Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found a 6 inch scarlet king snake about a week ago. I want to keep it. I kept many snakes as a child but none recently. I am now a vegetarian and have an aversion to feeding live food to pets. I believe that I could handle feeding a frozen pinkie or insects but that is about it. I am pretty sure I could not put a live mouse, skink or anole in the cage. Is it possible for juvenile scarlet king snakes to live on insects? What type of insects should I use? I live in Florida so I have quite a few insects available. Has anyone ever had success with chicken egg yolks? Has anyone ever fed a milk/king/corn snake hamburger meat with success?
Since I brought Ping into my house I doubt that it will get cool enough for him to hibernate. Will I need some sort of heating device for him?
He really is so small I can't imagine him being able to swallow even the smallest pinkie.
I have not tried to feed him anything other than mole crickets as I do not have a heating device set up in his large tupperware like container.
He really seems to love the bay tree substrate I used for the bottom of his cage. Most of it I shredded but some of the pieces I left in tact so he is able to crawl around in the rotten bark as there are many nooks and holes.
I don't want to disturb him unless I must so I am not sure if he has eaten any of the mole crickets yet.
Any advice from people with first hand experience would be great.
Of course I have looked up everything that I can on the web concerning care and feeding but to me it is not the same as chatting with someone who has first hand knowledge.
Thanks in advance,
Michelle

Baby Scarlet Kings feed almost exclusively on Ground Skinks. It will not eat insects. When they get larger, they can often be switched to pinky mice.

Tim

There must be something else that they will eat. Even if I was willing to sacrifice a ground skink I do not think that I would have much luck finding one now that the weather is changing. I believe that they hibernate.

I've raised Scarlet Kings for a number of years - trust me, they'll only eat skinks until they're big enough to take pinky mice and even then, they sometimes prefer lizards.

Tim

Tim,
Where are you getting the skinks?

let it go where found.......near rock pile or rock wall etc....
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Scarlet kingsnakes take lizards as their prey in the wild and are basically, exclusively lizard eaters, skinks as Tim mentioned. I would imagine they may also take the occasional toad? They don't want to eat anything else because they are born and imprinted with seeing lizards as their food. They simply don't recognize other things as a food item. They are very shy, secretive snakes and as WC, generally do not make a very good captive. They are even hard to convert to pinky mice (heck even the captive bred babies require work) and if it can be done at all, it is very hard to do and the snake will often go through a long period where it will go off feed until you use the lizard scent, or even a lizard, again. Insects would not be a suitable replacement for an animal that normally would feed on lizards. It would be like trying to force a tortoise to eat only tomatoes. Many people argue that not even rodents would be a suitable replacement for an animal that normally eats lizards. Insects are for insectivores, and there are only a handful of snakes that eat insects (green snakes). Many even say that garter snakes eat insects which is entirely FALSE. mice, lizards, and birds are very different in their makeup from any insect and also each other, and not only will 99% of snakes NOT eat insects, if you somehow did manage to get it to eat one it will pass through undigested, as their system is not built for digesting them. If you are unable to stand the thought of feeding one creature to another, you may want to look away from snakes because all snakes eat other creatures and it's just the way it has to be. Whether still alive or frozen thawed, the mouse dies to be food either way. A green snake, which IS an insectivore and eats only insects, (NOT being contrite, but doesn't that bother you, because insects are living things too?) or possibly an omnivorous reptile, such as a bearded dragon, turtle, or a tortoise, which is a vegetarian. I hope this has helped in some way. I am not trying to be a jerk here, but some snakes, specialty eaters like the scarlet kingsnake in particular, need to eat very specific things and it is not acceptable or in favor of the animal to try and substitute that diet for something less. Our convenience should never come before the animals needs and I am sure you can understand where I am coming from!

also I just re-read your post to make sure I didn't miss anything. Please don't feed any snake hamburger meat. It's very bad for them, because all it is is muscle and fat it is not a nutritionally complete food item and very fatty. Snakes need to eat whole prey to stay healthy, with bones, teeth, brains, organs, skin and muscle. It would most likely cause a regurgitation and/or a very smelly, greasy poop! Yuck :0

I wish you the best in finding a snake that is right for you!