Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all! Here's a picture I'm sure you're all going to like. It will probably give nearly everyone of you flashbacks when your kingsnake did they same thing! This happened today. For a more in depth description of the Photo, check out the Gallery. Enjoy!

Nathan

O man do I know how you feel... I have a particularly aggressive cal king too.
One question for you.... Does yours try to swallow the hand/ glove when it bites as well?? Just last night it bit my glove, and I tried to calmly wait it out. 30 minutes later(whenever I moved it clamped down!) I took off the glove, snake still attached, and put it in the cage. 2 hours later it was still trying to eat it!!?? I know its not hungry.... Do you know whats goin on?

Let's hope both of ours calm down!
Tim

Haha Sounds like we can relate! Your snake is not showing uncharactoristic behavior, trust me! Even though Cal. Kings are very cool, they are (as far as snakes go) not very intelligent! My Bananna Cal. King swollowed my finger a couple times, literaly! I've noticed that different speciment react differently to difference methods of detaching them (that's a lot of "differents" in one sentence!). For instance, one of my Albino striped Cal. Kings bit me and I put less than a drop of rubbing alcohol in it's mouth and it let go emediately. However, Alcohol didn't even phase the King in the picture. I had to dunk it's head under water until it had to choose between breathing or finger foods! Kingsnakes are generally pretty stupid snakes, but they are smart enough to choose breathing everytime.
We can always look on the bright side though. At least they're not poisonous! Oh, and by the way, kingsnakes have very strong lung capacity. That means they can hold their breath for a very long time, maybe over 5 minutes in some cases!
The first time my kingsnake tried to eat my finger was when I was about 13. One day I decided that i wasn't gonna be afraid, and I was gonna stick my hand in the kingsnake cage and let it smell me so it would know that I wasn't a mouse. As you can guess, the snake didn't care what I smelled like, or weather i was a mouse, it just wanted to eat me. BAM! I quietly walked out to the living room with this snake hanging onto my finger and wispered to my bro to come and help me without mom knowing. I was almost in a panic at that point and my brother said to me, "are you about to cry?" i responded "No!" and than started bawling! It is very funny to look back at those type of things and how I handled them.
Hey, several months back there was an issue of reptiles magazine that featured "outrageous herp tales". There was a HILLARIOUS artacle about a guy who got bitten by a Mexican Black king. See if you can't get your hands on that issue, it's worth it! Take care and happy herping!

Nathan

Well thanks for your help with my demon king.

Putting a drop of rubbing alcohol IN his mouth won't cause his to get sick/vomit?

One of those methods has to work, so I am handling him glove free tonight! Thanks,
Tim

The alcohol never made mine sick, or drunk for that matter. The most reliable way to detache a kingsnake is to dunk them under water, even the stubbernest of kings choose living over eating!

Nathan

Well thanks for your help, and your story...

Hearing that story, I decided to do the same! lol... I picked up the snake, and if it was gonna bite me, so be it! Well anyway, it latched onto my arm, and I put in warm water, and it let go.

Thanks,
Tim