Cali King playing dead?

[jdunn]

[edit] I found a Cali King on the road the other day.

It was about to get hit by a car, so I captured it.

I put it in a large sized plastic breeder box with some aspen bedding and a small amount of water in a dish.

The snake seemed to be doing fine.

Now the next night, the snake has died!

My best guess is that it got clipped on the road before I found it. There do seem to be some scrape marks on the underbelly. Must have been internal injury.

This snake was coiled up, rattling it's tail and striking at me when I caught it. It was acting normally for the first day.

Last night it spent about half an hour trying to get out of the enclosure. Then it started gaping and rolling it's head upside down just before it died.

I thought I had saved a snake, but I guess I was too late.

Maybe I'll get a captive bred one or something. I've always liked Kingsnakes.

[end edit]