my baby grey banded king wont eat

[G-MAN]

About 2 weeks ago i acquired a baby alterna phase grey banded king snake. I bought it from a friend of mine who is a reputable reptile breeder. he told me the hatchling was well started off already taking pinkies, and he was due for his weekly feeding, so i bought it a pinkie. he wouldn't take it the first day and i figured it was the new environment he was getting used to. its been 2 weeks since i bought him which makes 3 since hes had his last meal. I've tried everything including rubbing a lizard all over the pinkie then covering the pinkies face in lizard's blood and putting the piece of tail in the pinkies mouth and offering it to the snake, and nothing he just looks at it then turns away. i'm no amateur I've been caring for reptiles since i was 8 yrs old but this is my first king and i would appreciate any tips you guys might have on getting baby kings 2 feed. thanks.

[reptilenut4sure]

maybe your temps are to hot or cold? Not really sure my kingsnake had no problems feeding.

[G-MAN]

i have a thermal gradient of 90ish on the warm side and 75 on the coolest spot during the day. he moved around quite often during the day it looks like hes hunting but just stares at the pinkie for a while then move on exploring. i believe hes still not accostomed 2 his new environment but man ive never had a bad feeder my bp went on a hunger strike once but thats to be expected during breeding season. ive read that the most common problems with grey banded kings is getting hatchilings to accept pinkies so if anyone out there that has experience getting reluctant feeders to take mice, any advice i would really appreciate it. i dont want to resort to force feeding the snake because of the stress, but if i dont get some ideas quick im willing to do w/e it takes to keep him alive. thanx

[gonesnakee]

Too hot IMHO GBs prefer cooler temps 90 F is too warm. Shoot more for a temp in the mid to low 80s. How big is the enclosure? I keep all my baby GBs in lil containers around twice the size of a big deli, baby snakes do better in smaller setups. If the baby was well started as stated was there any feeding record provided of such? I breed quite a few GBs every year, people are always wanting to mess with them farting around with all these BS methods to get them to eat. Do I try all that crap? NO. Every year they all start off on their own on either live or FT Ps faithfully. The thing is when they start LOL they are not typical Colubrids that start first meal after shed or within the first week or 2. They do not start until they are 2-3 months old usually. This happens every single year. I will try them all a few times to humour myself as some will start earlier, but its usually the 2.5-3 month point when they all decide to "go". Offer them the food in their "houses" & all of a sudden after 2- months everybody starts to eat. Quite often they will go to a second shed prior even having a meal or will go into a shed right after their first meals. Good chance yours is entering its second shed cycle if it was established as stated? Usually after they start there is no turning back whether in shed or not though, thus why I wonder if it was establsihed. I had a few here just start at close to the 2 month mark but 4/5s of them still haven't touched food & I don't expect they will for another month or so yet. They can go a long time without anything just living off of their yolk guts. Don't pester it with prey, specially a bunch of scented crap etc. find out what it has fed on already & offer the same once weekly. If it was indeed eating before it will pick up where it left off once settled in comfortably. Mark

[blueskyangel]

You know my Cal king would not eat when I first received her and would have passed on it I had not force fed her I did so for 4 weeks.
After that she ate on her own and is eating dead mice now

[gonesnakee]

You know my Cal king would not eat when I first received her and would have passed on it I had not force fed her I did so for 4 weeks.
After that she ate on her own and is eating dead mice now

And just how long did you wait before this FF regime started? How do you know it would have "passed on"? Was it thin & lethargic? if not it was likely just fine ;) Out of the 100's of CKs I have bred not one ever required FF. Every single one has started on its own in less than a month. Most often when they will not eat it is because of lack of proper setup, too much interaction (should be none until feeding BTW) or improper feeding method. Young CKs are pretty nervous snakes & it can be as simple as offering them the prey late at night & leaving them alone with it whether it be live or dead. I have GBs here now that are over 3 months old & still have not ate. Will I FF them? Nope, never. 2 more just took FT on their own yesterday at around 14 weeks old. None of them are thin or lethargic & some have even had second sheds despite not eating yet. Are they starving? Hardly LOL I think there are only 4 now out of around 25-30 that are left to start feeding. FF baby snakes is something that most folks consider WAY TOO SOON. If a baby snake was feeding prior on its own FF should never be done, if it isn't eating any more there is a reason(s) for it. More often than not if a snake won't eat on its own it will end up dying anyway whether being FF or not. Sometimes the stress of a FF is enough to kill them. Quite often folks have good intentions & actually kill them by FF. FF snakes that would otherwise never eat is just weakening the overall gene pool anyway. Its a fact of life that one should let live & let die, its natures way ;) Mark

[rosky19]

You know my Cal king would not eat when I first received her and would have passed on it I had not force fed her I did so for 4 weeks.
After that she ate on her own and is eating dead mice now

How do you force feed a snake anyways that must be painful for them huh?

[gonesnakee]

Its not much fun for them or the person doing it. A last ditch resort to save a snake that likely shouldn't be in the gene pool anyway. If all its requirements are being met & it fails to thrive maybe it isn't meant to be. Some just take a long while before they decide they are hungry too Doh! Mark

[blueskyangel]

No actually it isn't painful maybe not comfortable but not painful. Opening its mouth gentley and placing a pinkie back far enough until it tries to swallow and if you have a large struggle it is not to the point that you would need to FF. Sometimes when you are just starting you just don't want to give up and let something die. I am not suggesting that it is for every one or that some snakes are not just ment to die. I just mean its 10 yrs later and this individual snake is fine. Would it have died? Maybe Maybe Not ??

[Joe]

sounds like assist feeding, a very big difference from forcing, good luck

[gonesnakee]

Yeah a big difference from forcing the prey all the way down to its belly with the snake doing its best to regurge it the whole time. Basically an assist feed is opening the snakes mouth & inserting the prey & the snake does the rest. Not very stressful at all. An actual FF can quite often lead to death via the overall stress of it. I have also seen unexperienced folks try it & break the snakes jaw trying to do so which of course is a death sentence. Mark