Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I put the female in with the male, only to come back and find him eating her.
Has this happened to anyone else? I was able to save her, but scared to put them together again. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks, Jeff

I hope your female is fine. Please understand, these are highly social snakes, also understand, that means to include other individuals and exclude all others. The question is, which ones are included.
They do not have books, or biologists or science telling them what they are suppose to do, so like primitive man, they often eat others of their same kind, and simply because, they do not think of those others as the same. So the "others" are no different then any other kind of snake in this case, or human with people. They are simply the other.
The best way to support them getting along is raising them together. If that is impossible, then the next good way is to put them together in winter when the temps are low and they are not feeding.
I keep pairs and groups of kings together and have since 1964 or so. I can't remember having a problem, but I have seen what you had happen. So your not alone.
Please understand, its not that you have to do those steps, some individuals get long right off the bat. But others don't.
You can also time the copulation. That's when the female is emitting strong pheromones. But that is still dangerous. Often they copulate then one eats the other. Simply put, social animals need to be raised socially to behave in a social manner, If any social animal is raised in a solitary situation, they are poor candidates to ever attain that "normal" social behavior. Its inherent and learned. Best wishes

Thank you guys for your responses, all of that makes sense. I put the male in with her again yesterday, and within 10 mins he attacked her again, trying to swallow her head first. I will try one more time once she has shed a second time, and make sure both are really well fed before doing so, and try hibernating them together next season.

Do you know how to palpate the female. Let her crawl threw your fingers. If you place your fingers so she has to flatten a little, you can feel ovum, like a string of pearls. When she develops that, she also emits pheromones and that will encourage the male to copulate instead of eating her. Other then that, do not keep putting them together. They are like us or any other animals. The female understands the male is trying to kill her. Only there is nothing she can do. Not a good place to be in. Please understand, they are not that smart, nor to they have to be. All they need to know to survive is, when they survive a dangerous situation, they must learn to avoid it. No more, no less. Those situations are important to remember.
We think of them as the same kind. In nature, the same kind is the ones trusted, as in past tense. It has nothing to do with species or what WE call species. They do not care about species, or books or whatever, Those animals that are trusted, are "us", those that try to eat you, are "them", the others. Species has nothing to do with it.

Ahh ok. I'll try the palpating technique. I might have to wait until next year, unless I can catch another male. Thanks for the information,I appreciate it. Jeff

A long time ago I had a pair of Cal kings that could not be put together just like your pair.

That Winter, I placed both in a big dark cage and let the temps be what they are in Winter. I started to notice both snakes began to coil up next to one another, then later, sometimes on top of one another.

I separated them in Spring, because I was worried that with increased appetites the female would eat the male. When I did place them together for breeding, she did not try to eat him.

The next Winter I co-habitated them again, and in Spring left them together. No problems.

While nobody can guarantee exact results with yours or any individual snake, I do know that kingsnakes do occur in groups in the wild, and some kind of social structure is at work whereby a group of kings can live in an area without eating each other into oblivion. The only exception might be if no other prey was available. It is also not out of the question that there could be a rogue individual that does not play by the rules. In the wild, I imagine that snake's ability to spread his/her DNA is almost nil.

There is a small field in my area that has Cal kings. A friend of mine began to sketch head patterns of individuals he found under boards. It was very interesting to see that over years, he would find some repeat customers, sometimes under different boards. While he could not say exactly what was going on under ground, it was clear that a number of individuals were living w/o eating one another.