Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering how long it generally would take for a speckled kingsnake to digest its meal. It got done eating a copperhead saturday afternoon, so its been almost 4 days... however, I don't think it would be ready to try being held yet? If I picked him up would that stress him out and make him regurgitate the copperhead? How long would you recommend before I play with the big guy?

Thats a really large meal and will take longer then the normal 3-4-5 days,i would wait till he "took a big dump" then handle him...IMHO

That's a good-sized meal. As a rule I let my snakes take one good dump before I handle them...and almost always they take another one within a few hours of me handling them. This is usually 3-4 days after a large meal. Of course, some snakes go through their meals in 2 days (all of it it seems!) or 5 days.

BTW, Speckled Kings seem to "love" Copperheads, especially here in Mississippi - a few of the staff have seen them eating c.heads here on the museum grounds over the years.

-John

Does that mean I'll have to dig through the bedding until my hand meets cold & gooey material? He likes to dig under the bedding so would it probably be near the bottom of the aquarium's floor?

take one on you while he's burrowing or right where he sleeps - they usually leave in there for you to see (to include the water bowl!) and smell! Sometimes they do, however, or they push it down through the substrate by moving over the top of it again and again - unless you have a small snake in large cage you should see some sign of feces.

-John