Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a guy at petco told me that you could feed the snake goldfish but i wasn't sure to believe him. and als she is about a foot and 1 inch long, i have been feeding her 2 mouse pinkies on sunday a 1 on wed. but she still seems very hungry. am i feeding her enough?
please help this new parent LOL!
thanks

What ever you are doing with that king you are doing it right!
Don't go with fish if it's doing fine with mice.
here's a patternless chocolate cal

Hey Jetzen... love that snake... been meaning to ask (good thing U post the pic) are you sure it's a cali? could it possibly be a Hypo Mex Black?

is there any sign that your snake may be mex black... or what makes you believe it's a cali (i.e. what characteristics)?

~ZF

Good question, this snake and three of her sibs were sold/traded to me as cals by a very reliable/honest dealer by the name of Mrs. Snakes who got them from Isis Reptiles another very honest/reliable dealer. The other three are not patternless but have very thin bands.
I will post updated pics of all four soon.

here's a MBK

At 13 inches, I was giving most of mine 3-4 day old pinky mice every 3-5 days. Your schedule is good.

Mike
Michael's Place

-----
Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Goldfish have something in their slime coat that breaks down vitamin E. That causes skin problems and will likely kill your snake if it is not taken care of. Also fish are not a complete food item. They are hugely lacking in calcium.

Stick to the pinkies and find a mom and pop store to go to instead of the big chains. And keep posting questions here it helps us all learn. Oh and go back to the PetCo or whatever it was and tell the guy he is wrong and why so he does not give bad advise to others. You should count yourself lucky that he didn't give you crickets like they usually do there. For that matter if you bought the snake there a vet visit is in order. While they buy from good sources they feed the worst items and pass on parasites to their snakes in the process. Post where you live (city, state) and maybe a local will give you a good vet.

Later Jason

thankyou for the info-i'm from phoenix, arizona and looking for both a good snake vet and a good place to buy pinkies.

1 more ? from the newbie-LOL
i was also told that since pinkies don't have a complete bone structure, that i should dust them with calcium. i have found the calcium dust but it says for crickets. should i use it and if so, how often?
thanks again for the help, don't think i could make it without this board.

I'm by no means an expert like some of the guys on here, but I have so far raised 2 babies (one voracious FL king, one W. Hognose) on pinkies and they've done beautifully without supplementation. I have never heard that they should be dusted, in fact you can overdo calcium and Vit D with dusting in many species, so I'm sure it could happen with snakes. The FL started out the size of a pencil and now at 5 years is 4 feet long and almost 5 inches around the middle and doing fine. The hog I've only had a year and a half but she's doubled in size (still on pinkies though I think we're switching to crawlers at the next feeding), and has no problems. I've ordered frozen mice from a few different places, and it is definitely way cheaper and easier than buying them individually at a pet store where they usually go for a buck apiece. If you look on the main page of kingsnake they have a listing of companies that sell frozen feeders. I'd tell you my personal favorite but the moderator would just bleep it out, but if you poke around you'll figure out who has the best prices and biggest selection (I like knowing exactly how much the mice I'm getting will weigh apiece). Good luck! kings are a great start.
-----
Sue
currently living with me:
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Saharan Uromastyx (Brit)
0.1 beautiful kitty (Terra)