Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i posted awhile back when i first got sid! now i have a few questions. first sid has a very strong feed drive. i was wondering if there is a way to make him not soo agressive when i feed him? or is this just their nature? secound if i was to breed him what would be a good match for him? thnx for all suggestions. this is my first snake so please have patience with me

and here is sid

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CURRENTLY HAVE

0.0.4 PACMAN FROGS------CHUBBS,FRANK THE TANK, BIG BERTHA, AND KERMIT THE FROG
1.0 50/50 CAL KING----PHYSCO SID
0.0.1 SULCATA TORT------BRUNO

Try feeding your snakes in a "neutral area". Put them in a different cage to feed tham.

Handle them outside of feeding time. If the only time you open their cage is to feed them, they are gonna react to the cage opening. If they are very hungry...

And lastly, try feeding them a bit more often, maybe less hungry will equal less aggressive.

hmm, i feed one fuzzy every 5 days, think i should feed 2? secound i only have one snake, so maybe take him out of his cage when i feed him? lastly he gets handled about 4 times a week. thnx

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CURRENTLY HAVE

0.0.2 PACMAN FROGS------CHUBBS,FRANK THE TANK,
1.0 50/50 CAL KING----PHYSCO SID
0.0.1 SULCATA TORT------BRUNO

I handle my Florida King once a day for about 20-30 minutes at a time. She also eats 3-4 fuzzy mice (fat ones at that) every 4 days, and from looking at your pics, our snakes are CLOSE to the same size. So basically, yes. In my opinion, one fuzzy every 5 days is no where near enough, especially for a Kingsnake.

Actually one prey item every 5-7 days is enough. That is the diet that most reptile dealers and wholesalers choose. One prey item every week is enough to keep the snake alive and healthy, though growth will be slow, the business spends less money on mice.

Robert... if you had that snake since 02' like it shows in the pic... he's gotta be somewhere around 3 to 4 feet in length. I suggest you start giving him a couple hoppers every week, or even adult mice.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Diadophisdude@yahoo.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

i gotta disagree with you there, one fuzzie a week for a snake that size is not enough food... i know many dealers do it and their snakes stay alive but that's just it, THEY ARE JUST KEPT ALVIVE.

smaller snakes should be fed every 2-3 days

6 months - yearling: every 3-5

it's up to the keeper whether do feed smaller meals more often or a large meal once a week.

~ZF

Imagine that. Someone agreed with me lol.

Do you breed mice? Is it easy?

I was thinking about giving it a shot to see if it would be more cost productive over just buying mice from rodent pro.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Diadophisdude@yahoo.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Breeding mice is very simple in my opinion... it's just time consuming (cleaning bedding and feeding them)... i kept a small colony of mice for a long time for my "live only snakes" (i keep a colony of any where from 1.5 to 1.10) but i just found a way to break them out of that live only habit so i'm getting out of breeding my own mice.

i order most of my mice from rodentpro... i say it would be cheaper to breed mice... but you need a big enough colony to keep your snakes satisfied... i rather buy... it's simpler for me with college and taking care of over 50 snakes... i need all the time i can get.

one question... i been trying to set up my signature... how did u do it?

~ZF

I think I might give breeding mice a try.

With the signature... while you are viewing this message, above where it says "Back to Kingsnake Forum", it says "User Prefs". Go there.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Diadophisdude@yahoo.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... i should have known that

thanx

~ZF

Just wondering, what's your strategey for switching your "live only" snakes to f/t? Thanks.
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

A buddy of mine put me on to this and it really works

well to do this your gonna need to have a colony of mice or know someone who does (prob. get a hand full at a pet store or something) ok just cover the f/t mouse with the mouse bedding for a while... clean off bedding that may be stuck to mouse... and offer it to the picky snake (i put um in a separate container so it's just the snake and the mouse)...

just a simple scenting method

hope it helps

~ZF

Great! Thank you, I always try to store new methods in my brain for when I have need for them. I think I know some people and places I could mooch mouse bedding off of if needed.
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

~ZF
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Thanx
Royal Blue Reptilez

~ZF

Just my experience, I adopted my Cal king as a skinny little thing with a prominent spine when she was less than four feet long. I feed her one medium f/t mouse the same diameter as her per week (occasionally two smaller ones depending on what the reptile store has). She has filled out well and grown a few inches in length. I'm planning to get a gram scale soon so I can monitor her weight (adjusting for growth of course) and it's possible that in a few months, I may have to even scale back slightly.

Young snakes, hatchlings and breeders of course, require more food and metabolisms vary from snake to snake but in my experience, for simple maintenance for an adult snake, one decent sized prey item per week has worked for me so far.
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

no no the dates are wrong on the pics, i have only have the snake about 6 months, he is a great snake, still a little tail rattling here and there etc. so i will start feeding him about 2-3 prey items every 5 days, thnx again for all the help, i will post some more recent pics soon,the ones i have currently are when i first got him. thnx again
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CURRENTLY HAVE

0.0.2 PACMAN FROGS------CHUBBS,FRANK THE TANK,
1.0 50/50 CAL KING----PHYSCO SID
0.0.1 SULCATA TORT------BRUNO

Kingsnakes with agressive feeding responses are the best, Just make sure you're fast enough to keep your fingers out of the way.