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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.

it might have. But you shouldn't have fed it a WC cricket.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

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Not only is that the most worthless "advice" I have ever received....I can't say many would even agree.

Did it ever occur to you to elaborate on WHY I shouldn't be feeding a wc cricket? Or did you just feel that telling me that "maybe it did eat it..." (real insightful by the way....maybe you say...wow...expert thinking) and then scolding me was enough good advice for one day?

Further...are you actually trying to tell me that finally getting a very fussy snake to eat after almost a month is a BAD thing just because he took a wc cricket? More brilliance.

Please don't help me anymore.

Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but most of us prefer not to feed WC insects because of pesticide use being so common. Everyone and his neighbor is using a lawn care service and many people spray specifically for crickets.

Second, If you are having problems getting a kingsnake to eat I would think you would get more specific help and suggestions on the kingsnake forum where you will be discussing this with folk who are familiar with kingsnakes. Although there may be some people here who have kingsnakes, many of us don't. I don't, I have lizards. I used to have frogs and a box turtle and I have kept rat snakes, hognose, bulls and kept an ATB for a while. Never a kingsnake.

I hope you can find someone who can help you with your problematic snake on the other forum.

Good luck,
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
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Thanks for the info. I see. Fortunately I live right next to undeveloped land with no neighbors so the chances of any insecticide are probably very low, but that does make sense.

I did also post this question in the kingsnake forum as well as here. This probably wasn't the right place after all. Thanks again for your time.

WC crickets are a bad idea but it probably won't hurt the king even if it did eat it, because of potential pesticide and other things that the cricket could have ingested. As far as getting a fussy king to eat, hmmmm. I have several kings but none are fussy, as a matter of fact, once you get them to eat, you may not be able to get them to slow down. The easiest way is to "brain" or "pith" the pinks and tap them on the nose just slightly. Usually this instills a strike of some kind in which they will "taste" so to speak the prey. Once they grab it, it will probably eat and you should have no problems afterwards. You can also try leaving the pink overnight, some like to be concealed in the dark. Sometimes putting them in a smaller container for feeding is good as they will be in contact with their food more often too. You could also try scenting another pink with different insects too? Several species of snakes eat insects at an early age because that is the easiest food to get. I hope this helps.