Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We bought a baby CA King about 3 weeks ago. When we first got him he heartily ate 2 pinkie mice (after we had him 2 days & on advice of Pet Store). He was alert, smelling everything, crawling well, appeared very healthy before feed. Next day, regurgitated both pinkies. So, a few days later, fed him one pinkie, which he readily grabbed and ate. This one stayed down. A week later, one pinkie, regurgitated next day. A few days later, another one, ate it fine, then threw it up. He has been becoming more and more lethargic, seems almost limp, not much body tone. This morning, he won't even react to the pinkie (all the others he grabbed instantly and devoured). Temps in cage OK, mid 80's on warm side, 70's cool side. Has hide spots in cage. This is our first snake, and I am really worried. He doesn't look as though he is about to shed, no change in color. Help please if you have any ideas.

Check out DMONG's (Doug )response on the Kingsnake Forum. His post was on March 13th. That info will be helpful to you.

I would hydrate the snake asap. A container with about 1/4 inch of clean water and some Pedialite (don't make him swim to stay afloat). I would also keep him in a small plastic container like a Kritter Keeper with paper towels or newspaper substrate and see what happens.

Baby kings are moisture loss sensitive. I would do these things immediately, then look online for some Flagyl. See Dmong's post as was suggested by the other user.

Sadly the little snake died the next day. He had what appeared to be a blocked intestine, he never pooped at all from the day we got him from the pet store. Being a new snake owner, I was not aware of how often he should poop. I don't know why his intestines were blocked, but it was very sad, he was quite beautiful and docile.