Hey all,

Man i haven't been here in a while! Just thought I would throw in my 2 centavos. Although I haven't had to use it for baby kings in several years (I'll explain why below) I used a lot of dog/cat food. Still do in some extreme cases. I use Hill's Prescription diet A/D. It is designed for both old dogs and cats. I administer it with a small syringe nd a ball tipped crop needle which I dip[ in water to lube it. Very nonstressful. In Fact, I have had baby kings adapt to the thing and grab and attempt to swallow the needle on their own. And I have had stubborn kings grow to almost adulthood on the catfood before they finally switched over. They went on to live healthy lives and produced good offspring.



The reason I don't have to forcefeed anymoer is this. Several years ago I decided to try an experiment. One never finds pyro eggs on the surface (under logs or buried in mulch like one might find others kinds of eggs) This is because they are layed in teh snakes underground crevice systems. Temps underground during the sumer stay a constant 68-72 degrees F. So I decided to try incubating my pyro eggs (and all my mexicana and ruthveni forms)at 72-74F. Incubation time was around 90 days as opposed to 60 days. What surprised me that my babies all came out HUGE. Not only longer, but very fat. Like usual. a little over 50 % of my babies ate pinks right away. But as it was already Sept when the eggs hatched, and the babies were all so fat, I just put everyone who had not eaten in a months time into hibernation for four months. When they all came out of hibernation they all ate right away. As I am never in a big rush to sell my non-native offspring, I got lazy and just quite bothering with feeding my baby kings after they hatched in Sept. I would just wait a month and put them into hibernation, in the spring, they ate. I have now done hundreds of babies this way. I have never had to fight with them, nor have I lost any. One thing to remember also. Just like eating several meals a day helps humans to increase their metabolism and burn more calories, the first meal is what kicks in a baby snakes metabolism. A newly hatched baby that hasn't yet fed has almost no metabolism.



Although I don't breed kings anymore except a pair of agalmas (I have really always been a rattlesnake person), I found this also works just as well with baby rattlesnakes and other species.



Here's a couple field pics from this summer. L. ruthveni from Jaliso. These were formerly known as arcifera until recent DNA testing (true arcifera are the Lake Chapala snakes like Bob Applegate has)











Here's a couple classic ruthveni from Michoacan..(both in shed







Rich

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