King Cobra questions

[rwg]

For those of you working with King Cobras, I have a few questions to satisfy my curiosity.

Are there many CBB specimens available, or are the majority wild caught? Do they take mammals in captiivity very easily? For the ones that switch, how big a prey item do they take relative to body girth? How fast is their metabolism? How often do you feed? For the larger specimens in particular (14+ feet), what, how often and how large do you feed them?

I cant imagine how many corn snakes you'd have to give a 16' cobra, but I'm curious to know.

rg

[VI Reptiles]

keep in mind, they dont only eat snakes! They will eat small mammals as well!

[Vanan]

Originally posted by VI Reptiles
keep in mind, they dont only eat snakes! They will eat small mammals as well!

Are you referring to their captive diet or their diet in the wild? Kings can be "trained" to take mammals in captivity but never heard of one which didn't have to be switched over.

More than often king keepers feed their bigger guys by tying a string from a feeder snake to a appropriate sized rat. "String" feeding if you'd like. Variation from chain feeding.

[herpaworld]

Hi Guy's,

i can only say, all my Kings only feed on other Snakes. Some of them even specialised on Asian Ratsnakes, they dont eat different Pray.

[rwg]

Originally posted by herpaworld
i can only say, all my Kings only feed on other Snakes. Some of them even specialised on Asian Ratsnakes, they dont eat different Pray.

How big are yours? How often, and how much do you feed them?

rg

[herpaworld]

12 feet, 13 feet, 9 feet, etc....
All the big ones are feeded ones a Month (I fill some Python *sorry them* with rats)....
The small ones twice a Month...


regards

[SCReptiles]

Roark has the biggest that i know of. about 16' and massive girth. his is a very ltc that had never switched. he feeds it large rat snakes that he stuffs full of rats before feeding.

[VI Reptiles]

Well, im not an expert on cobras so i would never have known some only eat snakes!

[MsTT]

Insert about an inch of dead snake into a rat mouth and you have a package that most kings will cheerfully take. You can also have fun with shed snake skins stuffed with mice. Kings will also take cut up snake pieces, so one dead large python or boa will feed a king for a long time. Making roadkill snake shakes in your blender is also useful. Marinate a rat in this soup and your kings think it's candy.

Problem is, most wild caught kings are so parasitized and in such awful condition that they don't feed voluntarily until they've gotten a fair bit of veterinary support care.

[cobraman]

I second what Tanith said! :)

[Vanan]

Originally posted by VI Reptiles
Well, im not an expert on cobras so i would never have known some only eat snakes!

Hence why you don't say something without knowing. At least you admitted not knowing. :)

Mario, are the Asian ratsnakes you feed your king, Ptyas ssp.? I've heard that Ptyas are readily taken by most WC kings. If not Ptyas what species is it that your kings relish?

[herpaworld]

Our Kings feeding by Elaphe erythura ssp. and Retic Pythons the bigger ones...

[herpaworld]

ups, befor i forgot: here in my Place is no Ptyas ssp. known. The Kings live beside the E. erythura, common Wolfsankes, Kukri Snakes, Boigas, Retic Python, Dendrolaphis etc. but no Ptyas...

[Vanan]

Thanks for answering my question Mario. Now we have a hint of what those 15' monster kings are eating out there. Retic a la carte anyone?