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I just acquired a 2 1/2 month old desert king. Today was its second day home and I decided to try and feed it. I placed a frozen/thawed pinky on a ripped paper towel in his cage. I use wood chips as a substrate. He didn't seem to be interested so I went to play the new grand theft auto for a while. I came back about half an hour later and the pinky was gone. It was a small pinky so I decided to give him another, this time watching him carefully. Within minutes he was out of his hide sniffin the new pinky. He latched on, but then to my horror dragged the pinky off of the towel, onto the substrate and then into his hide. Do I have anything to worry about? In the future I plan on feeding him in a seperate rubbermaid container, but because he ate his pinky on the wood chips I am concerned. Thoughts? thanks - Sam.

Wether or not to feed in the cage is sort of a controversial issue. I always feed my snakes in seperate containers to lower risk of impaction and to keep them "tamer." Keep an eye on your king and make sure he poops, and from then on, i would feed in a seperate tub. If he doesn't poop but appears swollen, like he needs to, i would take him to the vet.
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just to play safe, for others reading this thread, i'd recommend waiting two-three days before feeding and then starting slowly, unless the pinks were extremely smaller than his normal food item size, i'd have settled for just one, and waited 4-5 days before offering another, and i'd only slowly build up to multiple feedings. Once you get ouit of whack, you can't go back. Or something like that. You can, of course, but a regurg can put a snake off food and require a month or months to "catch up" to a normal feeding regimen again. So take your time, especially with new snakes, and don't overdo it.
peace
terry

thanks terry. no i gave him two pinkies because they were tiny. The store gave me a 10 for 9 bucks deal and about 3 of the ten were just microscopic because they were low on frozen mice. His normal weekly meal probably would have been actual more meat than he got out of the two pinkies I gave him. I assume they were the runts of the litter. but yeah, thanks for the info guys from now on he eats in a rubbermaid container. I'll keep a close watch as well.

>>thanks terry. no i gave him two pinkies because they were tiny. The store gave me a 10 for 9 bucks deal and about 3 of the ten were just microscopic because they were low on frozen mice. His normal weekly meal probably would have been actual more meat than he got out of the two pinkies I gave him. I assume they were the runts of the litter. but yeah, thanks for the info guys from now on he eats in a rubbermaid container. I'll keep a close watch as well.

good deal. obviously you know what you're doing.
terry