Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased my first kingsnake in sept 2002....she is a thayeri king that is eating one sm/med. fuzzy a week. She is approx 17 inches long. Should I be feeding her two fuzzies a week? I know the general rule about over feeding and have read many books referencing this species. Right now she is shedding once a month like clock work (21st every month) Will feeding her an additon amount upset the shedding cycle? Especially, since a snakes growth is determined by both by the overall size and amount eaten. (FYI) I want to grow her slow/healthy Any advice referencing this subject matter is appreciated...

With feeding, look at how long a discernable bulge stays in the snake. After what I think is a decent meal, the snake will look like it's eaten for 2-3 days. Not necessarily a huge bulge, but enough to know that it looks full.

I have a mex king and a cal both about that size, and they're eating reasonably sized fuzzies, one a week.

If you mean upsetting the shed cycle by accelerating it, there's nothing really wrong with that. It's not like a bodily process that must happen at such-and-such a time. It just happens when it needs to.

If you want to feed a little more without moving up to two fuzzies (feeding basically twice as much, not a little more), you could try feeding every 5-6 days.

I realize you don't want to overfeed your snake, and you're in no danger of doing so. But, FYI, the power feeding you hear people do is much, much more than just another fuzzy a week. If you fed your snake twice as much it would still be not-that-bad.

Hope that helps,
Baz

With feeding, look at how long a discernable bulge stays in the snake. After what I think is a decent meal, the snake will look like it's eaten for 2-3 days. Not necessarily a huge bulge, but enough to know that it looks full.

I have a mex king and a cal both about that size, and they're eating reasonably sized fuzzies, one a week.

If you mean upsetting the shed cycle by accelerating it, there's nothing really wrong with that. It's not like a bodily process that must happen at such-and-such a time. It just happens when it needs to.

If you want to feed a little more without moving up to two fuzzies (feeding basically twice as much, not a little more), you could try feeding every 5-6 days.

I realize you don't want to overfeed your snake, and you're in no danger of doing so. But, FYI, the power feeding you hear people do is much, much more than just another fuzzy a week. If you fed your snake twice as much it would still be not-that-bad.

Hope that helps,
Baz

With feeding, look at how long a discernable bulge stays in the snake. After what I think is a decent meal, the snake will look like it's eaten for 2-3 days. Not necessarily a huge bulge, but enough to know that it looks full.

I have a mex king and a cal both about that size, and they're eating reasonably sized fuzzies, one a week.

If you mean upsetting the shed cycle by accelerating it, there's nothing really wrong with that. It's not like a bodily process that must happen at such-and-such a time. It just happens when it needs to.

If you want to feed a little more without moving up to two fuzzies (feeding basically twice as much, not a little more), you could try feeding every 5-6 days.

I realize you don't want to overfeed your snake, and you're in no danger of doing so. But, FYI, the power feeding you hear people do is much, much more than just another fuzzy a week. If you fed your snake twice as much it would still be not-that-bad.

Hope that helps,
Baz

This is the feeding schedule I have used for my snakes:
1 pink every 3 - 4 days. If I feed a newborn pink, I feed every 3 days. Once they start feeding on 3 or 4 day old pinks I feed them 2 every 3 - 4 days. Once they can handle a fuzzy, I do the same thing. Once they can handle a hopper I feed 1 - 2 every 6 days. Then I move them up to small adults, 1 - 2 every 6 days. Once they can handle adults, then I feed 1 med/large adult evey 6 days. I have used this with great results, and none of my snakes are overweight.

This is my '00 KY locale normal corn. He is 48" and I feed him 1 large adult mouse every 6 days. He sheds about once every 3 months. He is slowing down and probably wont get a whole lot bigger than he is now. My guess would be maybe another 6 to 8".