Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my Desert Kingsnake for about 10 years. When my uncle died i was given his snake. I have no idea what sex it is, but my uncle named it Penelope so i'm going to assume its a girl. She was fully grown when i got her and i estimate her to be about 14-17 years old. I'm pretty sure she was captive bred but i could be wrong. I was about 4 or 5 when i got her and loved snakes. I held her often and we took good care of her. But after a year or 2 i stopped paying attention to her until i was about 13. It makes me feel bad now that i look back on it but in the time between when i was around 6 or 7 til i was 13 she probably got held maybe 10 or 20 times and was fed probably once a month. The last few years (i'm a few weeks from 17 now) i've realized that she needed to be cared for and i've been cleaning her cage and trying to hold her more. It's difficult to find time to hold her after school and i just got a new cornsnake in august so i'm still trying to get him adjusted as well.
As i was starting to pay her more attention i would feed her live mice(i don't do anymore) every 3 or 4 weeks to give her something more to do. Once she was constricting a medium/large mouse and i guess she did it wrong because it slipped out and bit her. It didn't bite her for more than a second and she did finish eating it, but ever since she acts funny. Whenever i put my hand in the tank to do something and i touch her or even when she sees my hand in the tank, she twithces the front 6 or so inches of her body repeatedly. It's almost like a really small jerk but it isn't meant to hit against you or anything. Also whenever you come in contact with any of her body she pushes against it. Today when i was holding her she was acting fine(still doing the jerky thing tho), and she had her head close to my hand. She had the end of her tail around my thumb and looked at it for about 2 or 3 seconds and just suddenly bit it! I yelled in surprise and jerked my hand back and immediately put her back in her tank. It drew blood but only because of the ripping her teeth did when i jerked my hand back. I've been bit by her twice before: first when i was lttle and had my hand in front of her face to feel her tongue tickle me, and second more recently when i had my hand in the tank sitting still in front of her trying to fix the thermometer in the tank. I can't figure out what to do anymore. I've been trying to hold for abotu 10-20 minutes a day been it probably been about every 2 days because of school starting and my baby snake. I have no clue what to do about this anymore! I hadn't been handling any mice or possible prey before i took her out. Can anyone please help me?

Penelope is probably hungry...and has come to associate infrequent handling with feeding, and the act of handling her stimulates her feeding response. For a large adult feeding once a month is probably too little. I would feed her atleast every 10 days, a large mouse or small rat or equvalent smaller rodents, and handle her daily. Try to overcome the response of jerking away, (not easy but many of us have), as it minimizes trauma to you and the snake if it bites you. That is quite an old snake, and big old kings are impressive. Maybe you can post a photo of her, she is an oldie but a goodie I suspect. Also, a few kingsnakes are just nervous and have strange behaviors such as biting...Good luck, Vic

I agree with VICtort, shes hungry, and and and, I get the strange feeling, she is smarter then you and smells that dang cornsnake on your hands and thinks, Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm nice, after all these years, something smooth and tasty.

So, feed her.

Also, holding has very little to do with tame or whatever. I think if you are afraid of being bitten, they sense it and fullfill your fears.

It only takes holding them a time or two before they learn your not going to eat them. So all this holding is kinda odd to me. I think its more about the people then the snake. FR

i think FR is right many people forget that "king" snakes are snake eaters. and we feed them mice.

now that you mention it, you're right Frank. I haven't bitten you in years....

Hi
Make sure you wash your hands before you handle your king, as you have a cornsnake aswell your king could be giving the bite reaction because of cornsnake scent..
Just a thought

Paul..

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Pinky's taste nice,only if there fresh..

I just tried to feed her and she didn't want to eat it. I even went as far as cutting into its neck the way thats gotten her to eat before, but none of it worked. I guess its just because this week it really cooled down fast. I went from leaving the fan on all night to cool me off to sleeping with the heavy comforter in about 2 or 3 days. I'll start to feed her every other week because of the cold.

Here's the only pic i have of her right now. I'll try to get more in a few days when its not so late and i have more batteries for my camera.

one reason might be is because shes getting ready to shed...

that's not a current photo. It was taken a few months ago. She isn't showing any signs of being close to shedding right now.

its also burmation season (hibernation) usualy they stop eating around this time. turn off her heat and let her digest her last meal make sure she has watter and a hiding place. she'll hide in there till about febuary then turn the heat on and feed her about 3 or 4 mice.