I need some help with our Kingsnake!

[Dante's_Girl]

Okay so we finally brought home our new Albino Banana Kingsnake (Nero) home last week. After the 48 hour settling time, and we've tried to give more than that, Nero is still biting like crazy. I've gotten to the point that I won't even put my hand in the tank without a leather glove on because it's so bad. He's drawn blood on my husband several times. The thing is though...once he's out, it's like he's a totally diffrent snake! He's nice as can be and totally sweet, and he even feel asleep on my husband the other night. It's just for some reason us putting our hands in the take makes him bite. Are we doing something wrong or is this just typical Kingsnake behavior? I wasn't real keen on him when my husband picked him...I wanted to get the NERD Lemon BP, but something about Nero just drew my husband in.

[Kara]

Is he biting & holding on, or is it rapid-fire biting? Cal Kings are pretty notorious for having a strong feeding response, so this doesn't sound terribly out of character. Consider getting a nice lightweight cage hook (Midwest's mini-hooks are great for this purpose) to use when initially taking him out of the cage.

Once you hook him out and he's had a moment to settle down & realize that the warm thing that was formerly reaching into his cage is indeed NOT prey, you may see a whole different snake.

Good luck!

[Dante's_Girl]

He's not holding on, it's just the rapid fire striking. He's still very young though, and someone else told me he's striking because he's hungry all the time. We feed him once a week, and we're up to hoppers, but I have noticed I barely get the thing in the feeding take and he's already latched on. Is this a case of we need to feed him more, or is he just lashing out?

Thanks for the snake hook idea, I'm going to order one tomorrow.

[Clienterror]

He's not holding on, it's just the rapid fire striking. He's still very young though, and someone else told me he's striking because he's hungry all the time. We feed him once a week, and we're up to hoppers, but I have noticed I barely get the thing in the feeding take and he's already latched on. Is this a case of we need to feed him more, or is he just lashing out?

Thanks for the snake hook idea, I'm going to order one tomorrow.

If hes just rapid striking it isn't a feeding response. It's more of a "I'm only the size of a large earth worm and I'm a snack for 99.999% of animals". Give it some time he'll get used to you and as he gets a little bigger he'll naturally grow out of it.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[Brandon Osborne]

Hopefully he grows out of it....but in my experience with cal kings, they are unpredictable biters...especially albinos.

[SoFarAway]

My Cal King girl used to be really nervous when I first picked her up, but would calm down after a few minutes. She's gotten a lot better and is pretty calm when I pick her up now. I talk to her, open the cage slowly, give her a second to adjust, pet her gently, and then carefully pick her up while making sure to support her as much as possible. In the wild, when something picks up a snake it probably wants to eat it, so it's natural for them to be scared initially. JUst try to be as calm and careful as possible, and she should settle down when she realizes you're not really a threat.

[thedarkwolf25]

We just got a 2 year old male Cal King and I think that like Corns they chill out as they get older. Apollo (the King) is just as sweet and laid back as can be but like yours when I go to get him out of his tank he seems uncertain and very wary. Once he is out though he doesn't care anymore.

[knox]

Every single King I have had went from being "nice" in the first year, "vicious" during the second year, and calmed down in the third.

Almost like a stage of Adolescence. Weird, only the Kings have done this.