Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I guess that Kether (the Cali King, I was talking about earlier) is about 16-18" long. My earlier estimates were a little shy. We've been feeding him (it, really, he wasn't sexed when we got him, we're just assuming that if it was female, a breeder probably would have kept him) a single fuzzy twice a week. I don't want him to get fat, but I DO want him to grow up big and strong so, are we on the right track with feeding?

When do we slow it down to once a week?

When we do that should we go to two fuzzies?

I understand that we should increase the sized of her food as she grows and all but I've never done this before and I want to keep him healthy and happy, so I hope that all the n00b questions aren't too annoying.

I'm particularly curious because we fed him again on...Monday evening, I think. and he's been much more shy than he was he first time we fed him, which was the Friday before. He also seemed to take a lot longer getting the fuzzy down this time. My first thought was that the hide-time was pretty natural. I know that they get a little private as they digest and that can last a couple iof days, but it's been four days now without a whole lot of movement, so I'm just getting curious.

Of course he could be doing a softshoe routine in there while we're asleep or at work and we'd never know it, but we were seeing some movement while we were in the house up until Monday.

You folks have been a really great help so far and I'm really learnming a lot here. It just seems natural to keep coming back and asking more questions. Anyway, I hope you can pardon the "New Daddy" syndrome. I'm sure it'll all ease back when I get used to what's normal and what's not after we've had him for a while.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Hello,

I'm no expert, so this is just my humble opinion
I believe feedings will vary somewhat from snake to snake. You will, over time, learn from your snakes behavior when it's hungry and hunting.

If you feed one fuzzy and it doesn't crawl away after feeding, but sort of hangs around waiting for more, then I would feed it another.

When to slow down to once a week - again, I think it depends upon the snake. Keep a close eye on its weight. If it's growing and appears to be back to 'normal' after eating, digesting, and pooping, then your ok doing what you're doing.
I've just started slowing mine down a bit, but it will still depend upon the snake.

As far as increasing size of the food, I have generally done this when my snake can swallow its food easily in a matter of 5 minutes or so. When I have increased the size it generally takes quite a while longer for the first several feedings.

It's all a learning process for us, so hang in there!

Ray.

Funny you mention that about what he's doing while you're asleep or at work. I'm new at this too, so I haven't fully tuned in to my snake's behavior patterns. We use aspen in her tank, and sometimes I'll come home from work and she's just made a mess of it, doing laps around the perimeter, making trails and piles and stuff. Definitely when she's shedding you can tell she's trying to rub against the sides (she does have bark and stuff to help with shedding). Sometimes at night she freaks out for a few minutes, then goes underground.

Then again, this is not the first female I have not been able to figure out...
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana

You sound like you are on the right track to me.

You will learn to listen to your snake. 2 fuzzies per week sounds about right to me for right now. When your snake is out cruising around a lot that probobly means its hungry. When you haven't seen it in a few days its probobly not. Snakes don't necessarily work on our schedule. Especially babies. I have many juvis that will eat three times in one week for three weeks and then decide to only eat once a week for the next three weeks.

As far as prey size, your snake will tell you that too. If it can get it down, then its not too big. If it can't than it is to big and next time feed something smaller, no harm done. There are all kinds of rumors flying around about snakes regurging prey thats too large but I have never found this to be true if the snake had the proper temps to digest it.

I have seen snakes regurge from eating too many food items, but that has to do with gross over feeding, not the size of the prey.

As a general rule, you want to feed food items that are about as thick as the fattest part of the snake.

lets see some pics!

heres an 18 inch hypo cal king eating a fuzzy

You may get different responses, so here is my take:

My kings, in my experience, have always been on a once a week feeding with appropriately sized prey. They grew fine, were appropriate breeding size in 3 years, grew to be 3-4 feet, and remained growing yet in no ways fat or obese. To me, " growing is good, obese is bad. " Some kings can have a tendency to become fat on more than once a week feedings, some don't. I have seen countless fat specimens at shows, which makes their colors not as vivid, as well as it being unhealthy.

The key is seeing how your snake does with an experimentation which different feeding schedules if you like. If your snake is fine with two fuzzies, two times a week, then they may be fine with that. The most often I would personally feed any snake is 5 days apart, as my snakes with higher metabolisms tend to get feedings around that type of schedule. I feel that the snakes should not always be in a constant state of digestion all the time.

I feel appropriately sized prey is much more important than many feedings.

Keep asking any and all questions!!!

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Genesis 1:1

That's a wild looking snake!
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana

Thanks!! It is a desert kingsnake, L.G. Splendida.
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Genesis 1:1

Gosh, I love those Black Socks.
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Yeah!! They are neat!
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Genesis 1:1