Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I bought about 20 baby kings this year, all different species. Some have not eaten (tried, in order: ft pink, brained ft pink, "warmed" ft pink, live pink, ground skink scented pink, anole scented pink, corn snake -just a shedding - scented pink, & finally trex "lizard maker" pink).

Some of my kings (a couple of outer banks kings and a small brooksi) will not eat.

How do you guys feel about pinky pumping. I have used it and it worked to get two of my baby outer banks kings to feed, but, maybe they would have started to feed anyway(?).

The other snakes that I have "pumped" are all growing, dropping b.m.'s, and shedding ~ they just will not eat!

The reason I am asking is that I get such a negative response from herpers whenever I mention it. I don't know a lot, but I will tell you this; it takes about 90 seconds per snake, is very quick, and the snakes seem to be growing from this. My routine is to feed my whole collection on Friday nights and the baby's that do not eat are pumped that Saturday morning. For my hatchlings, this is repeated on Wednesday nights/ Thursday AM.

I am in graduate school for my MBA and really only have those two nights available - so the routine is easy to keep.

Anybody have any experiences about or thooughts on pinky pumping? I would like to read them.

Thanks,
Peter

Ya know I am in the same boat. I got desperate and tried something not many do. Keep in mind I tried all the ways you mentioned too including lizard maker and nothing worked. My latest trick is I took a bunch of corn snake sheds and put them in a baby food jar. I then took a live baby garter snake and put it in there too. I leave a live pinky in the jar for a few hours and then offer it to a Kingsnake. It hasnt worked every single time, but it has worked. I know getting a Kingsnake used to eating snakes is a bad idea but I was desperate and I am glad I tried this method. Garter snakes are pretty stinky and I think that they are good to stimulate a feeding response. You may want to give it a shot. I think it is not wrong to assume once a King gets a little size to it it goes into true Kingsnake mode and will eat everything, including your finger! Tom