Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got this king snake i adopted. Its been a long time since i owned a snake. I have a reverse striped king snake, about 2 1/2 years old, about 4 feet long. I was feeding her the large frozen mice, and she was eating two at a time. She always seemed starving and looked frantically for more for hours. I just bought her the next size up which are small rats, but she seemed to have a lot of trouble getting it down. She did get it down after about half an hour. She is ok moving around the cage freely and coiling. You can tell the rat is there..but she's not stretched or anything. Should i just continue to feed her 2 large mice instead of a rat? or you think she should be able to handle it? If i feed her 2 mice, she seems hungry within a couple days..

FYI- i feed her on that paper so she doesn't eat the bedding with the rat.i know feeding in the cage is supposed to be a big no-no, but the previous owner always fed her in her cage..and she doesn't strike at her food..just goes up to it and starts eating..has never tried to strike me either.

As long as you provide warm enough temps on one far side so it can properly digest it (thermogradient), then no problem....that is what is extremely important to keep in mind.

The snake HAS to be able to seek warmth to digest, but then also able to escape the warmth to cooler temps on the other side to lower metabolism as well.

A MINIMUM of high 80's on one side and low-mid 70's on the other side. It al depending on the ambient temps of the room itself it is kept in, how much ventilation the enclosure has, and the SIZE of the enclosure that will govern this. Too small an enclosure and a small under-tank heat source can heat up the entire cage too much. The larger the cage, the more each side can vary, and the snake will seek the proper temps for any given situation it has to accomplish.

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

unfortunately the enclosure is a bit small i feel. I'm working on getting a 55 gallon tank. Its in a 20 gallon long right now. The heat is usually around 88 on one side, and about 75 on the other. Snake seems ok, it hasn't regurgitated it, and when i went to take a picture of her stomach in the cage she got shy and ran into her hiding spot, so i assume shes ok. Thanks for your advice =) Alot of pictures online show snakes eating more extreme stuff larger then mine did, so i probably shouldn't worry about it

Yeah, 75 on one end and 88 on the warm end should be okay. And yes, The larger the caging is the better for a wider thermogradient, and they will always go to the temp variable that suits their specific need at any given time..

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com