Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what is the recommended feeding cycle for a baby kingsnake? What if mine only wants to eat every 8-9 days? Will that effect how big he gets in the long run?

im no expert but i would say try your snake with feeding every 3-5 days he will only take if he wants to and as i am aware a snake will grow dependant on the amount of food given ie if your snake takes every meal then he will be a big boy on the reverse a snake that eats less will not be as big. how old is the snake and how long is he?

just how big is the snake and what size meals is he taking? Once a week is fine in my opinion for a baby. A lot of people try to "pump" them up quick with meals every 3-5 days in order to get them to breeding size quickly. If he is only taking food once a week then that is all he wants. That is fine. Be happy he is eating and enjoy him. I am guilty of overfeeding my snakes and sometimes I think you can "turn them off" feeding by offering them food to often. Just my opinion.

Like i said i am no expert but my bull(just using as example) aint been "pumped" as you put it he is small for his species. i was feeding him when he needed it and just so happened that was every 3-5 days

" i was feeding him when he needed it and just so happened that was every 3-5 days"

How can you say he needed it ?
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

Of course it will effect it. That would be keeping the snake in a starvation diet and keep the snake weak for future breeding.

A pinky has hardly any nutrition. Start offerring large meals and as often as possible. The sooner you get your snake up to size the healthier it will be as an adult and better chance of survival.

If they are taking food every three to five days then fine, but if they keep refusing offerings that often and only eat every week as he stated then maybe that is all the snake wants. What temps are being used? Maybe the temps are a little low and that is all he can digest, I do not know. I have some that eat every three days and others that will only eat once a week. There are many factors that could be involved.

Oh,and I did not see anything about a pinkie. I agree that pinks do not offer much nutrition and maybe they need more than just one. Maybe offering two per feeding would help. If he is feeding fuzzies then once a week would be more like it in my opinion. He did not mention what he was feeding.

hey man i wasnt undermining you like i said i am no expert i am new to snakes myself i am learning as i go i just put my experiences with my snakes accross incase it helped sorry if i got your back up

No offense taken cheesemonkey. He just stated he was feeding fuzzies. That is what I thought. One per week is just fine in my opinion. If it were pinks I could understand feeding him more and I myself do feed them until they are satisfied. I think one fuzzy per week is a good amount for a small snake. (as long as temps permit proper digestion of course) I have had snakes regurg when I tried to feed them too much and it did not happen again when I slowed things down a bit.

proper digestion of course) I have had snakes regurg when I tried to feed them too much and it did not happen again when I slowed things down a bit.

I agree !! esspecially this time of year! nothing worst than finding a slimer regurg in the morning except finding it 3 days later..Pwewwww.....
"you dont drill holes in the bottom of your boat to let the water out, i works negativly against your goal"

are you Det. Joe Friday (Dragnet)TV show back in the 60s,you know the show came on right after Adam12.....L8r Chris

you can smell those regurges as soon as you go in the snake room
then you have to sniff a few tubs/tanks to find which one it is
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

yeah i agree i just assumed he was talking about pinks my bad glad we could be clear with this issue i have learned by this thanks alot

"One per week is just fine in my opinion. If it were pinks I could understand feeding him more and I myself do feed them until they are satisfied. I think one fuzzy per week is a good amount for a small snake"

One fuzzy per week. Well as long as t6he snake is not growing then I guess one per week is all it can get from the owner then it will stay at fuzzy size.

Has everyone forgotten kingsnakes eat other snakes ? Sometimes bigger than they are and they are fine!! Matter of fact, they increase their chances of survival by being stronger and bigger. they also are better at reproducing.

My experience is kingsnake food should not stay at a certain size for very long. I start most of my nenates "out of the egg" on small fuzzies. I skip the whole pinky routine all together. Only very small kings get pinks and then the largest possible (never day old pinks)and I get them on fuzzies and then hoppers in a matter of a few weeks. I will be breeding many females this year that are 2007's.

I do feed my small kings f/t corn snakes when they are subborn. Got them from a breeder who has several dead ones here and there. I also know that when they eat a corn snake they sometimes will not take another meal for two weeks. I yes, I did offer sooner. If you are getting your baby kings on hoppers in a matter of weeks I would love to see how you do that.

This is a eastern x hypo Florida king that was born July or August of 2002. This pic was taken April 2003. That makes the snake 9 months old tops, AND it is a female. Males tend to grow even faster.

Heck I am not even that good about feeding my snakes. I miss days and they go hungry. I bet if i fed them e v e r y t i m e they wanted to eat i would do a whole lot better.

What temps do you keep them at and do they have a gradient? I have 84-87 on hot side and 70 on cool. Most of my kings spend a lot of time on the cool side. I guess if they did not have such a cool spot maybe they would eat more. I do not know.

What temps do you keep them at and do they have a gradient? I have 84-87 on hot side and 70 on cool. Most of my kings spend a lot of time on the cool side. I guess if they did not have such a cool spot maybe they would eat more. I do not know.

What i do is so ridiculous it goes against what every person here has done (incl FR). I actually don't want to discuss it because it would warrant a lot of negative comments and I should have just kept my mouth shut. I am planning to just post pics from now on.

Fair enough. Whatever you are doing is working for you if they eat like that. Hey, like we have always said, do what works for you and your snakes. Choices and variables for everyone. Hell, I am not against trying new things. Email it to me. I promise I won't air out your laundry on the forum.

Email it to me. I promise I won't air out your laundry on the forum.

will do.

Thanks.N/P

C'mon Rainer, don't be like that! You know there are many levels of breeders here and experts and novices. All info is good, it's what each individual does with their own snakes that matters, and mostly only to them. Some people call it pushing there snakes, but others call it allowing for maximum growth. Tell it like it is at your man cave!!! LOL (humour) I am feeding all the time but have 90- some-odd snakes, it is in the low 50's outside but there is feeding and breeding going on in my man cave right now. I do not use heat but there is a gradient, not large, but it is there.
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Todd Hughes

I've been feeding him fuzzies

The amount a snake eats is directly proportional to the grows of the snake. I read somewhere that a snake will assimalate 1/3 of its meal to body mass. So if you feed the snake 3 mice it will increase body mass equal to one mouse? Im not sure thats right but maybe someone here with a good scale can study that.It seems a bit high,maybe 20%.
I feed my snakes as much as they like or as much as I can afford to.Remember that snakes dont have a 52 week schedule that stays the same all year.They are sesonal as in the case of milk snakes that eat like pigs in the spring then slow down in july/august then stop in the winter(some continue to eat yes I know).I stop feeding my adults in the winter for 3 or 4 months.No food at all just water.So in the spring when my snakes are back in feed mode I stuff them because this is the time of year they want to eat.
Now here is the question:
Is a snake that eats every week more healthy then a snake that eats every two weeks? Or even every three weeks? I say they can both have equal health. The weekly feeder will grow faster and will be better able to breed or survive in times of famine with its extra body fat (storage),but both are healthy.In the wild, snakes dont have the volume of food that they get in captivity.They may not eat every week.
Thoughts?

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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

I just have one question Doug. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT milk snake eating in the later photos?

lol
thats a worm snake egg
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

Doug, what is species id this? The scalation looks like a Cal King to me, but it's obviously not.

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1.0.0 Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula californae
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula nigra
1.0.0 Lampropeltis mexicana thayeri
2.3.0 Eublapharis macularius macularius
0.0.2 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
0.1.0 Gerrhosaurus major major

gentilis
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

Oh man! That is one nice looking Milk!

I am so glad that's not a hybrid, as I'm going to start looking for one of those right away.

Is there a certain name for that particular pattern?
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1.0.0 Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula californae
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula nigra
1.0.0 Lampropeltis mexicana thayeri
2.3.0 Eublapharis macularius macularius
0.0.2 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
0.1.0 Gerrhosaurus major major

look no further






Dont go out and try to buy a snakes as soon as you see a nice photo.Research it for several weeks.That will keep you from buying something thats not really what you wanted.
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

Any special requirements that you feel to share that pertain to this particular subspecies? I keep quite a few getula ssp(L.g.c, L.g.h, L.g.b, L.g.n),a triangulum ssp(L.t.t), and a mexicana ssp(L.m.t).

Unless they(L.t.g) proves to be exceptionally difficult and it's needs are too specialized, I could probably keep one solely by applying my experience on past species/subspecies. However, I DO NOT intend to do that. Research will be done, no doubt and rest assured. I think I was initially drawn to the high amount of white on that animal of yours.....looks very clean and so do the smaller saddles.

BTW, these are not the same individual snakes, right?

are they both your snakes?
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1.0.0 Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula californae
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula nigra
1.0.0 Lampropeltis mexicana thayeri
2.3.0 Eublapharis macularius macularius
0.0.2 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
0.1.0 Gerrhosaurus major major

These are just two of my brighter ones.As long as you get snakes that are feeding well they are easy to keep.
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

the picture dated 07/08/06 what kind of snake is that?

eastern milk
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"Wake me when its April"

Doug L

Reptiles are like a car motor. Keep the gas peddle down and it uses lots of fuel. At idle, it uses very little fuel.

With reptiles, the temps and humidity are the gas pedal.

So to say what your snake WANTS, is not dependant of the snake, when its in captvity, but more on the conditions you support your snakes behaviors and functions with.

If given a good usable temp range, a young snake will feed daily and grow very quickly, often reaching sexual maturity in less then a year or thereabouts. AND very successfully by the way.

Of course, daily actually means many days in a row, then skipping a few days to shed, etc. So lets say, feeding around 5 days a week.

Of course, you can feed less and expect less actual progress. Both of these are natural and occur naturally. Again it depands on conditions like temps/humidity and prey availability.

In captivity, you can have an endless supply of prey, so all you have to do is understand what conditions allow the snake to reach its genetic potential.

With reptiles you have two basic sets to think about. One is genetic potential, the other is conditional potential. The first is what they CAN DO, the second is what conditions allow them to DO. As you should understand, reptiles have a RANGE of adult sizes that reflect this. For instance, a Cal king can and will reach adulthood(sexual maturity) at around 2 feet. That means they can and do successfully reproduce(recruit) at that size, but can also reach 4 feet before they become reproductive. They can also be 5 feet as adults. So cal king females can reproduce from 2 to 5 feet, with the average being in the 3 to 31/2 foot range. Hmmmmmmm pretty accurate too.

To go back to the car motor. You are wanting your motor to use more fuel, your snake to eat more, when the motor is not burning the fuel fast enough. At poor conditions, your snake can only digest prey as conditions allow. Like the motor, it must process the energy/prey/fuel before it wants more.

The point is, conditions and genetics are BOTH responsible for their progress. So before you think of what your snake wants, make sure you provide the conditions to allow your snake to actually know what it wants. Theres not much you can do about their genetic limitations, but you can provide optimum conditions to reach their potential. Cheers

a dunb question but what would are the optimum conditions what are the factors here?

Its actually very simple. A choice between cool(65F to 75F)or even cooler, to about 100F surface temps, not air temps. Snakes could care less about air temps, they live on on in where they get their temps.

What seems to be hard for folks to understand is, reptiles do not bask at their needed temps, instead they bask at higher temps so they do not have to spend their time basking. They acquire a body temp to do something other then basking.

Most snakes rarely bask in the open like lizards commonly do, Instead the acquire their needed temps in or under something, depending on species and habitat.

The key is humidity and security. They require a mid level of humidity, like 50% for areas they live in. Not wet, just humid air. Even where they lay eggs in nature is dry and humid. Also they need to feel safe, as in tightly hidden.

Sir, that is so easy to provide. For instance, room temps are normally in the low seventies, so use room temps as the base, and add a SMALL hot area to elevate their temps as needed. Also provide areas they can hide or burrow in, all over, not one here or one there. Again, most snakes and in particular kingsnakes, acquire their temps(bask) in burrows just beneath the surface. This is again easy to duplicate. Provide a deep substrate. Not hard with snakes.

Lastly, most people mistake what snakes do, they normally live underground, not above it, as in, spending most of their lifes underground. Its funny, but if you take all of us one these boards and ask how many saw kingsnakes breeding in nature, you would find very few have seen that. Yet in captivity we see in very commonly. ALso, there have been thousands of kingsnakes captured or observed by folks on these forums, So why have we rarely seen them breeding, or feeding for that matter.

A thought, when you do not see something that HAS to occur commonly, it means your not looking in the right place. Cheers

Yeah, very good post. Made me stop and think, esp. about that last part about seeing snakes feeding and breeding in the wild. I've been lucky enough to see a large pair of Cal Kings breeding (pulled up a rather large slab of concrete in a "dumping" field) and a pair of breeding Striped Racers. Never seen any snakes feeding though.

reako45

I followed it all the way, didnt scratch my head once! LOL, thanks FR!

np
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Sometimes I think the kid with two pet snakes has something that those of us with 50 to 200 lost a long time ago.