I have several king snakes and I always thought that king snakes were as easy to keep as corn snakes. It seems I made a mistake with that because my corn snakes eat very well but my king snakes think their prey is a predator. I say this because of the way they move away from the F/T pinkie; they get defensive, turn around and dash off. Now, if this was one single snake I would not really bother asking for help but it is ALL of my king snakes. I must be doing something wrong because they won't eat.
I had two cal kings, one male and one female, and they behaved the same towards their meals. Later on I bought two Mexican Black kings and they did the same. A couple of months later I acquired a very beautiful and healthy specimen of a Durango King (he is probably 2 years old, measures 1.2m) and they all behave the same towards prey!
Needless to say, it is very frustrating. I do want to point out that the corns are eating very well and are in the same conditions as the kings except that the five hatchling corns are kept together (thats the only real difference).
Before I say anything else I just want to say that Durban is a lot colder than it has ever been before. I do heat the room that all the snakes are in and the temperature is usually 26 degrees C
My problem is that all these snakes are behaving identically yet I have read that Kings are like Corns when it comes to feeding and handling. Obviously every site that I have looked at is wrong!
I want to know what I can do about my kings because they haven't had a good meal in a very long time! At one point I resorted to catching house geckos and feeding them that even though the kings are quite small. They hunted the lizards and as far as I can tell they really enjoyed it!
If anyone has info that might help me I would really appreciate it and if you need any details that I may have left out please let me know because I really love my snakes. I just got two more cal kings today with beautiful stripes running down the body rather than bands. I want to look after my snakes well so please help me in whatever way you can!