I may be shying away from kingsnakes - Maybe some of ya'll can keep me going?

[Concept9]

Good morning.

Kingsnakes are no less then awesome.

I have three kingsnakes and have work with two others. Other then a baby I was training I have fever been bitten by any of my Kingsnakes. Including my Mexican Black who are known for being feisty.

In my experience Kingsnakes only really bite for a couple reasons.

1) The animal could be stressed, this could be caused by many reasons such as to much handling, not being handled correctly or possibly something is wrong with it's enclosure such as not enough hides.

I changed my substrate once on my MBK to repti-bark and for what ever reason (I,m guessing he couldn't burrow well in it) he turned pissy.

When I changed it back to aspen, he became his old self again immediately.

2) They are in food/eating mode. Hook training and clean hands should take care of this. I have never had to hook train any of mine. I do wash my hands ALL the time before entering their enclosure. I can put my hands right in and pat them or pick them up with no problems.

You mentioned you have other snakes in the room. This may be a causing a food reaction considering snakes are a favored meal for Kingsnakes in the wild.

Maybe try moving them for a few weeks and see what happens.