Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got my King last year around April and he was around 16 inches long and I started feeding him fuzzies right away...

He has always been a great eatter but he always seemed a little slow when trying to constrict the prey,especially when I compared him to my yellow rat snake who would wrapped around fuzzies so fast it isn't funny.I tried feeding my king frozen/thawed but he never would touch them at all.(plus no pet store here sells them for some reason even though one has a huge reptile department and breeds their own Kings/Milks and Corns) I have tried to convert him many times with no luck so this guy only eats live mice. Anyway compared to my yellow rat who is younger then my King this guy is SLOW. When he would grab a fuzzie it would take him forever just to even get a coil around it...

Now he is around 36 inches long and getting thicker so fuzzies aren't cutting it anymore.. so I moved up to large hoppers...now he nails these guys with blinding speed and has 3-4 coils around them in split seconds.Was it because he was young and didn't really know how to constrict or was it because fuzzies really don't put up much of a fight??..
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Reptiles
0.1 - Early 2002 Anery Motley Corn 33 1/2"
1.0 - Late 2003 Yellow Rat Snake 15 2/3"
0.0.1 - 2003 Banded California King Snake 29 2/3"
1.0 Green Anole
0.0.0 House Gecko
0.1 Painted Turtle

Mammals
4 female ferrets,1 male cat and 1 male doberman...and a few kids!

RIP - Nala my Rottie 08/19/2004

I've noticed with all my snakes that they become more aggressive both as they get older and as the prey becomes larger. My bull (who only eats thawed) did not bother constricting her fuzzies but now that she's up to Rat pups she strikes hard and will quickly constrict - even though it's already dead anyways.
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Matt from Minnesota

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