The Eastern milksnake doesn't seem to like the Northern ringneck, even though this ringneck isn't venomous I don't think.
Yeah that's a pretty true statement there. I have done countless feeding studies w/ northerns, only to find out that their venom is extremely weak to anything other than salamanders. It has no effect on snakes until the 10 minute mark is passed(neonate snakes), no effect whatsoever on worms, weak on frogs, but w/ salamanders the venom works after a few minutes.
Maybe there's some other reasons too, that kings don't eat ringnecks. Ringnecks can produce some type of glandular mucous from their mouths that may be very distasteful, not to mention they can produce musk and copious amts of feces.
It seems to be more of a habitat/location thing. Eastern Kings in NC and the surrounding states will gladly prey on ringnecks. In Texas, speckled kings won't touch certain sub-species of ringnecks, mainly arnyi. W/ the musk and feces, some keepers after losing a few corals thought the feces were the cause of the corals reguritation and immediate death. So, before feeding, they would irritate the ringnecks for a few minutes to the point they were satisfied the ringnecks were "musked out". From what I hear it worked sometimes, but sometimes the corals still died. I'm pretty sure the kings eating ringnecks, ringnecks eating kings, has to do with the sub-species of each respective species.
Kings are supposed to be immune to snake venoms, too, or is that just rattlesnake venom?
From what we can gather up, ringneck snake venom does work on kingsnakes, we are just not sure how though... paralysis, death, etc. But the venom of ringnecks does affect kings, we are hoping to do a couple studies later on this summer to find out more.
Mike
Michael's Place
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KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
