My Arizona Mtn Kingsnake won't eat!

[ENSATINA]

Hello I am new to the forum but I figured this is the place to ask. I've searched online a lot and I have still yet have gotten my snake to eat. I bought a captive bred AZ Mtn King about 3 weeks ago. The pet store that I bought it from had it for 5 months and it looked thin but not dehydrated or sickly. I've tried feeding it small blue tail skinks, small fence lizards, also live lizard scented pinkies but it won't eat anything. It just hangs out in the cool side the aquarium and comes out at night to explore the tank.

[Rattlehead]

Hi. What are your temperatures in the enclosure? Are the mice frozen/thawed? If he's active at night try at that time, but first, let us know more information :)

[ENSATINA]

He has a long tank 2' 6" long x 1' wide x 1' tall. Ceramic heat emitter on one end that is 91 degrees on the hottest basking spot a clay dish and then the opposite end of the tank is 72 degrees, cooler at night. Hides at both ends. The substrate is clean topsoil from my yard with leaf litter and sphagnum moss too. Clay dishes, pieces of flat flagstone, bark as hides. A small water dish is provided on the cool side. I keep most of the tank dry but one hide on the cool side is kept a little moist with moss to aid in shedding. The bark pieces are cork. I have removed the pine cone since this pic. Thanks!

[ENSATINA]

Sorry the mice are live!

[Rattlehead]

I think you should offer pre-killed, and maybe the smallest for him. What's the size of both snake and feeders?

Do you know what kind of food was recieving at the pet store?

When I first got my Kingsnake 'I guided' holding him in my hand, to the pinky mouse. I made a small perforation in the mouse's head, letting some grey matter out, and once he smelled for a second, he did bite.

Good luck

[ENSATINA]

The snake is aproximetly 15" long but thin. Not like anorexic thin but not the healthiest looking. At the pet store they said they fed it thawed pinks, they are very very small around 7/8" of an inch long not including the tiny little tail. When I first got it they said it was quite the voracious eater. At first I tried thawed pinks. 2 attempts, then a live pinkie, still no luck then I found a perfect sized blue tailed sking in the yard... Still no. After that I tried a perfect sized juvenile fence lizard still no so I released the skink and kept the fence lizard alive in a small tank and used it to scent another pinkie that is in my kings tank at this moment. Thank you for all the info. I think I'll chop the little pinkies head open and try to put him in isolation with it.

[D Grade]

Pyro's are a mountain species so I would recommend dropping that hot spot down quite a bit. 91F is too warm for any King snake species, let alone a mountain species. Try 80F-82F, dont worry about it being too cool. These are mountain Kings and in AZ they are found in Sky Island mountain ranges above 4,000-5,000 feet where its 20-30F cooler than in the valley. Make sure there are a few hides, then try introducing a lizard scented pinky in a week. If it still does not take it, catch a wild mouse if possible and try another pinky scented with a wild mouse. I know it sounds crazy, but almost every Pyro will start accepting bred feeders if the first is scented with a wild mouse. If this does not work, try scented pinky parts. If that does not work, you may need to resort to force feeding.

[Albert Clark]

I would stop handling the snake at all for the next 7 days and just go into the enclosure to spot clean and change water. Do not try to feed him during this time. Maybe he is going into a shed cycle. Either way, you only had him for 3 weeks and he still may be acclimating to the new surroundings. You are only stressing him by continuing to try to feed him. Leave him alone for the next 7 to 10 days. Absolutely no handling. When the time is up try and feed him what he is used to , f/t pinks. Oh, and yes, get that temperature down from 98f. Do you have a thermostat for your heating element?