© Clare Elderkin
Home > Interests > Snake
My Pet Snake
Boris is a Californian King Snake and is approximately 4½ feet long. An average size, he is now eight years of age so I don't expect him to grow any bigger. He was so small when I first bought him home that he could curl-up in the palm of my hand. King Snakes live for around ten years, so he quite an old man now! Boris is a wonderful pet as he is highly inquisitive and requires very little looking after.
King Snakes are very strong and easily capable of overpowering more dangerous snakes such as Rattlers. In part, their success of catching and eating venomous snakes lies with their partial immunity to the venom. Sadly, they are also notorious cannibals, so they must be kept in separate tanks. King snakes originate from Baja California, Oregon, Arizona and Utah in the United States.
King snakes are constrictors, so they kill their prey by squeezing; an action that stops the animal from breathing. I feed Boris dead mice (kept in the freezer!) as it is illegal in England to feed live prey. Since they are cold-blooded, snakes do not need to eat as regularly as warm-blooded animals. They can go for many months (or longer in extreme cases) without eating. I try to feed Boris about once a fortnight.
