finger eating kingsnake - Page 2

snakes · 05-23-04, 05:49 AM

Hi!

Nice pics - I would say that snakes are sweet

I have also one snake that almost always try to eat me - it's my albino cali female.
She is very aggressive feeder - she was trying to eat me, herself, a pillow and several more things she was able to attack.

Best regards
Lukasz

Tigergenesis · 05-23-04, 07:02 AM

I hope I never have to deal with this kind of situation with my kids, but if I do - how do you get a snake to release it's bite if it's latched on to you like that? Just wanna be prepared.

marisa · 05-23-04, 12:00 PM

Well running water works. For our Jose, it can't be the sink as thats not enough. He just takes it. But the tub facuet works good on him. LOL

A drop of booze can work too. Normally though it never gets that intense.

Marisa

gonesnakee · 05-23-04, 03:21 PM

And the bite pics come out of the woodwork LOL I used to use a towel to throw over & grab real nasty ones until one tried to eat the towel one day. I'm busy cleaning its tub & when I caught it 1/4 the teatowel was already down & it took a while to get it out because the cloth kept getting caught on the snakes teeth. The snake wasn't cooperating much either as it was content to eat it & then me. You may notice from the pics that I use blue "shop towel" papertowels for substrate. One day while cleaning a found me a big blue poo. When spread out guess what? Yep the CK decided that after its mouse it would eat some shop towels too. Its funny how they didn't get digested at all & it was still a couple complete sheets when checked out. CKs don't have strong feeding responses now do they? LOL Mark

bubba · 05-23-04, 04:15 PM

just a couple minutes ago I put on some rubber gloves, opened the kingsnakes cage, reached in to pick him up but before I could he was already latched onto my finger. I thought maybe the texture of the gloves would discourage him but I guess if a kingsnake can swallow a towel a bit of rubber is not going to matter. I decided to make a small snake hook and "tail" the snake while balancing his front end on the stick. I really don't want to put the snake through this every time I clean the cage. In the meantime I'm thawing out some mice. The snake is obviously hungry! Thanks for the input.

gonesnakee · 05-23-04, 04:36 PM

Tidbit: Paint roller handles work great for cheap snake hooks & can be found everywhere. Mark

Ace · 05-23-04, 05:02 PM

I usually use very warm water to get them to release. I found using cold (with a Mex. Black I had), usually makes them clamp harder. I think it has to do with their metabolism slowing down and not wanting to release for fear of being "eaten", or something along those lines. With the warmer water they seem to release quicker in response to "overheating".

rwg · 05-26-04, 11:54 AM

Our normal cal-king is a bitey little thing too. She'll turn and nail you when you try to pick her up. She probes and latches (no swallowing yet) while being handled. We're hoping she'll grow out of it. At least she lets go these days. She used to stay latched until we put her under water for several minutes. Now she gets bored after a couple of minutes. The real trick is not getting tagged again immeiately after being released.

On the plus side, she's helping me get used to being bitten.

rg

Cruciform · 05-26-04, 12:21 PM

Is it natural for kings to try and eat themselves during a feeding response? I've noticed a few people mention it in this thread and others.

Or could it be a result of inbreeding or neurological defects over the years of captive breeding?

Does an adult that tries to eat you or itself typically have offspring that do the same?