Rescued Grey Banded King Snake

[cenobite74]

:no:I acquired the subject snaKe from a friend who was apparently jealous of my BP that I KNOW how to take care of because he DID NOT KNOW how to take care of it!!!! He had it for about 6 months and it looked like he never once cleaned its cage (mold, dried feces and I think every shed was still in the tank) and it was obviously malnourished. After cleaning and dissinfecting the tank and the decorations, which making the enclosure look cool was the only thing he did right, the King seems to be doing fine. It's feed response is improving and it's putting on weight. I have taken it to the vet several times already. Mouth rot (cured) URI (cured) parasites (none thank God!)
My problem is I have never once wanted a king. I love my BP (and I'm not going to say that snakes are smart in any sense of the imagination but she now differentiates between myself and anyone else and will only let me handle her:)) and have considered getting a baby ghost or albino corn but king's I just do not find apealing. I just felt so bad for it I had to do something. Knowing nothing about kings I was worried if I would know what to do.
This is going to seem trivial but my main gripe is the burrowing in the aspen. I hate it. This snake is not leaving me until I am assured it is to a good home but this is ticking me off. I know it's not the snakes fault. It is a beautiful animal and it seems happy and is in fact a very sweet snake. More of a rant than anything. Do corns do this?

[The Snake Guru]

Well first off, congrats on rescuing the wayward king! it's really too bad people don't take as much pride in the hobby as you obviously do.

Second.....LOL, ahhhhh kings don't ya just love them! Kingsnakes in particular love to burrow and make a general mess of cage decorations....A lot of times I just use large heavy stones and half logs for their cages because most types of plants and stuff are tipped over and uprooted in a days time. To answer your other question corns do not burrow as much as Kings, though young ones tend to hide under the substrate pretty often....they do grow out of it after awhile.

Too bad you don't want to keep the guy, Greybands are such a beautiful king....but everyone has thier thing, feel free to send him my way! LOL

But at anyrate Kudos on the rescue man, most people wouldn't have even tried!

~B~

[cenobite74]

Crap. I was hoping the burowing could be stopped. :-)
Thannx for the support. I never wanted one but it's being taken care of and I cant stand to see anything suffer especially when someone doesn't know how to take care of it and didnt do the research in the first place. Now my wife is giving me grief and said if I dont keep it and take care of it she will leave me. Guess I'm stuck with the king. At least its happy.

[The Snake Guru]

RFLOL.....that's the women for ya man! LOL
And hey you don't have to stop the burrowing...just look at it form a differnt perspective. Decorate it differntly....use larger rocks that sit on the bottom of the enclosure and stuff that isn't so easily tipped over, if you want plants, get the ones that hang on the back wall instead of sitting on or in the substrate.....some simple little restructering and you won't be bothered that he burrows anymore. LOL

Anyways good luck with him, sounds like he found himself a good home!
~B~

[cenobite74]

Thanx man. Yeah now the wife is getting attached to it and we watched Animal Cops the other night and said she didn't want even one snake in the house but I'm going to have to keep it so it doesn't suffer. I think she just likes the king!