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Is there a limit to how much to feed your snake? I got a milk snake last Saturday and he ate 2 pinkies. The next day he ate one of my anole lizards that I bought for snake food. I put it in my snake cage just to see what the snake would do and it ate it. 2 days later it ate another pinkie since my other snake didn't want it. Then yesterday it ate 2 more pinkies. He is very active once the lights are lowered. I know in the wild they will eat when ever they want. Should there be a limit in captivity? Thanks.

In the hopes of being spared another far too long response to your question I've provided a link for the thread that last addressed that question... your answer is in there... somewhere.
Link

Is there a limit to how much to feed your snake? I got a milk snake last Saturday and he ate 2 pinkies.

What kind of snake? You didn't mention that or what size he was!

Since this is the KINGsnake forum i will assume it is a king.

So to answer your question it sounds like everything you are doing is right. Sinc you are feeding PINKIES I will also assume it is a neonate and not a large adult.

You can feed growing kings as much as they can eat. You cannot overfeed them (espcially with pinkies since he/she was able to eat an anole.

Even though I don't know the size of your snake, I do know it ate a anole. So if it can eat an anole bump the size of the mice up to at least large fuzzie size. A king that was born last year should be on large mice already. It is not healthy for captive kingsnakes to be fed sparingly-~it causes problems later on in life and they will remain finicky weak captives.

So feed often. Preferrable as often as the snake wants to at. leave the choice to the snake and try not to assume what is too much or what you may have read somehwere (or even on this forum). I breed a large colony of kingsnakes for a number of years 9in the thousands) and yound snakes need to be fed as often as they will want to eat. if you offer food and they refuse, then just remove the food item.

Also keep bumping up the food size.

And don't forget to post a pic or at least details of what king you have and the age and size!!
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www.Bluerosy.com

My bad!

I read over it because it was 2 words. Milksnake is usually spelled as one word.

So what size and age is it? And what type of milksnake? That can also make a difference with the type of husbandry- if it is a pueblin or honduran or sinaloan you can feed them like kingsnakes. If it is one of the smaller U.S. species let us know what it is.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Also, (and I know someone is going to mention it), feeding anoles can introduce some unwanted parasites to your captive muilksnake. They do fine in the wild with these prasites . But not while living in a box. The parasites will overtake them and can eventually harm the snake..

So feed rodents only!
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www.Bluerosy.com

Although others have more than adequately answered your question, I would like to chime in with: feed them as much as they want while they are youngsters still growing. They will have periods of not wanting to eat, so seize the opportunity to stuff them while you can! LOL!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

the snake is a sinaloan milksnake and he is 20-21 inches long.

They do have good appetites but if they eat too much and regurge, then that could bring on problems, so feed well, but with some good sense! They can induldge more than they can digest. I agree that lizards should be avoided.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

Thanks. I wont be feeding lizards any more it was a one time deal.

Agreed!
And very pretty snake! Sinaloans are among my faves!
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Genesis 1:1

Thats a nice looking snake, Steve. You definitely need to bump up the size of the mice from pinkies to maybe small adult mice. That snake could probably eat 15 pinkies or more at a time.

I just fed him a fuzzy and he ate it with no trouble.

I just fed him a fuzzy and he ate it with no trouble.

Now feed him like 6 more.

I used to keep sinaloans in the 70's and some got to 7ft in length. I don't see captives being grown that big anymore in the hobby. I think it has to do with the way people feed them in the first two years of life (?). In mexico where the sinloans are found the mice are small little field mice and they gorge on several of those. The wildcaughts i had would not even take large mice as they always preferred the small hoppers or fuzzies. It got real expensive feeding those suckers. But then again mice and gas prices was waaay lower.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Just feed it one or two of whatever it can just manage to get down it's head to put a very nice, noticeable, substantial bulge in it's mid-section about every 5 days when it is small like that and growing.

When a snake's gut has been used to only processing very small meals for long extended periods, feeding boat-loads of food all of the sudden can often lead to regurgitation issues, especially if it cannot seek the proper heat source temperatures to digest it. Snakes that eat very meger meals for prolonged amounts of time, and are somewhat thin should be staged a bit in their larger meal sizes.

Meals are too small when they can be easily gobbled down. When they have to work at it real well to get a meal down, and it stretches out their head and the skin on the body as it goes down and puts a very decent bulge in it's mid-section, then you know it is substantial enough..........simple as that!. Pinks and fuzzies can't even be seen in the mid-section of that snake, but certain sized hoppers/weanlings certainly would. Some fuzzies and hoppers are absolutely HUGE, and some are very tiny. You have to gauge it by the size of the rodent, not necessarily what is marked on the bag or pet store cage.

I know it is hard to believe, but there are some snakes on this planet that aren't Eastern getula, or floridana, so don't try to stuff your little Sinaloan like a Thanksgiving turkey as some would recommend.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

I know it is hard to believe, but there are some snakes on this planet that aren't Eastern getula, or floridana, so don't try to stuff your little Sinaloan like a Thanksgiving turkey as some would recommend.

I am glad you mentioned the undertank heat source as any snake can regurge if not allowed to theromoregulte to proper digestion temps.

But i raised sinaloans back in the 70's and their natural ecolgy is to stuff themselves on sevral amll meals at one time. When you go down to collect these you will see hudreds of the small field mice running all over the roads at night while road cruising. So they are designed for this type of feedings. Just like eatsern getula eat snakes in the wild and can hold them down without regurging.

If the mice are small they can take in and hold down huge amounts.

You just don't see many large sinloans in captivity any longer. My guess is becasue people are feeding them as you suggested.

But yes, you do need an adequet hot spot.
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www.Bluerosy.com

After I fed my snake yesterday the fuzzy it left a big bulge in it's mid section. It was bigger then it's been yet after feeding him. I would definently like to see him grow to be around 7' that would be cool.

Now I just wish my thayeri kingsnake would eat like that. She eats 1-2 pinkies a week. I try to offer more but she won't eat them. She she only eats when no one is looking.