Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My fiance and I have a california desert kingsnake that we got from a reptile shop about 6 months ago. He's never been any problem other than when he musks you from time to time. But he's always been a great eater of mice, killed or alive. He hasn't eaten in 3 weeks or more now. Prior to that, we had changed to a sand substrate which he loved to dig in and looked great on. THe first time he wouldn't accept the mouse, I noticed his eyes were a little milky, so he started to shed shortly after that, makes sence. After that, he had been pretty dusty looking from the new substrate and we thought that may be harming his vision and changed to a different substrate that he also can dig through, but it doesn't stick to him at all. But 2 weeks in a row after that, he wouldn't accept his food. He seems perfectly happy other than that. Any advice?

I have a 4 year old desert phase cali that goes completely off feed
from Sept through about march or April. She was a year old and not
much bigger than a hatchling when I got her. The breeder said she
wasn't much of an eater. During the spring and summer months she is
ravenous and will eat anything thrown her way. This summer I decided to
beef her up and started feeding her appropriate sized rats. Then
I started giving her as many rats as I thought she could safely take.
I figured I'd finally learned her pattern and if she was going to
fast 6 months out of the year I might as well give her what she
wants the other 6. She put on several inches and quite a bit of
girth this summer and no signs of obesity even though she was
eating up to several rats a week. This will be the first winter I
have hibernated her so hopefully she won't lose much of the weight she put on.
My point is every snake is a little different and yours may be like mine
and just go off feed in the fall. Nothing else changed in the care
of my snake other than the changing season and photoperiod. The
temps and food offerings and everything else remained the same.
So don't panic just keep an eye on it for any other health problems
and deal with those if you find them. You may just have a summer
feeder on your hands and if so you could try hibernating it for a
few months and then give a little extra during the feeding times.
I completely threw the 1 appropriate sized feeding/week philosophy
out the window with no ill effects so far and I am not a power feeder.
Let us know if anythign else comes up.

Yeah - he is likely going off feed in response to the time of year. In the wild he would be brumating now. You can do one of two things: 1) Cool his cage to 60-ish deg F and keep it dark until Feb 04, or 2) Keep him like you are but realize he may not eat until Feb or March (or may eat just a few times inbetween).

Make sure he has fresh water though all the time.