Kingsnake vs. Sidewinder

All HAIL, the king of snakes in North America!!.....lol We are truly blessed by the Creator to have these fascinating snakes on our continent. It's amazing to me a snake that can be so with such a gentle temperment to human handling can be so aggresive to other snakes.

Nice pic, I DARE YOU to post that pic in the kingsnake forum, I can guarantee they will be all over you. I posted pics of a scarlet king eating a brown snake and they won't let it go.

Michael

lol what are you talking about? he didn't kill the snake, the kingsnake did. Don't complain about the pic, it's nature, well almost, it's in a tank. Kingsnakes eat snakes, that's a fact.
Michael

never mid i forgot sidwinders r rattle snakes sry asome pic r kings amune 2 venume frome a rattle. sry good job

lol
kingsnakes are immune to rattle snake venom, if that was a question in your last message.
Michael

lol sorry about that cool pic

Michael,
You and I are both very well aware of why your posts get so much attention and why the people "won't let it go". It has little to do with the "snake eating snake" thing and very much to do with why you post such photos. What the people who look at your posts see, is a fetish for seeing one snake over power another and it's very obvious when you look at your gallery, your website, as well as other herping forums. Your excuse of "It happens in the wild, so it's ok" is a very poor excuse for why you indulge in such pleasures. And the fact that you do things like post a snake eating a Rosy Boa in a Rosy Boa forum asking questions that you already know the answers to, makes it very clear that you're only purpose is an attempt at getting attention and causing discontent in the forum. It is a very common thing here where I live for a coyote to run up and capture a small dog for the purpose of eating it. It is nature and does happen in the wild. However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to go out dog hunting to feed my Golden Retriever. Nor am I going to go scrape "road kill" off of the highway to save a buck on dog food. As far as your excuse that you can't find anything else such as anoles to feed them, feeder lizards are readily available from any number of reptile supply houses that will ship anywhere in the U.S. If you really loved your animals you would never feed them anything that could stand a chance of cross contamination of diseases such that you might find in a D.O.R. Rosy Boa. So it's obvious to me and many others that you are only doing it for kicks. But they are your animals and you're going to continue to do whatever turns you on regardless of the consequences. But don't play dumb when you raise a big ruckus by posting your photos and comments on the forums. You do know exactly what you're doing.
High Desert Herper

HighDesertHerper, it sounds like your trying to be Micheal conscious. Here in the United States he has the freedom to do whatever he wants with his animals as long as he's not breaking any laws and you can't create morals and values for him. It's not like he's keeping hot venomous herps and letting them go or getting bitten by them. In my opinion irresponsible and inexperienced keepers of venomous snakes are much more of a threat to keeping exotics like snakes than what Micheal is doing. You just don't agree with him or his philosphy and that's fine in this democracy, but I don't think he's no demon to herping in general. He has the freedom and so do you. PEACE...........Happy Herping, Uncloudy

It's very obvious that you missed the meaning of my comment. I am not trying to teach anyone the difference between right and wrong. Nor am I attempting to instill a moral attitude where one doesn't exist. He knows the difference and he’s free to do as he wishes regardless of what others think. But for example, the Rosy boa in question was known by him to in fact be a Rosy Boa. It was confirmed to him on this site what it was. He even has the photo on his own website identifying it as such. There is no question, he knows. Then recently on a different herping site, he posts the same old photo of a snake eating this Rosy boa on a Rosy Boa enthusiast forum. Acting as if he didn't know, for the purpose of getting a rise from the people on that forum. Now, you can believe if you like that he in fact forgot that it was a Rosy Boa, but the obvious truth about it is that he found a new place to stir up emotions to a group of people that would likely be offended by his post. If you've watched his posts over the past few months, you would recognize this as a pattern of behavior. And his “dare” to you to post your photo on the Kingsnake forum is just another attempt to keep the fire of discontent burning over there. Now he has posted a photo of his Scarlet Kingsnake attempting to eat a snake much too large for him to safely eat. The kingsnake finally gave up and regurgitated the Brown Snake and it took hours for the Brown Snake to die. Now, no matter what you believe about his practice of feeding other snakes to his animals, that is cruelty and should never have happened. High Desert Herper

HighDesertHerper, I agree with most of what you posted. Micheal may of been asking for it and trying to stir it up. My opinion is it's probably just inexperience with herps and an age issue. Micheal may change his ways and learn proper snake husbandry when perhaps one of his cherish scarlet kings dies, ect. All my snakes are my prized possesions and spiritual guides according to my Native American beliefs and I would be devastated if one were to die. In my photos is a pic of my black and white banded California King that is very special to me. That kingsnake Callie is puppy dog tame and can't even kill a live stunned mouse. I once tried to feed him at different times on my back porch two live small hoppers that had escaped out of my feeder mice colony and he's so tame and well adjusted to human contact, he would have to try and constrict the small hoppers like 4-5 times before he finally just swallowed them alive. The large 5 ft California Kingsnake in this photo has an incredibly strong feeding response, but is puppy dog tame also when handled. Feeding a live rattler or sidewinder is a risky, but some of those risks are lessened with experience and knowledge of the individual animal. There are lots of risks in snake husbandry like temps, burmation, breeding, and unhealthy feeders. Those risks to are lessened with experience and knowledge. Curiosity, fascination, and respect led me for the first time ever to feeding of a sidewinder to this kingsnake. My biggest worry was a sidewinder bite to the head of the kingsnake. The fact that this big kingsnake nearly ripped the head off this sidewinder and held the sidewinder in his coils for about 2 hours before swallowing it reinforced my beliefs of why this species is the king of snakes in North America. Kingsnakes are truely amazing. Its too bad the continent of Australia didn't get this species to help keep some of their venomous snake populations in check. The Creator truly blessed America with the fascinating kingsnake. Happy Herping, Uncloudy

It looks like the king was bit a few times. Was there any side effects at all from the venom? Did it look like the rattle snake was nervous when he saw the king?
Lia

The kingsnake did get bitten and there were no usual side effects, even though she was continually monitored afterward. The sidewinder did pump all its available venom into the kingsnake, but there were no ill side effects or adverse lethargic behavior by this kingsnake after the feeding. The sidewinder went into a defensive position then after a long stare down the kingsnake made it's move and sidewinder was trying to get away. Once the kingsnake clamped down on the sidewinders body and wrapped it in coils, it was pretty much all over. If another pit viper, rattler or sidewinder, ends up in my garage again it may become a feeder for this kingsnake. Happy Herping Lia, Uncloudy

Wow thats fascinating but dont post that pic in the venemous forum lol.
Lia

why do you people have such a bad opinun on venomus snakes, obviously if you actualy liked snakes ingeneral you would of never taken a rattle snake of any kind and fed it to your king snake, rattle snake populations are dwindling all over the us

thats right kingz are the kingz eat that son of a bitch, lol jest playing i love bothsnakes but i do think that that pic is awsome.

Michael,

Grow up man ... if you want to post pics like you do in the manner that you occasionally have ... don't claim to think you're playing God's proper role ... you are obviously a smart guy and experienced. Nice website by the way also. It's obvious you're looking to be seen as powerful and "involved" with these fetish habits. Grow up man and quit trying to BS.