Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just received my first shipment of frozen rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory. I've never tried tried to feed a rat to my kingsnake, and I wanted to try him on these weanling rats. I divided the pack of 20 weanlings into smaller ones to feed to my young ball python now and larger ones to feed to my kingsnake now and my ball python when she grows. I was weighing the rats on my scale and putting them in bags, but my kingsnake needed to be fed tonight. I set aside his rat by putting it on top of his cage.

About halfway through the process, my kingsnake must have smelled a rat, literally. He came out of his hide and started looking at me. His tongue was flicking agressively, but he never really went for the top of the cage. He backed off a little bit before I took this picture, but here he is investigating the smell of dinner.

Sometimes, he takes a long time to find and eat his food. I was happy to see him showing an interest early, so I don't regret teasing him. If his reaction when I put the rat in his cage is an indication, he's forgiven me.

He's just finished getting down this rat. He is about 43 inches long and weighs 400 grams. At 50 grams, the rat is bigger than anything that I've ever fed him and maybe bigger than what his previous owner ever fed him. (I never met the guy, so I don't know the details of his care.) The rat is no bigger or at most barely bigger than the diameter of the largest part of my snake, so the snake should be able to manage this size prey. However, he worked harder for this rat than he usually does with adult mice or the mouse fuzzies that I sometimes give him for dessert. He's clearly full, but he doesn't look too bad right now. I'll give him some extra time to digest everything. His water is fresh, so I don't need to open his cage for at least 24 hours. I normally wouldn't mess with him for at least 48 hours, but I'll give him more than that this week. If both my snakes will take these rats, husbandry will be a little simpler.

The Big Cheese people gave me a nice distribution of weanling rats in this package. I told them that I had a young ball python to feed, so maybe they were particularly careful to ensure that I received some weanlings at the lower end of their stated range. They advertised that these weanling rats would be 30 to 50 grams. My scale weighs in 5 gram increments, and I had 5 - 30's, 3 - 35's, 3 - 40's, 5 - 45's, and 4- 50's. I think that's good quality control on their part. I chose Big Cheese because someone on this board recommended them. Thanks to whomever you are.

Bill

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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

i do the same thing to my cals. i have a forty tub rack that i have not filled yet so i use one of them for a melting pot. i put 30-40 mice in it and push them over the fex watt in the back.
after about 10 min i see all of their faces in the front. they all can smell the dinner cooking. when i feed them the mouse is nice and warm just the way they like'em.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in this technique. I may start doing this at every feeding. I worry when I give him something and it just sits overnight. Last week, I dug him from the substrate, and he took the mice cold. It didn't seem to bother him at all. (I guess in Frank's words, I've now observed another behavior.) However, I sleep better when my snakes have full bellies.

Speaking of Frank, he mentioned recently that snakes in the wild often take big prey items and therefore we shouldn't be so squeamish about giving them something big. That statement gave me more confidence about trying this experiment tonight. My guy doesn't look too bad, but he's funny-looking right now. He's hiding under his favorite water bowl, but he doesn't fit at all. He's coiled there, and the water bowl is just sitting on top of him.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

......i can picture that. i fed one of my gray bandeds hatchling lizards for a few weeks because i didn't think he could handle a day old pink. but then one day i just put one in to see what he would do. man! i thought he would never get it down. at one point i think he cut off his air cause he started thrashing around. then he finished it off. he has been a f/t snake from that point on. his sister is much bigger than he is even to this day she has a few inches on him. gray bandeds were my dream snake when i was young. when i got back into snakes they were one of the first i bought along with thayeri mex blk kings and cal kings.these were snakes i couldn't get my hands on as a kid.
what are you thinking of getting for your next snake. i would like to see a thayeri set up from you. some rock work and pvc glued up.
trade out the python your a king snake dude now hahahaha
just kidding

The snake that most interests me as a next snake is the Baja Mountain Kingsnake (zonata agalma). I've seen a few of these here on the kingsnake forums, and I think they are beautiful. The San Diego Mountain Kingsnakes are nice as well, and I wouldn't necessarily turn down a chance at a knoblochi. I've ordered Brian Hubbs's book on the mountain kingsnakes. It should arrive in mid-April, and when I've finished reading it, I'll have a better idea whether this snake would be good for me. Brian told me that his book tells the kind of rock where one is most likely to find this snake. If I get one of these snakes, I'm going to try to find someone out there who can send me some of these rocks. That way, I can give the snake the kind of hide that he likes. Of all the snakes that I've heard about, the mountain kings are the only ones that I'd be remotely interested in breeding. My biggest concern would be finding good homes for the hatchlings.

I've been interested in thayeri for a while, and I've talked to one of the guys who frequents the mexicana forum about some of his. If I don't have a zonata by the time his eggs hatch, I'll take a serious look at his thayeri.

Ball pythons are always in the running for me as a "next snake." My ball python is a better "lap snake" than my Cal King, and I suspect that balls are generally going to be better "lap snakes" than the kings. (My Cal King would be a better "lap snake" if he didn't defecate every time I hold him.) My little girl is adorable. If I ran across the right ball python, particularly in a rescue situation, I'd get him or her.

When I bought my ball python, I bought a 55 gallon aquarium to keep her because that's what the pet store had. I don't think that this cage is really ideal for a ball python, and I'm often tempted to order a better one from one of the online dealers. If I had a good place to put another cage, I'd have ordered already. Of course, if I get a better cage for my ball python and a good place to put it, I'll have an empty 55 gallon aquarium that would be perfect for another kingsnake.

Another option that's always somewhat available is a local speckled kingsnake. I never thought that they'd be pretty when I moved here, but the two or three that I've handled in the wild have been gorgeous. I'd consider keeping one now if it crawled into my back yard.

Rounding out my list of other thoughts are the Mexican Milksnakes and the corns. I've liked Mexican Milksnakes since a ranger at a state park in Texas let me handle one that the park kept for display. Corns are worth trying simply because they are so common in the pet industry. Keeping a corn is just part of the initiation into being snake crazy.

What about you? What new snakes crawl through your daydreams when the wife isn't looking?

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

womas pythons. but i will wait until i have the room for one. but on the kingsnake level. i am just going to buy thayeri. they are special to me.they are like my grays and mbk-they do not poop on me or fling around like my small cal kings.
later jason
o'yeah i am looking out for a girl bull whiteside for my het male.

You made such a wonderfull setup for your king, did you do anything special for your ball?
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

Thanks for the compliment on my cage. I have to give much of the credit for my kingsnake cage to the folks on this forum. I've received a great deal of advice and feedback, and what you see is the result of my interpreting that advice. The advice about providing deep substrate for burrowing in particular was the result of discussions on these pages.

I haven't received quite as much specific advice about ball pythons and their habitat. Shortly after I bought her, someone suggested more plants to provide more cover for her, and I've tried to do that. You can see my efforts in the pictures below.

Bill

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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

The "Thanks" is unmitigated. The sorta is meant as an answer to the question about whether I've done anything special for my ball python. When I made the post, the heading looked funny, and I wanted to be clear on that.

Thanks,

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.