My friend liked my snakes, so almost a year ago she got her own. From the start, this little man has partially been mine. I advised my friend about what to feed him and buy him, and even helped pick him out and name him. After a month, the novelty of the snake wore off. She refused to buy larger heating apparatus as winter approached, leaving him with a warm side of 70 degrees when it should have been 90. She never misted him during sheds, so they started becoming patchy and flaky. She forgot to feed him in two-week stretches. Eventually, I just flat out told her if she didn't want him anymore I'd take him. The only reason she didn't want me to take him was (get this): "It's cool to tell people I have a snake." Not a great pet owner, was she? So now he's home. And take a gander at this beauty! His name is Jade, he's a striped Cali king. This was last summer, on his previous owner's hand. And sadly he isn't a huge amount bigger, due to spotty feeding and cold living conditions.
Awesome looking Cali King......I just got my female yesterday, she is a High White Cali King.....here's a pic.....
Thanks! And what a beauty she is. I'm not overly fond of the lack of definition between king's heads and bodies, but I must admit they are almost always have gorgeous markings. Oh, and I forgot to mention: she never handled him, so now he's a very aggressive boysie. Even getting him into a tub for feeding is a pain - he musks and hisses and strikes like there's no tomorrow. It'll be hard to re-condition him to handling.
Well done for taking him on, he will be a healthier snake from now on. It's going to take a lot of time and patience to get him hand tame again. You could try having something like a hankerchief next to your skin for 24hrs, then place this in tank, do this several times so he gets used to the smell and hopefully he will realize your ok. I've used that method before and it worked fairly well.
