Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's very clear that my Florida King is ready to move up in mouse size. She eats three hoppers every four days or so and never struggles at all with them.

My Kisatchie is a little smaller but is also on the same eating schedule. He could probably move up also. His body's smaller, especially his neck, but his head opens much wider than the King's.

My question is, I still have a bunch of hoppers we just ordered, when we get weanlings, should I try feeding them one weanling and a hopper until I get rid of the hoppers? Or maybe keep the Kisatchie on hoppers and just move the King up to weanlings, one or two at a time? Hard to get a real sense of the difference in mouse size until I have them in front of me, but the fact that they can eat these hoppers with no issues - head first, ass first, whatever - makes me think it's time to move up. But I wasn't sure if there is any difference between more smaller mice and fewer larger mice in terms of health or nutritional value. Both snakes are growing fast and seem healthy.

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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

If those were my snakes i would be feeding them way larger size mice.

The snakes wil litterally grown after a meal like this. Then in a week the larger size is already to small. Always try and feed larger size mice. They have more protien and nutrints where younger mice tend to have some more fat instead of calcium and muscle. Causes younger snakes to have a real growth surt.
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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

That's what I thought. But no harm throwing in a small one too as part of the meal occasionally, just to use up the mice I already have, or is there a down side to that?
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Nver a downside to feeding as much as they want. Heck i even set my alram clock at 3 am to feed my snakes a midnight snack. Don't want them to be famished when breakfast rolls around j/k
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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

This is just an opinion, but if you really wanna get rid of the hoppers that you have left just go ahead and feed them as many as you see fit. Smaller meals will NEVER hurt a snake and I am sure they will be glad to accept as many as you offer. Trust me, the burden is on you not overfeed!!! That is one of the most beautiful things about kingsnakes!!! Good Luck and happy herping!

Chris J.

"My Kisatchie is a little smaller but is also on the same eating schedule. He could probably move up also. His body's smaller, especially his neck, but his head opens much wider than the King's".

about the corn ,corns are amazing contortionists as far as eatting big food try the larger prey on the corn also.
And feed the fuzzies off too,also, before,after,during,by the hand full they'll eat em and benefit....C

Being new to the snake thing I don't have a lot of experience obviously. But when we got the Kisatchie and fed him for the first time, I found it fascinating how different his feeding style was than my King's! Funny you use the word 'contortionist,' because as soon as the mouse leaves his head, he really uses his neck in sharp 'S' shapes to push that mouse through. Very different than the King. Same result, obviously, but it surprised me that they leverage their bodies in such different ways. The King will make more of a single right angle to push the mouse back. I doubt I'm explaining any of that very well, but the point is they do it very differently.
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

Agree! and a corn the same size as a king will handle a larger meal ,at least in my experience