Anyone keep king rats?

Have only strictly liasis in the collection right now but should be adding a male king rat to the collection here in a few weeks and wanted to read some anecdotal experiences with them.

My husband has a king rat, got him from Zerkle Reptile at the spring NARBC in Tinley Park. He's an adolescent.

He's very shy, a little defensive-nippy, but not aggressive. I can go in and spot clean, mess with water, etc., and he just curls up tighter in his hide. He'd probably improve with more handling, but shortly after Buford came home my husband's career took a left turn, so snake playtime has been less frequent.

Buford is a good feeder, and my upstairs garbage disposal snake, but he doesn't take food off the tongs. Just leave his rat in the enclosure and it disappears. Like other old world rats he prefers a lower temperature than my Aussie pythons. Before we got the window AC units in for the summer, he spent a day or two in his water bowl. Since then he's back to taking the occasional bath.

The name "Stinking Goddess" is appropriate, Buford's enclosure has a definite pong like none of the other snakes', but to the best of my knowledge he's never musked.


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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

My husband has a king rat, got him from Zerkle Reptile at the spring NARBC in Tinley Park. He's an adolescent.

He's very shy, a little defensive-nippy, but not aggressive. I can go in and spot clean, mess with water, etc., and he just curls up tighter in his hide. He'd probably improve with more handling, but shortly after Buford came home my husband's career took a left turn, so snake playtime has been less frequent.

Buford is a good feeder, and my upstairs garbage disposal snake, but he doesn't take food off the tongs. Just leave his rat in the enclosure and it disappears. Like other old world rats he prefers a lower temperature than my Aussie pythons. Before we got the window AC units in for the summer, he spent a day or two in his water bowl. Since then he's back to taking the occasional bath.

The name "Stinking Goddess" is appropriate, Buford's enclosure has a definite pong like none of the other snakes', but to the best of my knowledge he's never musked.


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Not gonna lie I'm a little jealous because Amy was at daytona with a single male and when deciding on whether I wanted to add a colubrid to the collection someone swooped in as I was on my way back over to their table to purchase him. Seeing the beige/grey baby and then bright yellow subadults from another vendor really got me interested, hence this thread.

I've been talking to Seth Rock over at rock reptiles and he's said about the same regarding their juvenile personalities. I don't know what your water is like but mine was a shy feeder at first and very flighty and defensive. As she's put on size she has become quite the voracious feeder and mellowed out. Sounds about the same for these guys, especially with the shy feeding.

Thanks for the info. Have to keep updating his thread, might change more personality wise as he gets older.

My water python has had a strong feed response from the first, nothing like the king rat. The water does spend a long time constricting her f/t meals, but is anything but shy - She's regularly at the door watching and (I think) asking to come out. She was nippy at first, but now not at all, even though she's still got lots of growing to do.


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