Need help with my Cali King - Temperment issues

[squatsnstilettos]

I need help with my little Cali King, Khyan. He’s about a year old and has had a rough start to his young life. First his original owners dumped at a store where he spent 7-8 months. His high strung/spazzy/aggressive temperament made him difficult to care, so he was either neglected or mistreated (grabbed by the tail and he’d bang his head against his enclosure). I found out about him through a friend who saw how he was being treated and was appalled. Being a sucker for any animal that is suffering, I adopted Khyan.

I’m extremely new to reptiles and while Khyan has settled down, he still difficult to handle. I use gloves and he’ll either attack and wrap, which I realize is him thinking my hand is food, or he jumps out of his skin the moment I touch him. His spazzy energy then makes my anxiety 10 times worse.

I am torn. I sometimes feel like I took on more than I can handle and should hand him over to a shelter where there are experts to care for him. Yet I really love my little boo. He’s insanely cute and has a bit of clown personality. I don’t want to give up on him like his original owner. Although a shelter should be a better place, it doesn’t always mean it will be, and since he is “special needs” heaven knows how long it would take for him to be adopted. He's already gone through enough.

I don’t know what to do. He’s been with me since May 26. Do these things just take time? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[EL-Ziggy]

If he's striking and coiling it sounds more like a feeding response than defensive behavior. Let's start with the basics. What are the temps and humidity in his enclosure and how are you measuring them? Is your heat source controlled by a thermostat? How much does he weigh and how much / how often are you feeding him? Kings can be a little nippy and flighty when they're young but most of them grow out of it. Make sure your husbandry is dialed in and start with short, gentle, consistent handling sessions for a few minutes at a time until he settles down. You can always use a glove or snake hook if it helps. I think if you continue to work with him he should come around. Best wishes and keep us posted.

[JoshSloane]

^^^This for sure. Also, start feeding in the enclosure itself. He might be thinking that every time your hand comes in that he is going to the feeding tank. Even though its not necessary for colubrids, you could do some classical conditioning in the form of hook training. The basic thought is that when you are going to feed him, you simply open the enclosure and introduce the food item. Don't touch him, don't interact, just feed. Other times when you are wanting to handle him, you will want to use some kind of object to gently touch him, or tap him on the nose. Then pick him up and pull him out. This process will serve to turn off his feeding response, and hopefully prevent him from striking and coiling you. I would use a paper towel roll, or something that is forgiving and soft. If he strikes it wont hurt you or him.

I feel your pain with having an aggressive animal. I've owned dozens of reptile in my life, and only had one which I have not been able to tame down. Honestly if your husbandry is on par, and are spending time each day to work with him, there is nothing more that a shelter could do. Shelters provide a wonderful service, and are incredibly helpful and philanthropic people, but I wouldn't necessarily call them experts. I think your snake is better off with you.

One thing worth mentioning is that when he strikes at you, despite it being a natural reflex, try not to withdraw your hand. The snake needs to learn that having an aggressive response is not going to deter you. I also usually ball up my hand into a fist when first entering the cage of an aggressive animal, or even a flat hand. Wiggling fingers can sometimes elicit more of a prey response. With consistency he should calm down, or at least become more manageable.

[Jhill001]

Potentially you are gonna need to up your feeding either by size or more frequent feedings. After that sometimes just picking them up, holding them, let them bite and do whatever for a few minutes they may calm down a bit then place them back.

Worst case scenario you just deal with having an angry snake. A king snake never gets to a dangerous size to cause real damage and you'll likely learn some new respect for snakes and other handling sessions with other snakes will be a breeze.

[JoshSloane]

Potentially you are gonna need to up your feeding either by size or more frequent feedings. After that sometimes just picking them up, holding them, let them bite and do whatever for a few minutes they may calm down a bit then place them back.

Worst case scenario you just deal with having an angry snake. A king snake never gets to a dangerous size to cause real damage and you'll likely learn some new respect for snakes and other handling sessions with other snakes will be a breeze.

This is true too. If im not mistaken kings have a pretty solid feeding response and high metabolism.

I also have a theory that many neglected and abused snakes associate feelings of hunger with mistreatment and can potentiate aggressive behavior. Filling his stomach more often might help with the taming process. Im not advocating feeding to the point of obesity, but it cant hurt to throw in a few extra meals.

Do you have plenty of hides for him? What is your substrate?

[squatsnstilettos]

If he's striking and coiling it sounds more like a feeding response than defensive behavior. Let's start with the basics. What are the temps and humidity in his enclosure and how are you measuring them? Is your heat source controlled by a thermostat? How much does he weigh and how much / how often are you feeding him? Kings can be a little nippy and flighty when they're young but most of them grow out of it. Make sure your husbandry is dialed in and start with short, gentle, consistent handling sessions for a few minutes at a time until he settles down. You can always use a glove or snake hook if it helps. I think if you continue to work with him he should come around. Best wishes and keep us posted.

Thanks. Good to know this is a toddler behavior. The temperature these days has been hot in the city so day it's 85 and drops to about 75 at night. Humidity is 50+. I have monitors stuck to the glass to measure each which are consistent with the monitor I have in the room. I use a lamp that is placed up top his screen for when it goes below 75. He has a few hides; a dome, a paper towel roll, a skull and his leafy branch. His substrate is paper towels.

He weighs 311 grams and is fed once every 7 days.

Yeah I have gloves that I use when handling him. Commercial grade lol! I also wear long sleeves so that no skin is exposed.

[squatsnstilettos]

^^^This for sure. Also, start feeding in the enclosure itself. He might be thinking that every time your hand comes in that he is going to the feeding tank. Even though its not necessary for colubrids, you could do some classical conditioning in the form of hook training. The basic thought is that when you are going to feed him, you simply open the enclosure and introduce the food item. Don't touch him, don't interact, just feed. Other times when you are wanting to handle him, you will want to use some kind of object to gently touch him, or tap him on the nose. Then pick him up and pull him out. This process will serve to turn off his feeding response, and hopefully prevent him from striking and coiling you. I would use a paper towel roll, or something that is forgiving and soft. If he strikes it wont hurt you or him.

I feel your pain with having an aggressive animal. I've owned dozens of reptile in my life, and only had one which I have not been able to tame down. Honestly if your husbandry is on par, and are spending time each day to work with him, there is nothing more that a shelter could do. Shelters provide a wonderful service, and are incredibly helpful and philanthropic people, but I wouldn't necessarily call them experts. I think your snake is better off with you.

One thing worth mentioning is that when he strikes at you, despite it being a natural reflex, try not to withdraw your hand. The snake needs to learn that having an aggressive response is not going to deter you. I also usually ball up my hand into a fist when first entering the cage of an aggressive animal, or even a flat hand. Wiggling fingers can sometimes elicit more of a prey response. With consistency he should calm down, or at least become more manageable.

Thanks Josh. I will stop interacting with him on feeding days. I'll also try the fist/flat hand/no wiggling of the fingers. Whenever he senses movement in his tank he generally comes out to investigate. The other night I needed to feed him so I interrupted his beauty rest. He was curled up in his dome and didn't know I was there so I startled him. I just gave him a gentle touch, but even that was enough to make him jump.

When he strikes and coils up on my hand, I just leave him be. Since I am wearing gloves, it's fine. In fact, it's easy to pull him out because he is a little ball.

I appreciate your thoughts on shelters and that you feel he's better off with me. Since he has special needs and can't be adopted as is, I do worry if they have the time and staff to give him the care he requires to become manageable. They have so many other animals to help.

I will keep working with him and be patient. He is worth it. As one member said, it is likely a toddler thing. Also, being a baby I imagine he can be trained to have new behaviors.

[squatsnstilettos]

Potentially you are gonna need to up your feeding either by size or more frequent feedings. After that sometimes just picking them up, holding them, let them bite and do whatever for a few minutes they may calm down a bit then place them back.

Worst case scenario you just deal with having an angry snake. A king snake never gets to a dangerous size to cause real damage and you'll likely learn some new respect for snakes and other handling sessions with other snakes will be a breeze.

Thank you. He does calm down after a few minutes of being held.

So basically, accept my boo for who he is. May not be hard to do given how much I love him. Also, over time I will likely become desensitized to the aggression.

I'll increase his feeding to once every 5 days and see.

[squatsnstilettos]

This is true too. If im not mistaken kings have a pretty solid feeding response and high metabolism.

I also have a theory that many neglected and abused snakes associate feelings of hunger with mistreatment and can potentiate aggressive behavior. Filling his stomach more often might help with the taming process. Im not advocating feeding to the point of obesity, but it cant hurt to throw in a few extra meals.

Do you have plenty of hides for him? What is your substrate?

Since he is a baby he requires more food so I will definitely up his meals. He eats well.

Yup, lots of fun hides with more on the way. I use paper towels for his substrate. The only thing is that he likes to burrow and it's harder to do with paper towels.

[squatsnstilettos]

I just wanted to post a follow up to Khyan's story and thank everyone for their advice. My boo's behavior was indeed linked to hunger. In just 9 months he went from 300 ounces to 1lb. It breaks my heart to think that the store he lived at for 7 months were starving him, which made his aggression worse.

Khyan's personality has changed ten fold. He is a lot calmer, no longer bites himself, is totally inquisitive, loves to interact with me and instead of using commercial grade gloves, I now use my bare hands to handle him. Since he has outgrown his small breeder tank, I am spoiling him with a 128 gallon and going to build him an amazing rainforest with all sorts of cool hides to explore and braches to climb on! Only the best for my King! Will post pics!

As a new reptile owner, I truly felt I was unable to care for this special boy. However, thanks to the advice of the forum, I used the techniques suggested, stayed patient and now have an awesome relationship with Khyan. Thank you for saving us.