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and he rejected his food: do king snakes stop eating when they enter the first days of a the shedding process?

I've had some that would eat even when eyes where milk white but most do not. save the food for after he sheds.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Thanks.

do king snakes stop eating when they enter the first days of a the shedding process?

The answer is yes.

About 90% of them refuse food once they are in the blue.
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www.Bluerosy.com

I wanted to say HI, and point you to many of the most commonly asked questions to new kingsnake owners. At the top of the page there is a link to a BOOKSTORE, it would be a wise investment of 10-40 bucks on a kingsnake book. Please DONT get a pretty picture book,lol. Ideally you would have read that BEFORE getting the snake, but I dont stand on any pulpit, we have all been where you are at some point. Once you read a book or 2 and get up to speed reading, understanding and communicating on the forum is alot more interesting. There isnt much substitute for learning, we will only teach someone interested in learning. Thanks and good luck!

>>and he rejected his food: do king snakes stop eating when they enter the first days of a the shedding process?

Also.....
When a snakes eyes are milky they are Days into a shed cycle......
Some will eat and others will not.....
I don't think it is a 90 to 10 percent ratio but rather a individual snake's preference.....

Maybe 90% of Rainer's Floridana will not eat while in a shed cycle but 50% of my mexicana will eat while "in the blue".......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

based on my limited observations so far age also seems to play a part in it; when they were younger (back when I first got them) all of the ones I got from Rainier would eat while in blue; that continued for about the first 3-4 months (Sept/oct through Jan?) but they've quit eating in shed. The Fl. kings I got from John Cherry did the same thing (although one of them will still eat in blue). The house snakes I got from him did not eat in blue when I got them. The speckleds I got from Nockturnel Tom didn't eat in blue from the git go. All of these were young (couple of months old at most).

I've seen it in my retics too; I'm raising up 5 of different ages. 2 of them (both females) would eat in the blue but grew out of it; neither male I have ever ate reliably in the blue. I've got an SD that was WC that I got as an adult; he hasn't eaten in shed since I've got him.

The Argentine boa I've had for years used to eat in the blue as a baby but doesn't now. I can't remember when he stopped doing it though. The redtail that died a year or two back was the same way (got him around the same time..mid 90s).

It should be noted that it wasn't an on/off switch; the ones from Bluerosy will still sometimes eat in shed (particularly the female hypo GOOD LORD) but I don't regularly offer them food in the blue anymore. I'll sometimes see if they're hungry if someone else didn't eat or if I miscounted mice. Citrus (older female retic) will still occasionally act hungry in shed...but I don't thaw out a rabbit then, they're too expensive to experiment on. The smaller female that's still on rats is about 50/50 on taking other snake's leftovers (say if a ball doesn't eat). It seems to gradually taper off. Females have thus far been more likely to eat in shed than males, but my sample size is so damn small...
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Cool info varanid.....
Just goes to show you that they are individualistic and don't all fit the "cookie cutter" pattern of how a snake should or should not behave......

Age may have something to do with it as smaller snakes are wanting to eat as much as they can as often as they can to reach adulthood........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

that's the logical conclusion. I wish to god I'd kept better records as a kid. Would give me more info to go on here. I just remember Yoda because I was so shocked as a little 12 or 13 year old kid when she ate the day I brought her home from the store...she ate that day, shed the day after. She must have been blue the day before I bought her or something I'd been told from the git go that they don't eat in shed so it was a surprise.

There's lots of things I was told 15 years ago that didn't turn out to be true...anyone remember monitors needing a hot spot of a whopping 90-95 degrees? Dumb on the face of it, with the benefit of hindsight...but I feel bad about my sav's first 2-3 years of life. And the whole once a week eating for snakes....and feeding in different containers...oh, and newspaper being the end all be all of substrates...hmm what else have I unlearned?
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

John,

Do you know what the mortality rate is on mexicana?

..it's 100%.

Unless they are in your collection. Then it is 50%, right?

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www.Bluerosy.com

>>John,
>>
>>Do you know what the mortality rate is on mexicana?
>>
>>..it's 100%.
>>
>>
>> Unless they are in your collection. Then it is 50%, right?

Yep....that is right.....LOL

99% of people that call out percentages are making them up too........hehehehehehehehehehe
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Maybe 90% of Rainer's Floridana will not eat while in a shed cycle but 50% of my mexicana will eat while "in the blue".......

YOUR mexicana eat 50% of the time. Dowever, Tom and Dicks don't eat in shed cycle 100$ of the time.

So that still makes me exactly right. Don't argue with me! You will lose! It is futile! It is exactly 90%!
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www.Bluerosy.com

>>YOUR mexicana eat 50% of the time. Dowever, Tom and Dicks don't eat in shed cycle 100$ of the time.
>>
>> So that still makes me exactly right. Don't argue with me! You will lose! It is futile! It is exactly 90%!

LOL.....You are a mess Rainer......LOL
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com