. Nice critters.
terry