Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I caught an Eastern King in my grandmas pool skimmer on sept 9th. I cant get him to eat. He is about 14 inches 13 inches long and about as big around as a dime. I have been trying to feed him thawed pinkies. he does not have mites and i have his aquarium set up right. about 3 days ago he shed his skin. But still no luck on feeding. I have tried splitting the brain putting him in a bag, in a rubbermaid container, i have tried leaving it in his cage over night. None of these have worked. He hasnt lost any weight. If i hold it in front of him he will smell it and then go away from it. if I do that over and over he just strikes at it out of anger and then leaves it completely. I really need to get him to eat cuz i really want to keep him. He is very gentle to handle. Please help me!!! Any advice to get him to eat is good. Help!!

thats supposed to be 13 inches long

LIVE! mice or lizards? i'm sure some of the oldschoolers will go
into great detail on this subject!

So i need to go buy some live pinkies and/or lizards. small geckos or anoles im guessing? where would i go to get these. Petco said they dont carry live mice pinkies. im not to sure about lizards tho. Hit me back. Thanks

Well online , and dude....... petco sucks beer salted man tit,
look for an extreme pet store in your area speak with those folks
you can also try to find someone in your local who is a serious
herper and they may breed their own mice? see if you can get a few off them? i've heard of people rubbing a lizard on a frozen thawed for the scent, you can also (i would) go out and try to catch some skinks or anoles ect. etc. but you can't do that for ever the point here is to try and make a transition from live to thawed FIND live mice , then slowly switch to thawed ----------
all in all i would either tommorow find some live mice or just
buy or catch a lizard thaw the mouse a rubb the hell out of it on the lizard ---he should take something evntually??
or the snake my be in burmation?
sorry if this seems choppy........i have a getula consricting my hand....

This is the time of year wild snakes shut down. So that he isnt eating isn't suprising. What state did you catch him in ? Also even if it was the middle of summer baby Easterns can be very picky about food items. If you are set on keeping him I would probably cool him in the next month or so . Your other option is to let him go and I think that would be best as its very tough to get them to feed and you can get a feeding cap bred specimen for 30-50 bucks. Try and get a pic of him I would love to see him.

Keith

Well i caught him in millington tn(part of memphis)

That would be a Black Kingsnake then. Lampropeltis getula nigra to be more specific. There is a little intergrade action with Eastern Kings but in the extreme southeast corner of TN. Baby Nigra have a pattern very much like Eastern Kings but as they age it goes away to either to all black ot adults can still retain some remnants of pattern as well. Either way I would release if it doesnt eat.

Keith

Well then should i try to rub a pinkie on a frog? I called a pet store and described my snake they said that their anoles start at about 3 inches and it wold prolly be to big? What do yall think?

Ok this is my story...
I had lots of trouble getting my cal king to eat and i tried lots of ways. I found this way working, you get a dead mouse and place it on a heat rock (make sure the heat rock is covered with vilt so the snake cant burn himself) 3 hours before the snake wakes up(which will prolly be when the light goes out). Then you leave the room and let him alone for a few hours and when you return it will be feeding himself. You can also try this with a little baby mouse which is still alive and hasnt opened his eyes yet. I have no idea if this will work for your snake but it sure did for mine and it wont hurt to give it a try =) so please let me know if it also worked for yours.
Good luck

greets
narco