Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My snake is crazy! I just bought a 3 ft albino california kingsnake, and she's an absolute loon. They told me at the pet store that she was very nice, but I brought her home and all she's done is bite me and bite herself. She even bit herself before I bought her, I just wasn't sure what the mark was from. Now I know... she's constantly uptight, she speeds around her tank, she hates being handled, and she just spends all her time hiding. Does she just need time to acclamate, or do you think I should take her back? She isn't due to shed, and she has been eating, so what the hell is going on? My friend has diagnosed her as schizophrenic. This is looking highly probable. HELP ME!

Holy bleep! If this is her first day or even week, I could see her being nervous, timid and not shy of chomping you. Acclimating could probably help a great deal with that. But to the best of my knowledge, it is very abnormal for snakes to chomp themselves multiple times.
Does she have a proper temp gradient, hideboxes on both ends of the temp gradient and all that stuff? Covering 3 sides (back and sides) of her enclosure may help her feel more secure. And is there a chance she's hungry? Speeding around the tank might be a sign of being in hunting mode. In theory she should get a mouse (f/t) as wide around as she is every week or so. Sorry if you're already doing this stuff, I just want to cover the basic environmental causes that could agitate her.
If you keep her, it would probably be more of a charity case or challenge than anything else. You could try another king or a cornsnake, and a very mellow option is a captive bred ball python (they sometimes fast which can drive novices nuts but they generally act like sweet little slugs.) Assuming the pet store will take her back and you haven't fallen in love, returning her may be wise.
My own little king is nowhere as nuts as yours, but has a weird feeding response, thinking I'm a mouse, etc...
Whatever you decide, good luck.
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

Sometimes they just come out of the egg half cracked (lol).

Seriously, some just have an overdeveloped feed-strike response. Fortunately Mine allways outgrew it.

My cal i have right now bit and coiled around my finger as if it thought i was the juicyest mouse in the world. After a few feedings at home it's a kitten.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

If she is biting herself she may have some sort of external parasite - driving her mad with itchiness, so she's trying to bite it off. I would take her to a vet and get that checked out.

Also, just something to note - the state of your snake occurs every now and then in captive housed diamond pythons. It is called 'diamond python syndrome' and is still somewhat a mistery. They don't know why it happens or how to prevent it, but yes, they think it may be some sort of schitzophreinia (spelling?). But i have never heard of such a syndrome in your snakes.

Good luck. Get a vet.
Cheers.

Kira,
For what it's worth my husband had a male albino calking who exhibited some of the same behaviors. He would bite me and himself when I handled him. We concluded that perhaps due to the albinism, his eyesight was poor and he tagged himself when I was the target. The day we brought him home (as an adult) he bit me in the neck, although he was aiming for the movement of my dangling earring. He also sometimes missed the mark when grabbing a rat off of the tongs.

It was clear that because of the biting, he hadn't been handled much. We made a point of keeping him well fed, and handling him daily as much as possible. We also had consistent ways of taking him out of the cage to be handled, which differed from the way we took him out to be fed. He calmed down considerably within 6 months.

Do you have other snakes in the room? We also noticed that, when he was hungry, he would cruise and nose his enclosure in the direction of potential prey. Then, he would be more aggressive when we handled him. Just some thoughts. Best of luck should you decide to keep her.

regards,althea

He may be smelling mice or another snake on you so he may need a seperate room.