Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My male brooksi king just keeps getting bigger and bigger and I'm considering feeding him Guinea pigs. The reason is that rodentpro.com is having some awesome deals on all their guinea pigs, and I'd save a nice deal of money if I stock up on their medium guinea pigs. They list those at 85-175 grams each. Today he easily ate a 150 gram rat pretty easily.

Has anyone tried guinea pigs? I have no hesitation that he will want to eat it, just worried that they may be shaped too squarely up front (big head, too broad of shoulders?). I think I might just get a package of 10 this time and let you know!

Here are some pics I posted in the spring of Otis. Since then he's probably grown another 6". The girlfriend is 6 feet tall for reference.

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Matt from Minnesota

Here's a couple more of him while I'm at it, I don't have much time these days to post pics. Like I said he's grown a good amount since these were taken. Usually I feed him about one rat every 7-10 days, sometimes 2 rats.

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Matt from Minnesota

gorgeous king matt.thing is he's damn near full grown;i'd be afraid he's just gonna start to get obese before too long...besides,i'm not a fan of oversized prey items for pet snakes;but then again that could be due to years of keeping pits....might be ok,but you'd sure have to space his meals out a lot more;perhaps one smallish g.pig every 10 days,maybe even every two weeks?i'm sure you'll get more input soon here.
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

Just curious, what was your negative experience with Pits while feeding big meals? Regurgitation?

I have always liked feeding my snakes huge meals and have had good results. I often find snakes in nature that are digesting big meals and consider this a natural phenomena. I especially like doing this with kingsnakes. I like for them to spend time with a big meal so that they are both exercising and stretching out those skull bones. I see so many kings in collections that are fat bodied with pin heads from frequent small meals.

All of my adult kings feed on rats. Nigra, holbrooki, getula and floridana. I also feed them giant hamsters that a friend of mine breeds. They are roughly the size of an adult rat.

Just wondering what your experience has been.

Thanks, Phil

yeah phil,regurging has been an issue with one or two of my pits.some are more sensitive than others-perhaps pines are a little more sensitive to meal size than bulls and gophers-?...lots of it is just a matter of opinion/preference,etc....btw for the record,i don't think that fla. king originally pictured is obese YET my any means-just was warning you that it happens very easily and i see it a lot,incl. on this forum....give it a shot,you've got some input,let us know how it works out.i've also taken to monitoring my specimens' weights on a regular basis,you may want to do the same.
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

Never had that problem with my pines Justin. I feed my adults absolutely enormous meals at times and have never had complications what so ever. I do agree with you about monitoring each snakes weight though. I like to space the feedings so that large meals equate to vigorous growth and reproduction - not obesity. This has worked well for me for many years. That is one fine looking kingsnake matt has.

Phil

-i know of countless pit keepers that will tell you how they are infamous for scarfing down more than they can necessarily keep down....pines as you know are just are too active,with too high a metabolism;obesity is hardly ever a concern with them-they just turn into giants,lol...but since we're talking kings here-kings just don't do that,generally speaking.thus the obesity issue-they'll just keep packing on the pounds.

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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

Yeah, I have see some gosh aweful fat kings. Rat and corns too. The only Pits that I had to monitor weight on have been large adult snakes that I did not have mates for and thus did not reproduce. My bullsnakes only feed for a fairly short time of the year (maybe four months or so), but when its on its on. When they are in the mood I never hold back. Sometimes I'll feed several adult rats per week each. I have heard from keepers that kept some of the Mexican Pits about having regurge problems, but not as much with the rest. My northerns are veritable rat processing machines lol! With them I feed large meals spaced so that digestion occurs before the next consumption. Usually seven day at active temps. Like other high metabolism colubrids though it seems complete voiding is a never ending process.

Phil

I see similar things with my gophers, as in they are wrecking machines but my bulls are a bit picky and have some regurge issues. They have the widest temps of all my snakes but sometimes I think they overdo it and chuck one up, not all of the food, just one mouse. They are bigger than my gophers but are more work to figure out. It is weird, I had one over 20 years ago that was kept in aweful coditions but thrived. Good to hear from you Phil.
Todd Hughes

While still not entirely full-grown, my gophers are veritable snake garbage machines. Anything my others won't eat they will, and it appears that my Glossy snake is similar in metabolism and appetite to the Gophers, just w/ smaller prey items.

reako45

Hey Todd, nice looking sonoran gopher. Any luck with calligaster lately? We've managed to find some nice sized nigra the past couple of weeks but the prairies have been slow lately.

Phil

not a single one has graced my path although my path has been out of their range as of late! I still have hopes of seeing this years hatchlings gleaning their last meals in the next month but only see 1 adult per year, always dor. too much private land here in Texas and they truely are Prairie kings around here. I won't give up yet, I am hoping to get a splendida record. An acquaintence of mine showed me some pictures of a very large splendida crawling around a tank battery on the island near me and brought me a hatchling from the same area. I will be on the lookout for that biggun! Looks like you had a great year and it isn't over yet! Keep on keepin' on! When is the book due?
Todd Hughes

Thanks for your input. I guess I was just wondering if guinea pigs have been analyzed as having great nutrition or if they're about the same or worse than rats. I'm sure they're about the same.

The one bullsnake that I did have I fed HUGE meals to, and never had any regurging. I feed all of my snakes pretty dang big prey items and they really seem to do well.

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Matt from Minnesota

Sorry Bro, and I mean no offence but he looks like he could go on a weight loss program. JMO.
Cheers

I'll take that into consideration. He seems pretty lean in person for his length. He even goes off feed for 3-4 months each spring....

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Matt from Minnesota

I'm glad you didn't take offense. He's the thickest and probably the biggest King I've seen. Nice snake.

I don't find him overweight at all. As long as he's exercising you shouldn't change a thing.

whats that reflection? kinda looks like a girl
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jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino call king (zuess)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

I think the kingsnake will have no problem eating them, but I would go with the 10 pack first to make sure he will even want them, probably will, I never tried guinea pigs on a kingsnake, but they eat everything else, and I have cashed in on some of roodent pro deals gatta love them lol
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Frank Roberts
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John Rodriguez and Frank Roberts or vise versa