Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My small (9 foot) Indonesian king cobra has been a hard feeder since I got it. For the past month or so, I've been force feeding it a rat, after giving it about 1.5 ounces of water, once every 10 days. I know rats are more nutritional than mice, but it's very hard getting him to take the small rat. I've tried using vegetable oil and water to help ease the entry, but nothing helps. Would it be better to feed it several large mice than a small rat? I think I can get 4-5 large mice down easily--I think. I need to fatten it up and want it off snakes while I'm at it. Any suggestions?

I should add that my other two, larger Malaysian kings, are in the same room, so humidity and temps are the same, but those two eat like pigs, even though they still prefer snakes. (sigh)

less stress is better and honestly adult mice are a better source of nourishment than a small rat. On a 9 foot king, I would throw 6 adult mice in a water bowl, catch the king and with 9 inch forceps push upwards on the roof of the mouth as you gently push the mouse in. I wait until the glottis has closed as the mice will be wet (lubrication), (some people think that the gurgling sound while force feeding a King is stress related. It's not, that means you allowed water to enter the glottis and it's attempting to 'cough it up') and push the mouse the rest of the way in. Make sure to move each mouse into the stomach, don't try to push 2 or 3 down and then massage them into the gut as you will get bound up and cause undue stress on it.

Keep in mind Kings are designed to feed on similarly shaped snakes, so they are not capable of swallowing larger food items as would other snakes... several small food items is much preferred to one large one..

I feed that twice weekly...you will see more body tone in a couple of short weeks and should get it to feed on it's own shortly thereafter.

I also like scenting with chick yolk. Many wild Kings will accept them readily.

Establishing wild kings-

Force feed as described above until body weight improves.
Begin de-worming - inject into a food item - force feed.

begin scenting with snake parts until feeding voluntarily

begin offering unscented small rodents

scent with chick goo if nescessary

happy feeding king cobra will follow
process usually lasts 6-8 weeks.
T-

Thanks... That's what I was leaning towards, so I appreciate it. Had you not mentioned it, I would have probably lined the mice up and massaged them down at one time. Glad you cautioned me on that approach.

HI, I dont know if this will help but a few years ago I was working with a non eating king from Vietnam, I did not want to force feed xcept of course as a last resort. I tried something that worked very well and that was I took 4-5 mice and gave them and "egg wash" like in cooking, I then took the skin of in this case russian rat snakes of which I had several and I made a "sausage" out of it by slipping the skin over the mice like a casing, then misting it and setting it in the cage, next morning it was gone, I did this several times over a month or so and pretty soon he was eating his mice as is with no scenting or anything. Dont know if this helps you but good luck.