Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. I purchased a striped chocolot male king snake and a striped albino female king snake about a year ago and to be honest they have hardly grown at all. I keep all my snakes on the same feeding schedule and I purchesed Corn Snakes at around the same time and size that have more than trippled in size in the past year. I am not sure how old they were when I got them but I know they were farily young, Maybe 8" in total length and now They are only abot 10" Dose this sound bad or is it normal? If its not normal can anyone tell me what would cause this? I feed my male 1 proper size mouse every 7 days and the female gets 2 proper size mice every 7 days, Dont ask why, I have always given my females 2 mice and my males 1 mouse every 7 days for years. I more than likly started it to get them and keep them in tip top breeding condition. Anyway thanks for reading and sorry for my spell checker being broken.
Foot Hill Reptiles

NP
Foot Hill Reptiles

Tell us about your set up
How large are the cages
what temps do you keep them at?
Can you post pics for us?
I'd like to see how chunky or thin they are.
Tom Stevens
-----
TomsSnakes.com

The small male is in a 10G enclosure and the little bit lareger female is in a 40G enclosure. Temps are about 80-90 at the basking spot, sorry I dont have pictures at this time, I will try to get some this afternoon. Dont get my wrong they dont look un healthy. Its just IMO they should have grown a lot faster than they have been or are.
Foot Hill Reptiles

I mention as often as possible that the rate at which a snake grows can and also does not always mean there's anything wrong. However if you had hoped to raise a pair of snakes to maturity as soon as possible then there in most cases is a way to influence that to happen.

If your snake spends most of its time in the hottest area of the cage then maybe try to offer the female twice as much food for a few feedings and see how she reacts. If it seems to make a difference then that may be all that is needed. Be wary of cranking the heat in any males cages, I think it can have adverse affects on his reproductive future. However if they spend a lot of time on the colder side maybe the cage is too warm and is stressing them out?

I have a few Cal Kings here, had not kept them in years but I got a pair on breeding loan and scored a nice huge female too. I traded a pair of Brooksi for a yearling female Cal King too and she is quite small, as with Brooksi I often see them at 30 inches in their first year. I do not have much experience with Cal Kings but I do think they have a tendency to grow slower than other Kings...can't really say for sure.

Try different things. Crank the heat in one cage and lower it in the other. Either feed a few rodents per feeding every 5-7 days or maybe just one or two rodents every 2-3 days. Just make sure that the snake is pooping a lot, if it is just getting fat then something needs to be diffferent.

I said in the info from the article I posted above and what I have seen in my collection, it seems sometimes if a snake did not grow to its maximum potential in the first year of life it may not ever pick up speed as far as its rate of growth. It may continually grow at what you feel is a slow rate. That's just the way it goes. It is why I say a snake willing to eat like a pig and grows like a weed is a winner in my book, but it does not make snakes that do not grow as fast losers....they could be perfectly healthy but simply don't grow so quickly.
-----
TomsSnakes.com

Ok thanks a million I will give it a try. I can almost understand a snake growing slow from genetics or eviromental factors or a million other reasons but I find it od that both my kings seem to be growing very slow. I am not worried about geting them big and mature fast I just want to be sure everything is good and they are healthy. I have no way of contacting the breeder or anyone ells that may have siblings of mine to see if it is comon in the little or the ghene line to grow slow.
Foot Hill Reptiles