Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not a kingsnake but I think it applies to all snakes.

A few day ago I tried my first attempt at setting up a snake in a planted vivarium.

The natural viv has proven to be very interesting and has already presented some difficulties. But I was reminded tonight of something a very wise monitor breeder once posted here. Our animals will only show us behaviors that our cages allow them to express.

I fed the corn for the first time tonight. There is a lot of coconut fiber bedding for substrate. I was concerned about him getting a mouthful of the stuff since it really expands when wet so I watched him carefully. Sure enough he dragged the fuzzy along the ground and ended up getting some stuff stuck in his mouth. Great I thought, now I have to get him out (which is difficult as he dug his hide under the largest rock) and clean out his mouth. I was waiting a few minutes for his meal to settle and he did something that amazed me.

First he tried yawning, licking, and rubbing his head on things. Not unusual. When this didn't work he went straight to the waterbowl and began to drink. Every few seconds he would lift his head straight up and make kneeding/sucking motions with his mouth. I took a pic of it. When he yawned again, his mouth was spotless.

Now I'm not sure if this was just a coincidence but I gave him another fuzzy and he ate the whole thing with his head held several inches from the ground. I have seen snakes do this before but usually they rub it around and press it on things to help get it down. I am very curious to see if he will learn to eat cleaner.

I feed in cage as well. I know the advantages of a feeding tub, but I also know the disadvantages - if you have a lot of snakes, you either need a lot of feeding tubs or you spend a lot of time on feeding day.

My corn likes to take his prey into his warm side hide (an Exo-Terra Repti-Den) and eat it in there. He only takes f/t so he doesn't have to worry about killing it first, he goes to the food dish and grabs a rodent and pulls it into his den to consume it - and then goes and grabs another rodent.

My big cal king that grew up in the wild and was collected as an adult - when he is offered multiple prey items, he will coil one and then grab the second before he starts to eat the first. He doesn't take f/t though - only live. He also has a big den (not Exo-Terra) and he does not eat inside it.

My amel - if I open her tub while she is eating, she'll sometimes throw her body over her prey as if to hide it from me.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 16 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

The bricks are compressed and expand when wet, but once expanded, it is very safe and does not further expand even if it is dried for use in a tank - and from what I understand, breaks down extremely easily in the digestive tract.

I stopped using it only because it was too much of a PITA to expand and dry the bricks. The snakes loved it though.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 16 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)