Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi! Today I weighed and measured my cali and now I have some doubts. He is 70 cm, he weights 92 gr. his mouth is 1 cm width and the widest part of his body is 2 cm, I'm feeding a 2" mouse every 7 days so I was wondering if I should feed him more and if he was in a good shape and size, he is 1 year and 4 months thank you!

Irregardless of the head size comparison you should not feed your snake on your schedule (or what you think it should eat). Feed it as much as it wants to eat.
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Previous poster is absolutley correct. Do not worry about these measurements and that sort of crap. Just feed the heck out of that snake. Give it a good range of temps and feed it the biggest mice it can eat. You will be amazed how quickly it will grow. And enjoy it. Cal kings are beautiful animals.

As much as he wants? but he can get overweight if I overfeed him right?

As much as he wants? but he can get overweight if I overfeed him right?

Feed him as much as he wants. As lomg as he is not full grown and still growing he will not get fat. And if he is full grown and you are breeding him..males go off food during breeding season and females need as much reserves as possible for egg laying.

Post a pic if you can and feed.. feed.. feed..it's not a dog or a cat.
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Reptiles absolutely can get obese. But not the same way that mammals do. Reptiles store discrete lumps of fat in the ceolomic cavity. Mammals throw fat everywhere in the body where it effects all of your organs, blood vessels ect.

A reptile will naturally want to put on fat at some times of the year and burn that fat at other times of the year. If you provide your snake with a wide range of temperatures it will control its own body weight in a healthy way (bigger at some times of year and smaller at others). If you don't have good temps and you overfeed you will get a truly fat unhealthy animal.

Oh, I control very well the temps, sometimes in winter the temps get really low in the cold spot but in other times of the year both spot are perfectly balanced

Reptiles absolutely can get obese. But not the same way that mammals do. Reptiles store discrete lumps of fat in the ceolomic cavity. Mammals throw fat everywhere in the body where it effects all of your organs, blood vessels ect.

I think reptiles in general can get fat especially pythons. But I have yet to see a kingsnake that is fat unless it has a genetic abnormality to store fat.
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uuhhh thats great so I can just feed him till he doesn't want to eat anymore? i've seen him hungrier after feeding him one fuzzy, maybe I can try with 2

You're still feeding fuzzies? Wow.. Um..

Pictures of Eddie (Florida Kingsnake) at 1.5 years:

And for comparison, this is a picture from a year before those pictures were taken:

He eats adult mice and will be moving up to "retired breeder mice" soon.
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Holly

1.0 Florida Kingsnake (Eddie Gein)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Charley Manson)
1.0 Fire Skink (Peter Dinsdale)
1.0 Vietnamese Golden Gecko (George Chapman)
0.0.1 Blue Day Gecko (Joe Ball)
1.0 Orange Marmalade Cat (Oliver)
1.0 Black Cat (Shadowfax)
1.0 Tennessee Walking Horse (Durango)

2.0 Toddlers (Justice & Trevor)

holy cow that snake is huge, How did you feed that florida?

This is a picture of one of my snakes at only 9 months old.

Florida x eastern

You really need to feed yours larger meals and more frequently.

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ok ok perfect. how often?

Start with 1 small adult mouse, I know, you think he can't, but he CAN! Wait and see how he does, is he "hunting" for more? Feed him another. Wait 3-4 days, look for the poop, clean it, repeat. Today I fed 300 mice of all sizes. Last years babies are on fuzzies or hoppers. I have two runt thayeri that I cut off the head of a hopper and after they choke that down, I give 'em the body, lol, they are small but won't be for long, their siblings were on hoppers last winter! Hoppers, hoppers, hoppers! Multiple food items, if they are small, feed more. The snake will let you know when it has had enough.

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Todd Hughes

Yeah he hunts for more, I can tell he wants more but I didn't want to overfeed, I fed him un monday and the poop appeared yesterday so I feed him after he poops?

Feed him again right away. if he is that hungry you need to feed.

Also everything Antelope said is good.
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Thank you very much for your help, I always kept a feeding plan since he was a hatchling and I thought I was doing a good job, Its good to know he can actually grow faster and better.

The trick is not to be afraid of them being overweight in the first 3 years, but to watch out after they are adults, that's when a feeding plan would do the best. feed them to allow for growth, when growth slacks off, tune your feeding regimen to allow for proper maintainability. Feeding adult gravid females more while developing eggs may or may not be beneficial, but for sure feeding them heavily after egg laying is of utmost importance. You may get more or larger eggs by feeding a female heavily at this time, but you can surely get a second clutch if you bring the female back to optimum condition post egg laying. We are in agreement on most of this but this last bit some of us still debate. Feed them heavy while young!!!
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Todd Hughes

Its very easy to determine how and when to feed. Again, just look at the animal in question. If an individual grows long and thin, then thickens up upon sexual maturity, THAT IS NORMAL. If an individual grows thick(fat)and not long. That is NOT NORMAL.

What causes a snake to grow short and fat is what is MISUNDERSTOOD. The common misconception with snakes is. People forget they are reptiles and think they are dealing with mammals. Mammals have a set metabolism, so food is the variable. With reptiles there are two variables. The first and most important is metabolism. The second and least important with overweight snakes is amount of food.

Metabolism is increased and decreased with available suitable temps.

The reality is, you can feed a neonate snake, daily or more, and with proper temps, it will grow long and thin and will do so very very quickly.

The simple observable traits to look for are how an individual grows. If they grow long and thin and feed readily(like a pig) your conditions and support are good. If they grow slowly and or short and fat, then your conditions do not allow proper assimilation of food items. If they are picky feeders and your conditions SUCK. Of course, non feeding can include other reasons(husbandry errors).

I did not read the entire thread, in fact, just this last post so if I repeated someone, good on U. Cheers

it would be hard to overfeed him at this time, if he's looking for more, he wants more, FEED me Seymour!!!
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Todd Hughes

Hahaha

All of your snakes are fat!!!

This is not meant to be an insult. Your snakes eat a ton and probably produce a ton too. The vast majority of kingsnakes posted on here are not at least a little overweight (if not down right obese). If you ever get the chance to disect one of your kings post mortem, check it out, big yellow fat bodies everywhere.