Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How long do you guys leave f/t meals in the tank? I've never had a problem, but with snakes like SK's, which it's best to feed at night, it got me woundering.-Smokey

I assume you mean speckled kings; if so, I wasn't aware that they prefered eating at night - the few that I've kept got fed with everyone else. If it's not what you're talking about, then here's my two cents anyway.

I don't leave any thawed mice in my tank more than two hours - if the snake (in general) doesn't eat it by then and is aware of it, chances are it's not going to take it. Flesh starts to decay right away and keeping in the cage for more than a few hours isn't a good idea...before long you'll have a stench beginning; much more than 8 hours or so and they will start to visibly decompose depending on tank conditions and by then it's bacteria/virus city.

When I kept Graybanded Kings I used to feed them in the early evening, leave the room and come back in about 30 minutes and they usually ate - or they eventually went hungry enough to learn the routine and then ate...live anoles always helped too; they'll eat eventually unless they are just totally freaked, stressed, in some stage of ecdysis (doesn't stop some of my kings though! LOL) or diseased.

-John

I had a non-feeding WC pituophis that I discovered would eat rotten rodents. I slowly worked her back to fresh but she never had any problem digesting rats that were up to 24 hours old and at first that's all she would take. I'm not sure if you can infer anything about her feeding habits in the wild from this but it's interesting.
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Martin Whalin

"It is foolish to let singleness of purpose deprive one of the joy and delectation of the many wonderful sights and sounds incidental to the quest."
-Carl Kauffeld
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For my nocturnal snakes, I have no problem leaving f/t rodents in their enclosures overnight.

If they eat, great. If they don't, I'll remove the food item in the morning.

Worst case scenario ... if the prey has been sitting to long and does not "agree" with the snake, the snake will regurgitate it.

But this will almost never happen if you adhere to an 8-hour rule.

Take care.

-Brandon
www.nosnakeban.org

John, I was taking about scarlet kings, wrong forum I guess, but this is the one forum where I have learned to trust certain people’s posts. (No offence meant to anyone else.) Brandon, I agree on the 8 or so hour rule. Scarlet kings can be difficult to feed in a few minutes or so. And I assume snakes in the wild come across long dead pray, and will take advantage of the situation. Thanks for the replies guys!-Brett