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I ran out of mice and this aggressive Cal King took 3 hours plus to fully engorge it. I have the San Diego variety with spots and white bumps along the backside. She is always moving but does not bite unless it is feeding time. I love her and she is great. San Diego kings are much more aggressive than my 10 year old regular Cal King.

That was quite a risk you took. A mature rat is way too big for a 30" kingsnake to safely consume. It is a very easy way to kill a snake-even if it did manage to strugle it down after 3 hrs. It presents a real danger in the fact that the snake may not be able to digest a meal of those proportions.

I recently had the misfortune of losing a 3' black milk that I fed (it's first) rat pink to. This was a healthy snake that I had reared from a hatchling. It died because the rat rotted in it's stomach. The temp was 78-82 (night-day)

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Man!!! A 3 foot milk had a rat pinky that it couldn't digest? What do you think went wrong? Small enough meal seems like to me... Any thoughts on what went wrong? Temps seem right. A rat pinkie should only be about 5-9 grams... Just wondering, maybe I can avoid what you went through.. (sorry for the loss)

Scott

I recently had the misfortune of losing a 3' black milk that I fed (it's first) rat pink to. This was a healthy snake that I had reared from a hatchling. It died because the rat rotted in it's stomach. The temp was 78-82 (night-day)

Two weeks earlier it had taken two small adult mice with no problem. Right after the Rat pink feeding we had a strong cold front come through S. Florida. Even though I had the heat on and maintained a safe temp, I think the Milk responded to the change in air pressure and it's metabolism slowed down. I have noticed many times that a change in (winter) air pressure will throw snakes off their feed or make them regurge. It also gets interesting when a hurricane is near...I have observed my snakes seeking higher ground.

I wonder if anyone has done a study on this phenomenom?

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

We kinda touched on this in that powerfeeding thread; I know snakes can - and do - eat larger meals in the wild than they normally would in captivity, but I agree that a snake of that length (unless it's some sort of blood python!) should not have a rat that size...you're inviting trouble because even if you up the temps. to allow the snake to increase its metabolism you're pushing the snake's whole system to adjust to something it probably couldn't do in nature.

As far as hurricanes and the like Frank, where I grew up and places I've live in Florida (all over when working for DEP) my snakes certainly responded to something "in the air" when serious storms where getting near. Before big rain/thunderstorms/tropical storms they were all out and about, very alert and moving around, pushing against their cages - all of the snakes - before some of them just tucked themselves away nice and tight in their hide boxes.

Interesting observation and I'm sure snakes can sense these kind of events long before we can react to them.

-John

Yeah... You might have something there...

Never put much though to it, but I grew up on Key Biscayne. (I live in MS now) And your right about when big storms would come through... (especially a long time approaching Hurricane) The snakes would invariably seek the uppe reaches of the cage.

And here in MS even though I have the snake room in the house, all cages heated the snakes do seem to slow down anyway.(I know its not cold like minnesota here, but give me a break! I'm from FL and 60 degrees is freezing to me)

Thanks for the info...

Sorry you lost that snake...

Scott

Frank, Thats to bad you lost that Three Footer. Thats about the size when they get out of that whippy stage.

Wonderful snakes to bad you lost him...Dann

That was a serious mistake on your part besides being poor judgement of what is healthy for your snake. A food item should be no larger than 1.5 times the diameter/girth of your snake. A 30 inch cal king should be fed weanlings, large hoppers, small mice, etc. You would be better off feeding 2-3 small items than a large meal. Your snake will most likely regurge that meal. If it does, provide it with water only for about 10 days and then try the appropriate size food item. If you have any questions about the proper feeding and care of your cal king, please email me or post the questions in this forum.

The food item will probably rot in the stomach before it can digest. Make sure you keep your snake warm to help. I am surprised your snake did not die during this.

If your snake lives through this, I suggest as the others have here, that you wait to feed until you have a smaller pry item.

As a keeper of any animal we have a responsibility to that animal we keep. Knowledge is not accidental in this case. Feeding a 30” King a pry item that large has demonstrated your knowledge here.

Good luck with your King Snake.

I find it hard to beleive a 30" King could even swallow a mature rat. I had a Cali King that was 42" and fed her a small rat that left a huge lump in her, I doubt a 30" king could even take a mature rat. Here's a pic of her after her first SMALL rat.

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Ace

I agree, not only do I find this story hard to believe, but I totally don't believe it. Unless he has no idea what a mature rat looks like. I doubt if my largest brooksi could handle a mature rat.
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Martin Whalin

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