But that is exactly what they do! I know I've seen many other species in the wild do this, food bolus' that boggle the mind. They find the temps and use them, only when they need to. Consider this, I watch a colony of Texas indigos here that prefer to eat leopard frogs, more like snacking, but they absolutely love them, but I have also seen them tackle cotton rats, many people believe the cannot stretch their jaws as much as other snakes, but for a non constricting, non venomous snake to chase down and tackle a full grown cotton rat is beyond the imagination. They bask in 100 degrees to process the lump, they are black so they don't stay long. In and out of the heat, back and forth until they accomplish the task, and they are very successful. i know this is as far from mountain kings as it gets, but the principal is the same, and there are no heat sinks to help, not like in zonata territory. They use the sun exclusively. Now I'm not saying you should do this in your own colony, I am just saying I have observed them doing this and they do it successfully. I would think the only times you would get a regurge is if you handled the animal while it was trying to process the food, or if they cannot achieve the right temps they need to do the job. That's not power feeding, that's feeding. They are snakes, they are king snakes, so they are the same. But they are montane, so the differ a little in method. Seems to me a cool ambient temp, with a pretty dang hot basking area under cover would help them achieve their goal. Along with the cool moist and warm humid hides. Just some thoughts. I guess if they are really so fragile, they wouldn't survive as well, but according to Hubbs, there's millions of them in them thar' hills!
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Todd Hughes

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