I've had my South Florida King for a few years now, but it's my first snake and I was looking for some advice from those that have raised a few snakes.

Anyway, I picked up the snake at a pet store that unfortunately had no knowledge about the snake. Officially, I have no idea how old he is. He was about 33" when I got him and he's now about 44" to 46" and about 1.25" in diameter. I'd been feeding him two mice every 1-2 weeks. I decided to transition him to small rats after it became apparent that he could easily put away 3 mice and it was cheaper for me that way. Two rats later he had visibly put on a lot of weight, with skin starting to show between his scales and crease marks in a lot of scales. I head that can be a sign of being overweight. I decided to switch him back to mice and buy in bulk since the corn I have can put away the same size mice.

He's slimmed down a bit, no more creased scales or visible skin.
He's putting away 3 adult mice in a sitting every 10 days. Does this sound about right to people that have had similar size kings or should I be feeding him more? He looks healthy to me and I haven't had any problems with him, but I was curious about other people's experience.
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~Lara

South Florida King
Amel Motley Corn

[ Hide Replies ]

• Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - cavocy, Tue Jun 22 03:43:53 2010
• RE: Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - rayt3, Tue Jun 22 17:00:59 2010
• RE: Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - a153fish, Tue Jun 22 17:13:52 2010
• RE: Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - DMong, Tue Jun 22 18:48:06 2010
• RE: Well said! (n/p) - Spankenstyne, Tue Jun 22 20:26:54 2010
• RE: Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - cavocy, Wed Jun 23 11:34:08 2010
• RE: Weight Problems After Switching to Rats - DMong, Wed Jun 23 12:32:08 2010
• Geez - markg, Wed Jun 23 14:24:00 2010
• RE: Geez - DMong, Wed Jun 23 14:45:25 2010