Need advice on Mean Kingsnake

I have a female kingsnake that is a constant pain in the butt. She is so agressive that it has become a hassle to do her regular tank maintenance. I have been bitten by her at least a dozen times.

When she bites me she holds on for dear life and tries to swallow me.
I posted once before and someone suggested that I should try feeding her more. So I tested the theory by dumping 4 hopper mice down her in two days. This made no difference in temperment. She is so food crazy I bet she would eat 10 hoppers at a time.

Any more suggestions? If not, I am trading or selling her off.

How old is she? Can you descride in detail her housing and feeding situation?

how long have you had her?

Try feeding her in another cage or tub.Every time the cage is opened she thinks its food time in turn attacks.Give this a try and see if she stops trying to kill you.

A lot of kingsnakes are just nippy.. not necessarily because they are hungry, just because they have attitudes.

Get a good pair of gloves and try handling her regularly for short periods of time.

I think she is about a year and a half to two years old. I have had her for a year in december. 36" long and maybe inch in diameter. Her regular feeding schedule is once a week. She gets a frozen thawed hopper just big enough so you can see a little bulge in her mid section. I do not feed her in the tank. I remove all of my snakes and feed them in tubs. Her tank is a 20 long with thermostat controlled under tank heat. Stays about 88 on warm side and about 75-77 on cool side. I simulate a night drop of a few degrees by using timers on my lighting system. The cool side drops a couple of degrees but the UTH stays on all the time. Room humidity stays about 35-40%. Her sheds are always one piece. Currently I am using the walnut shell substate because I got a huge bag for cheap. After that is used up I will probably switch her to cypress mulch.

I have started using gloves to remove her to avoid being bitten. They dont hurt. Its just annoying to have to remove a snake from your hand. It seems like she is doing it out of desperation because she will actually advance you. She will not back away.

what kind of a kingsnake is it? i have a speckled florida king and she is the absolute nicest snake ever, never shy, never aggressive, she is the nicest pet i've ever had. another thing to try would be washing your hands before handling her, its possible that she smells something that sets her off but most likely i'd say its just an attitude problem. thats the trouble with snakes, you cant smack them on the butt like you could a dog or squirt them with water like you could a cat. how exactly do you discipline a snake... bad snake, no, no, bad snake!

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Originally Posted by asther00tsundo

what kind of a kingsnake is it? i have a speckled florida king and she is the absolute nicest snake ever, never shy, never aggressive, she is the nicest pet i've ever had. another thing to try would be washing your hands before handling her, its possible that she smells something that sets her off but most likely i'd say its just an attitude problem. thats the trouble with snakes, you cant smack them on the butt like you could a dog or squirt them with water like you could a cat. how exactly do you discipline a snake... bad snake, no, no, bad snake!

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You bite it back :P :P .Just joking :cool: .I have a pair of banded kings and they could care less what i do with them.Take your time and be patiant(spelling),it might calm down someday.

It sounds like a "typical female"..... oooops, I didn't say that! :O

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Originally Posted by Sputnik

It sounds like a "typical female"..... oooops, I didn't say that! :O

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O yes you did now i gotcha :fim: :P

Do you keep all your kings on the crushed walnut? I remember reading one time before about some guy keeping his king on crushed walnut, which the snake found very irritating, thus making it very aggressive due to the stress of the irritation. After some advice he changed his snake onto aspen bedding which did seem to change the demeanour of his snake into a more handlable, calm snake. Also someone else had problems with their snake getting crushed walnut lodged in the snakes nostrils whenever it went burrowing. I own two king snakes, an albino banded cali and a black king. The albino cali is an absolute dream to own, the only time she shows aggression is whenever she is in shed, other than that, even when feeding she remains cool, calm and collected lol. On the other hand my black king is a law onto herself, she gets handled when it suits her. When i do get the chance to handle her it usually lasts no more than five to ten minutes, then ill get a wee musk off her or she'll give me a wee nip which means playtimes over. The beauty of this is that i have two kingsnakes of totally contrasting natures and personalities which in my opinion is a good thing and i would never consider getting rid of my black king

It sounds just like my Female Pueblan Milksnake, she is the meanest little thing. She will not spray or do anything else. She just waits for me to put my hand in her tank and she hunts my hand down trying to bite me, the total opposite of my Male Pueblan Milksnake. My Florida kings are the nicest and most calm of my king snakes. I use aspen and newspaper for substrate. :D

I agree with Shelby's post. If you are willing to work with her and keep her, I would glove up and calmly hold her every so often. Just to get her to the point that you can move her for feeding and cleaning. Other then that just leave her be (unless something medically comes up of course) She's just being who she is. A snake. They aren't exactly born to cuddle anyhow.
Rusty

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Originally Posted by Rusty_Reptiles

I agree with Shelby's post. If you are willing to work with her and keep her, I would glove up and calmly hold her every so often. Just to get her to the point that you can move her for feeding and cleaning. Other then that just leave her be (unless something medically comes up of course) She's just being who she is. A snake. They aren't exactly born to cuddle anyhow.
Rusty

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I agree, my corn snake was nice until I brought him home, when he would start being VERY nervous of me. He isn't mean, but I just leave him be unless feeding or cleaning, he doesn't mind me cleaning though :p