These are my observations, of a very small sample of kingsnakes.

Until recently, I never used pre-killed rodents. Recently, I've been using both live and pre-killed.

These are California Kings.

For my juveniles, I've only tried f/t fuzzies as the local pet store does not carry frozen hoppers.

My two juvenile males (just over 2 feet long) take them, but not as readily as live. One of them will only take one pre-killed per feeding, the other will take two.

With live - they will take 3 fuzzies or 1 hopper each before they stop feeding.

My juvenile female (just over 2 feet long) I aquired in early July, and she had been raised on f/t - she takes them no problem.

Anyway - since the juvenile female takes them no problem, I'm guessing it is only a matter of time before my juvenile males start taking them no problem - since they already take them, just not as well as live.

They will constrict live prey (including the juvenile female raised on f/t) and they will not constrict f/t prey.

I also have 1.1 adult Cal kings, a 4' WC banded and a 4' CB albino banded.

The WC king refuses f/t all together. The CB female - I haven't tried f/t but she was raised on f/t.

Anyway - I picked up a couple mice from the pet store today. I let them know that last time, they chewed their way out of the bag. So the girl double bagged them, and then put the bag into a plastic bag and tied it.

Well, I live walking distance to the pet store. it only took me 10 minutes to get home - but both mice were dead. I guess in heat, I'm going to have to bring a cold pack with me - and make sure the plastic bag is not tied.

Anyway - the CB female took the freshly killed mouse but did not constrict. Earlier when I fed her a live mouse, she did constrict, and it was a textbook perfect constriction.

My WC male who had never taken anything but live - he actually took the dead mouse, and he did constrict, even though it was obviously dead. He didn't constrict long, but he did.

I know my sample size is too small, but it interesting that an older snake who has had nothing but live his entire life would still constrict a dead mouse, while a CB raised on f/t would not constrict it - yet still constrict a live mouse with perfection like she had been doing it her whole life.
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

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