A question of cobra

[Krait Yin]

Any people keep cobra in H.K
how to handle ?setting?
how about if keep king cobra what can i feed if i cann't feed in snake

[ChurleR]

I'm not from Hong Kong but I can tell you that to keep a cobra you need alot of room to manuever because they're very fast. Also most cobras eat other snakes so you scent pinkies and rats as if they were another snake to make them accept them in most occasions until they're used to them as a food source.

[cobraman]

Actually, of all the different cobras I keep, the only ones that eat snakes exclusively are the King Cobras. Almost any other cobra should feed readily on rodents.

[Mustangrde1]

Of the 6 species of cobra i keep and the many others ive worked with I have yet to see any except the King Cobra not take rodents readily that is from wild caught to captive born specimens.

[Jason Wakelin]

Both species of cobra that I've worked with ate rodents. The Asian species was much easier that deal with than the African one. If I was to ever work with cobras again, they wouldn't be Forest Cobras! It sounds like (to me) you might not have any experience with them, be very careful there is no room for mistakes with venomous snakes.

Jason

[ChurleR]

I don't work with elapids, I just knew that kings and black necked spitters were ophidiovores.

[Krait Yin]

Thank you every one give me idea~~

[KLiK]

Originally posted by cobraman
Actually, of all the different cobras I keep, the only ones that eat snakes exclusively are the King Cobras. Almost any other cobra should feed readily on rodents.

do you breed feeder snakes for your king cobra? if so what type?

[cobraman]

No, we get plenty of snakes on our roads ( ratsnakes, racers, water snakes, etc.). We also import.

[BAZ]

The King cobras that have been captive bred at the Madras Crocodile Bank in India eat rodents. I know because I fed them.

The rats are gutted first and then shaved because they had kings die from hair getting impacted when they first tried this.

To get them to start eating rodents they came up with this soup concoction. Im not sure exactly what they put in it. Singapore Zoo tried this with their king cobras but no luck. Ill find out for sure exactly how they did it at the croc bank and post it here.

[KLiK]

thanks for the info

[Dr. Bryan Fry]

Why would they gut them first? This will remove all of the vitamins that the cobras need. It would produce the same sort of malnutrition as gutting a rabbit before feeding it to a python.

As for the shaving, I have in mind a hilarious far-side of rats comparing notes about the best way to deal will over over body in-growns ;-p

Cheers
Bryan

[Davey312]

I'm pretty sure i read once feeding a cobra with a diet of snakes increases its life span. is this true? I forget who it was, but i beleive they fed there cobra a snake that had just eaten a rat and the cobra ended up living a very long time. Just something i heard... wanted to know if its true..

Davey

[nareptiles]

That story probably came from China ,where they would eat a rats a** if they thought it would make them live longer .I have never heard that feeding a cobra a snake makes them live longer and I have always feed my cobras rats never snakes.Most if not all cobras will eat other snakes just like kingsnakes will ,I have always kept all my cobras seperate (unless breeding) it is just safer that way .

nareptiles@cogeco.ca :grab:

[C.ADAMANTEUS]

Originally posted by nareptiles
That story probably came from China ,where they would eat a rats a** if they thought it would make them live longer .
nareptiles@cogeco.ca :grab:
Pretty bold concidering the starter of this post is from Hong Kong. Really should avoid anything that can be misconstrued as racial.
Rick

[atrox13]

I have a Thai King that was weaned onto rodents within it's first year. It is now 10ft and feeds on frozen meduim rats with no problem. I know of a zoo that feeds their Kings rats and they have lived for 20 years on this diet. For a new cobra keeper I would not recommend a King. Feeding live snakes may also introduce parasites.