Posted by:
Bigtattoo
at Tue Dec 21 04:53:47 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Bigtattoo ]
A lot depends on the snake. Is he eating only live pinks or frozen thawed F/T ? Does he need tease feeding if F/T? or will he just eat them?
I feed most of my snakes in a tub of some sort. Smaller ones like yours I like the take a long containers that are about 6" square and a little of 1" deep. I put in the food item, add the snake, snap on the top, set it back in the enclosure with the screen lid secured, come back later after they've eaten and cut them loose. Larger ones I use shoeboxes. The minimal handling once fed is not going to cause problems just don't handle excessively. Remove from feeding tub and put him in his enclosure. If you use my method all you need to is remove the top from the feed tub and let them get out on their own being sure to secure the screen lid.
Some prefer the brown paper lunch sack. Put in the food item, put in the snake, fold over the top, secure with a paper clip, back in enclosure etc.
If you have to tease feed I would suggest a shoebox and no lid. It gives you a little more room to work. Try to set the shoebox so you are not hovering over the snake. Grasp the pinky by the tail with forceps and put in front of his face. Sometimes you might have to tease the pinky along their body to get a feed reaction. From the looks of the size of your guy he seems like he has been eating fine. I would ask the dealer how he fed and follow his example.
Try at all costs to not feed on the substrate because if they accidently swallow any bedding it could lead to severe problems. I do have some, my Cribos who will go off feed if I handle them so I do have to feed in their enclosure. In this case I use a plastic shoebox and place the food items in there and put it in their enclosure. This way the feed tub is big and deep enough that my Cribos have to go into the tub to feed and I don't run the risk of them swallowing bedding. My male carpet is also fed in his enclosure. He always eats from his perches and never on the floor or bedding. I just place several food items in different locations on his branch perches and he crawls around finds them and eats.
That about covers feeding basics I think. If I missed anything I'm sure some of the others will take up my slack.
One last word of advice. If he will only take live try to get him switched over to fresh killed, F/K or F/T as soon as possible. Tricks for this require another thread. LOL Once a rodent reaches the stage where it is crawling around they have teeth and may chew on your snake, possibly causing scarring or even killing it with a well placed chomp. Typically, but not always, a well started baby king is an eating machine there are always exceptions though. It's after feeding that a temp gradient can become an essential as the snake may want to go to it's warmest spot to facilitate digestion. Too cool and it may not process the food fast enough and it may cause regurgitaion. If you have to use your critter keeper a human heating pad with about 25% of the enclosure just sitting on it will work for now. Watch your temps.
To address your hides for your critter keeper. The TP and PT tubes placed on each end would serve very well for now.
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BigT
There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. The ignorant can be taught, stupidity is beyond our control.
1.2 P. m. melanoleucus B/W N. J. Northern Pines
1.2 P. d. deppei Mexican Pines
2.2 P. l. lineaticollis Linis or Lined Pines
1.2 P. m. lodingi Black Pines
0.3 P. c. sayi Kingsville X Stillwater red bulls
1.1 Drymarchon melenurus Blacktail Cribo
1.2 D. corais Yellowtail Cribos
1.2 M. s. cheynei Jungle Carpet
2.6 L. p. pyromelana Arizona Mt. Kings
1.1 L. g. californiae B/W Cali kings
0.0.3 M. f. flagellum Eastern Coachwhips
1.2 G. m. bottegoi Western Plated lizards
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RE: CA Kingsnake hatchling; brand new ow - Bigtattoo, Tue Dec 21 04:53:47 2010
