Hi All!

I have recently fallen into a snakes addiction lol. I was browsing the local craigslist (looking for used tanks ) and happened to see an add offering a 18 month old Albino Striped Kingsnake being re-homed for $40. I couldn't resist (she is a really beautiful snake), so I called the young woman and arranged to pick her up.

When I got to the young woman's house, she was really nice and very communicative about the snake (and snakes in general). She and her boyfriend have a dedicated snake room and have 40 snakes for breeding projects.

She told me that the reason she was letting the female albino king snake (who I named, and shall be hence forth referee to as: Salome) was because she is a "slow growing" snake and that she didn't believe she will ever be of a size suitable for breeding.

Now, to be clear, I have no intention of going into the business of breeding reptiles. However, that doesn't mean I would *never* want my snake to have a clutch.

So...I guess what I am asking, are the following questions (as I have no previous experience with King Snakes, only Corn Snakes):

1) Is the lady I got Salome from correct about her being small for her age? Salome is "21 inches and 55 grams.

2) If Salome does turn out to be on the lower end of the length scale for her species, does that mean she cannot or should not breed?

3) Also, the lady said she had been feeding Salome Reptilinks (ground venison) and before the links she was feeding her one rat pink every 5 days. She said she thinks that the links are more nutrientionally "dense" and gave me a few to bring home with me. When I actually looked at the links, they are are the size of a rat pink SO....Could it be possible she has just been under feeding Salome? Because me little corn snake (Ualome) is only 24 grams and she is eating a fuzzy every 5 days?

4) Finally, if Salome was being underfed, is it too late for her to bounce back? Will her size always be stunted?

If she will always be a small snake, Im ok with that. She is a remarkably beautiful girl. I would just like to know.

Thanks in Advance!
Beau

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