Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm having a hell of a time getting my kingsnake (desert) to eat. I've tried mice, lizards and rubbing lizards on mice, but she doesn't want to eat at all.

She laid a clutch of eggs (12) two weeks ago, which explains why she didn't eat before, but I can't understand why she won't eat now.

I don't see any signs of her starving, but this bothers me quite a bit. I think her environment is setup pretty well, and I did not want to handle her post egg-laying for fear of stressing her out.

I'm at a complete loss. Do any of you have suggestions or ideas as to the reason(s) why she isn't eating now? Many thanks to all of you kind folks,

Brandon Combs

Normally, assuming your cage conditions are good(we should never assume that, more later) A post egg laying female does not feed because she is retaining egg/s. That is a common cause. Of course general overall stress complicated by such oppertuntistic things like flageletes(sp) can also cause this, but you said your conditions are good.

About your conditions, there is always an outstanding piece of evidence, that is, Your conditions equals your results. Then a giant period. No matter what "you" think, your conditions always caused your results, there is no magic to that, after all, the snake is in your cages. So please rethink your comment about your conditions being good. Obviously they caused this, the question is how?

Please understand, this applies to all of us keepers, no matter how good or how bad.

The first course is always to take your animal to a vet, not ask here. Of course you could palpate the female but do you know what your palpating for? I think you will soon learn. Good luck FR

>>Normally, assuming your cage conditions are good(we should never assume that, more later) A post egg laying female does not feed because she is retaining egg/s. That is a common cause. Of course general overall stress complicated by such oppertuntistic things like flageletes(sp) can also cause this, but you said your conditions are good.
>>
>> About your conditions, there is always an outstanding piece of evidence, that is, Your conditions equals your results. Then a giant period. No matter what "you" think, your conditions always caused your results, there is no magic to that, after all, the snake is in your cages. So please rethink your comment about your conditions being good. Obviously they caused this, the question is how?
>>
>> Please understand, this applies to all of us keepers, no matter how good or how bad.
>>
>> The first course is always to take your animal to a vet, not ask here. Of course you could palpate the female but do you know what your palpating for? I think you will soon learn. Good luck FR

FR-

I agree that my comment about the conditions was quite ignorant. At this point, I will take her in to the vet, and be sure there are no parasitic causes of this behavior. FR, I truly appreciate your help. One of these days, my experience will outgrow my mouth Again, many thanks, Brandon
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Brandon Combs

Is she CB or WC?

Mike
Michael's Place

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

>>Is she CB or WC?
>>
>>Mike
>>Michael's Place
>>
>>-----
>>Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
>>KingPin Reptiles Inc.
>>Helmz777@aol.com
>>www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Mike-

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to plead ignorance on this one. Can you elaborate? Thanks, Brandon
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Brandon Combs

Was it born in captivity or caught?
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Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

CB represents Captive Born and WC stands for Wild Caught since Mike failed to correlate the abbreviations below with the explanation of his question......
John

>>CB represents Captive Born and WC stands for Wild Caught since Mike failed to correlate the abbreviations below with the explanation of his question......
>>John

Thanks, guys, for the explanation. She is a wild-caught snake. I took her off the freeway before she could be run over out in San Dimas. I'll be taking her in to the vet on Monday, just in case.

-Brandon