Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a very, very small king that I was having trouble getting to eat. I tried every pinkie trick in the book, lizard scent....evrything to no avail. The snake would smell the prey but ultimately not recognize it as something to eat. I posted a message her about any other food source ideas, but everyone suggested I stick with the pinkie.

Last night I caught a nice juicy cricket in my garage, so for [bleep]s and giggles I put it in the cage with this problem snake. This morning it is gone and I'm pretty sure there was no way out for it, but not 100% because there is some pegboard (although the cricket seemed too big to fit through it).

My question is; do you think this king ate the cricket? Is that possible? He was wc in Palm Springs, CA. Thanks in advance for any help.

I believe small kings will eat insects. However I would not be completely certain it did eat it. Crickets can get out of some pretty small holes.

You could try another cricket cover the holes with smaller mesh to see if they do not get out and see if they disappear.

You could try feeding lizards to it. What kind of king do you have?
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14 Leopard Geckos 5.9.0
2 Tokay Geckos 2.0.0
1 Graybanded Kingsnake 1.0.0 (on vacation in my house)
1 Baird's Rat Snake (Thanks Vadoni!) 1.0.0
1.0 Ambystoma sp. "Axolotl"

Thanks for your reply. After inspecting the hole a bit more, I suppose it is very possible it escaped. I'm gonna go buy some and do a little test.

What kind of king exactly is another good question. It is a very light yellow with brown saddles not rings. I've really never seen another like it and I've been catching ca kings all my life.

Oh yeah....tried the lizard. Both a local caught bluebelly and otwo different types from the local pet store (long tailed and green anole). No dice.

Maybe you should consider putting it back into the wild...

Obviously I have considered releasing the snake if I can't get it to eat...and just for the record it was caught inside someones house and I grabbed it just before some old baffoon tried to kill it..

But thanks for the really condesending stating the obvious advice Ms. Peta pain in the ass.