snakegetters

It's hard enough to get an imported king cobra to feed. When you add the stress of amateur butchery on top of that, done with no pain medication, you have a real problem.

You are not the first person to have recieved one of Bruce's misrepresented butcher jobs. Others have posted here about the dying or dead mistreated kings they have recieved from this unethical person. There are lots and lots of threads about this individual. Use the search function on the BOI to find them.


I also provide educational shows to schools, appropriate ones where I display native venomous snakes in securely locked cages. Consider sending the right message by doing the same thing. Children don't need to be taught that it is "cool" to touch and play with venomous snakes. And snakes certainly don't need to be tortured and mutilated under unsanitary, inhumane conditions by amateurs with no pain medication. If you really had your heart set on a venomoid, you could have at least had it done by a licensed veterinarian who would do a clean and humane job of it.


Yeah, this is the same Bruce who mailed around a photo that I had posted of my high orange male king cobra and claimed it was a female venomoid that he owned that was the mother of offspring he had for sale. I wouldn't want to bet that the photo he sent you wasn't another one of mine or somebody else's that he ripped off. He is the reason I do not post pictures of my kings any more. It makes me sick to think that he is using my photos to sell his mutilated hackjobs. Post the picture here and see if anybody recognizes it. Chances are good that somebody will.


You seem to love your snake a lot for someone who was willing to have it hacked on by an amateur. King cobras eat snakes in the wild, and they do pretty okay at it. Try a fairly small live feeder snake to see if you get any response. But choice of food alone is probably not the biggest factor here. Kings are stress puppies, and they can express all kinds of health problems in response to environmental stresses. Wild caught kings (and don't delude yourself that yours is anything else if it came from Bruce "Hackjob" Eisenmann) are also heavily parasitized and should get fecals and appropriate medication.

Have you taken your animal (or at least some blood and fecal samples) to a veterinarian? If not, why not?

I'm glad to hear that this animal (which also might not be a female; nothing Bruce says can be trusted) is aggressive rather than resigned and lethargic. One thing you might try is a much larger cage with plenty of climbing space as well as a small, secure hiding space. Keep the humidity and temperature up. Offer food items on the ground while he/she is safely in a hide box or perched in thick branches above. The latter tactic works best with smaller kings which enjoy being arboreal.


Force feeding a king is another stressor event that you need to be careful with. What we've done with wild caught kings is to give them from 0.2 to 0.3 mg/kg of Diazepam to remove some of the stress, then put them through a thorough veterinary exam. We like to do a fecal direct swab and a cloacal wash to check for parasites plus a physical exam for external parasites and injuries at a minimum. That part doesn't even need to be done at a clinic. While the snake is still under the influence of the drug, we identify the parasites present and treat for them. We may also introduce an easily digestible nutritional slurry such as Mazuri or Walkabout Farms carnivorous reptile gel. More expensive but useful is a CBC and blood chemistry panel, but lacking budget, in-house tests like a simple hematocrit for PCV and maybe some basic cytology on a blood smear can be performed if you have the equipment handy.

Let's assume for a moment that you have absolutely no access to a vet clinic or any veterinary equipment, which is not a very professional scenario for a supposedly professional educator who is maintaining exotic animals. At a minimum you can see about obtaining Diazepam and a fecal exam from a local vet who will not see your animals in his or her office but might prescribe drugs and run your fecals. Fecals should be repeated throughout the course of treatment with antiparasitical drugs so that you can adjust dosing and duration.

If you can't even get it together to this extent, you could always shotgun the snake with 50mg/kg each of Panacur and Flagyl plus a nutritional slurry, repeated at 4 to 7 day intervals X 3. Be quick about it as prolonged restraint is not healthy for kings, and don't put the tube down the glottis by mistake as this will kill the animal. I don't really recommend the shotgun approach, but it may be better than nothing if you really can't be bothered to do a proper job of giving veterinary care.

My personal opinion is that anyone who can't be bothered to give proper veterinary care to an animal ought not to have it at all, but in this day and age of instant gratification no one can be stopped from buying and mutilating a king cobra if they want one. Whether it will survive this kind of treatment is questionable, especially without good quality veterinary support care. A skinny, physically traumatized, parasite loaded, stressed, imported king cobra does not have a great prognosis for survival otherwise.

You can find some more detailed information on the veterinary treatment of venomous snakes at http://www.snakegetters.com