Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my California Kingsnake for about 2 years now and have never had a problem with him. He's always been a pig and he's never had a problem with his sheds. The last 2 or 3 times I've fed him, he's been eating the mice backwards. I've only be feeding him thawed newborn mice which have just got their fur on them (much smaller than him) so it doesn't seem to have caused a problem, but I'd like to start feeding him a bit bigger sized mice.Does anyone know why he would start doing this? His last shed was fine, so I know there isn't any skin left on his eyes to be giving him sight problems. Any help is appreciated.

I know this isn't the right forum but my Midland water snake has started eating his fish backwards sometimes. I have no idea why he does that but it hasn't caused any problems yet. I'd be interested in hearing why they do this. My King always eats his mice head first though.

>>I know this isn't the right forum but my Midland water snake has started eating his fish backwards sometimes. I have no idea why he does that but it hasn't caused any problems yet. I'd be interested in hearing why they do this. My King always eats his mice head first though.

you want to be very, very careful with a watersnake that's eating fish backwards. notice how fish' fins "unfold": from the rear to the front. So eating a fish backwards is like eating an umbrella from the handle end--instead of everything staying folded flat, it's got the chance of catching on something in the snake's throat, even puncturing it.

the good news is that if the snake tries to regurg a food item that's giving it that sort of problem, it likely can--the "umbrella" folds down again on the way out.

when i was a kid vacationing at jekyll island, georgia, the rangers knew of my interest in snakes. one day one of them cruised into the campground with something he thought i'd want to see: a five-foot brown water snake that had tried to eat a good-sized catfish headfirst, and then regurg'd it: as the fish moved backwards its fins unfolded, piercing the snake in several areas and immobilizing the fish in place. The snake was doomed.

terry

n/p

Well, I was just feeding my King and ironically he ate the second pinkie backwards! It's the first time he's done it. The 3rd one he ate the correct way. I dont think he's especially hungry.

I feed him every six days so he shouldn't be starving. This is just the second time in a row that he's done this and I've been told it can cause problems because of the way rodents legs fold in. I just don't want to end up with a mouse caught in his throat or anything.

Snakes use chemical (scent) cues to find the head. On a freshly killed animal the mouth and the pooper smell a lot different. On a frozen/thawed, not so much. Also, when a king kills a live prey item, I think they judge by the direction of movement where the head is, and aim their strike to get as close to the head as possible. You could try dancing the fuzzy around in a "life-like" way to get yor snake to grab the head atthe beginning.
That said, it's really not a problem with such a small mouse. But it seems like it would be with an adult mouse with claws and all. Then again, I've seen it happen plenty with no ill effects.
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