We just brought our Albino King Snake home today and he has been extremely docile around us so far. However, we put him in his new cage about 2 hours ago and when we went to take him out just now he started 'rattling' his tail and acting upset. We didnt try and take him out because we don't want to be bit. Any ideas on what to do? or what this means?
That is perfectly normal to be aggressive, it is what keeps them alive in the wild. You should not touch him for a week or longer until he is settled in. He is definetly very stressed from the move and new surroundings. Once he is calm enough for you to have your hand in the cage, you can start handling him for short periods of time(5 to 10 minutes). Eventually he will be used to you. After only two hours of being in a new place he is still too stressed.
If after the first week he still rattles his tail, put on a glove of some sort and just pick him up. Otherwise he will get trained to know that if he shakes that tail, he gets left alone. :3 If you are really worried about picking him up with a glove still, try removing him with a snake hook, or a clothes hanger if you are carefull. Once out of the tank, he should settle down again. Remember after the first week, he is protecting his territory. :3
wow thanks that helps a lot. So dont let him do it longer than a week? but give him about a week to settle in though? ok. Yeah, I am like super afraid of being bit lol I am still getting comfortable with the idea that you can have a snake as a pet. Also, I have a 4yr old and it would total ruin it for her. So I have another question..... the lady at the feed store said they dont have teeth? but uh that doesnt sound right to me. she says they just have gums but they can still bite? seems a little off to me. Anyways how like bad does it hurt when they bite? lol I think its the fact that they do it fast that scares me more at the moment. Well thanks guys.
I still use a glove when removing my KS because Im afraid Ill snap my hand back and break the glass tank. Yes leave him alone for one week and then you can begin to remove him, whether he likes it or not. Just keep the handling down to ever 3 or 4 days at no more then 30 minutes and no handling for 24-48 hours after eating. They do have teeth. When they are little the teeth are tiny and you more often dont notice anything when they bite, except you see them strike you. And that part is the most scary aspect. I have been bitten a few times, he normally snags a small part of my cuticle and that just stings. He once bit a small part of my wrist and again it stung and was more a shock then anything else.
Someone told us that the only way to get them to let go is to run them under water cause they dont have the ability to let go on thier own. That doesnt seem right to me.
I never heard of running under water, I would be afraid of drowning it! They can most certainly let go on their own. Just because they bite, doesnt mean they are going to latch onto you. All my bites have been just that "strike-bite-release" If for whatever reason it does latch on, I have heard you can slide a q=tip in the mouth, neat the back of the mouth and apply slight pressure to make it remove itself. The one thing you never want to do if forcefully pull it out of your skin. Unless you remember, the mouth has to slide forward and up. As Corny said, the teeth are curved backwards, so if you just yank the snake off, you are risking breaking out some teeth and possibly more injury to the snake and yourself.
They should latch off immediatly after biting, they don't need to inject venom like some would. They are just trying to scare you, so you can leave him alone.
Snakes have two bites. One is to strike, out of defense, the other is if they mistake you for food, and that is when they latch on. To remove them, you can dribble a bit of whisky (so I've heard) down your finger. But make sure it does not run into their mouth. Just do anough that the snake smells it. They willl let go because the smell irritates them.
Interesting, I know about lizards doing it my friends bearded dragon did it to me. His girlfriend said oh ya put your finger up to its mouth and it will lick it. Well... I did and it licked it 2 times then latched on. I think it was testing the taste first lol.
milk snake and king snake bites hurt no more than a mosquito bite, even as adults they can barely break the skin on your hands.
Good to know. lol Some girl at PetCo said her snake bit her eyeball! I just don't want to be bit on my face
Well just to let you know King snake bites will not hurt as much as you think they well but they will hurt depending on where he bites you more then what these people say. I've had a king for 4 years and well he doesn't exactly like the smell of tommy girl perfume so he tried to latch onto my neck so I gently picked him off because his mouth was pretty much 180 degrees open but I think I still startled him so he yapped at my hand and then my other hand. That was the only time he drew blood...I do have pictures but I just joined the site so I'm not sure how to do that yet. There's 3 rows of teeth and 2 fangs on top and one row of teeth on the bottom. The print kinda looks like a soccer sneaker if it had heals. If you look inside the mouth while he’s letting go you won’t see the teeth. I happened to be dripping blood though because he was on me 7 minutes because that was the first time he latched on so I had to do some thinking trying to get him off without hurting him...I was yelling at mom not to touch him while I was dripping because I was afraid she'd hurt him lol. I did run him under water and he let go pretty quickly. But I didn’t like the idea so I went on some snake forums and a lot of people suggest alcohol but I’m not to sure about that either. Vinegar…works…really…well…I have a syringe full of vinegar. You wouldn't even have to drip a drop just put the vinegar out far enough to make the tip of the syringe wet and put it on his mouth so a little bit gets wet and he'll pull back in no time. He really really doesn't like the taste I'd do the same thing
you have to be kidding when i first got my cali he was mental and believe me iove been bit by a mosquito and this was at least 5 times worse luckily ive tamed him down now and hes really well behaved heres a pic.
They onlt bleed....alot. I just got bit by my lavender albino cal king yesterday. Dont be afraid to get bit it doesnt hurt...its like a paper cut feeling
