Greetings! I was directed to this forum by a friend who told me I might be able to get some advise regarding a rather large Desert Kingsnake I adopted last March. He's a big male who was being cared for by a young lady who I'm afraid I have no idea what her knowledge base was, only that she was keeping him in a 20 gallon tank and feeding him 1 thawed mouse a week. I have a moderate background knowledge with snakes and Lampropeltis's in particular, and when I first saw this guy it was very apparent that given his size, one mouse a week wasn't going to be enough to keep this guy happy. Immediately after adopting him I upped his diet to 2 live mice about every 4-6 days depending on his activity, and moved him into a 55 gal tank. He shed for me in May, and is currently about to shed again, but he seems very lethargic compared to last time. Another odd thing is that while most healthy snakes will tend to keep their heads level and "alert", he seems to not be holding his head level when stationary, allowing it to appear as if it's resting on the ground, almost appearing to be dead. As large as he is for a desert king, I suppose it's possible that he's reaching the end of his days from old age, but again, I have only a moderate level of kingsnake knowledge, an frankly he could be just fine, and I'm worrying about nothing. He doesn't show any respiratory disress symptoms (frequent yawning, wheezing, etc..) and when I pick him up he seems like he's still pretty strong and muscular. Just really don't remember seeing him do the "resting his head one the ground" thing before. Anyone have any input on this?

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