Snakes are pigs

**Andy_G** · 02-10-03, 06:54 PM

OK. Here's the deal. I had to get rid of four pinkies, so i thought, might as well feed all of them to my 21'' cal king. I figured she would eat two. I put them in there, was my hands, go and have breakfast. When I come back downstairs, all four are gone! She's a little piggy! Also, it's strange that she will only eat one fuzzy but she will eat four big pinkies...

snakemann87 · 02-10-03, 07:05 PM

Thats good that shes eating but its very bad to feed more than one food item at a time. The snakes digestive system can't handle that many in one feeding. Keep an eye on her for the next few days after that many mice in a feeding.

Ace · 02-10-03, 07:23 PM

Wow!! She's really up to 21" already? Well, now that you finished off all the pinks, just stick to one fuzzie for a while, maybe even try a hopper.

RaVeNo888o · 02-10-03, 10:13 PM

how old is your cal king? mine is just over a year and i would say hes about 25 inches or so..not sure exactly...does that seem to be around normal if there is one? just wondering cause he seems to have slow down growing lately..havent had a shed in a while

Tim_Cranwill · 02-10-03, 10:34 PM

One of the kings I got in August of 2002 is just shy of 30"... But he's usually the one who will take what the others refuse

Actually, of all 8 kings I bought this year, ranging from August to October, my shortest is 21.5" and are all on small to medium hoppers every 5-7 days.

**Andy_G** · 02-11-03, 02:41 PM

Firstly, snakemann, thank you for your feedback, but I also thought that small food items were ok and it was single large items that were bad for the snake. I may be incorrect, and if I was, it was the first and only time I was going to do this. She seemed very hungry Saturday night and I felt that getting rid of the pinkies was acceptable in this case. She has fully digested them as always(she is good at that, no problems so far hehe^_^).

Yeah Ace, she's hit 21, I plan to buy eight fuzzies from Darren this week because he has save eight for me, so, ten weeks of fuzzies and I will definitely take hoppers into consideration.

As for growth rates, it really depends how big it's parents were and how often you feed it. I usually feed mine one fuzzy once a week.

Thanks for the feedback from all three of you!

J_Riley · 02-11-03, 02:55 PM

The multiple prey items thing can be a slippery slope. In nature, snakes will often raid rodent burrows and consume the entire brood of pinkies. But then they might not eat for another month.

Feeding multiple smaller prey items is ok to a certain extent. 4 might be pushing the limit. The first prey item to hit the gut kicks the digestion process into high gear, and the first item kind of gets the bulk of the attention because it has more receptor sites for digestive enzymes to bind to. To make a long story short, the 4th item might sit in there much longer than it should, to the point that it may start to rot and be regurgitated. With pinkies this usually isn't the case b/c they digest rather quickly. As more and more hair (more mature prey items) gets involved, the process slows down and regurge becomes more likely.

If your 7' bull snake normally eats a jumbo rat every 7-10 days, I don't think feeding it 10 mice would go so well...

Tim_Cranwill · 02-11-03, 05:00 PM

8 fuzzies are going to last a 21" kingsnake 10 weeks? You know, you could feed him a little moe than that? I don't think he'd mind

snakemann87 · 02-11-03, 05:05 PM

8 fuzzies would be fine for 10 weeks, you could always throw in an extra one or two if you wanted, but not too much more, dont want to over feed him.

**Andy_G** · 02-11-03, 07:36 PM

I forgot to mention that I had two in the freezer, so 10 fuzzies for 10 weeks. I MAY offer her two in 6 weeks, I am not sure yet, depends how she eats. If I do offer her two and she ends up eating two every time I do, I will probably move up to hoppers.

I don't think I overfeed her. As i said, this was a one time deal, It is usually a fuzzy a week. She is still growing so I don't think one fuzzy once a week is out of line.

Thanks for all the comments. I did not know exactly how feeding multiple prey items could be a problem before, but thank you very much for explaining how it can be to me.

Tim_Cranwill · 02-11-03, 08:36 PM

You'll be fine doing one a week. You will in no way be even close to over feeding. I was feeding my young ones once every 4 days or so and they are nothing short of healthy.

I think it's kind of a general rule that you can feed kingsnakes every 2 - 7 days until they are breeding size. However, the more often you feed them, the smaller the food item should be...

vanderkm · 02-11-03, 09:37 PM

Andy, I really wouldn't worry about four pinkies being too much for your young kingsnake. While it may be a big enough meal to push her into a shed, I have to disagree with the statements about multiple small prey items being worse for a snake than a single large one - much depends on the snake species and the total volume of food compared to the snake. As long as the four pinkies are not too much total size for the snake's stomach to hold, all four will be exposed to the same gastric juices and digestive processes. You could get regurgitation if the total volume was too great for the stomach to handle, not because the last mouse was less digested - though it definately looks and smells undigested when it comes back out!

As said above, many colubrids feed heavily in the spring by raiding rodent burrows with whole nests of young rodents. Those that kill prey by crushing or pressing prey against something, like bullsnakes, instead of always constricting, do just fine when given large numbers of smaller prey, and in fact seem to prefer a bunch of small items to a single large rodent, especially early after cooling. We have not seen regurgitation in kings, corns or bullsnakes fed meals consisting of many fuzzies or pinkies instead of 1-2 appropriate sized prey, if snakes are at the proper temperature for digestion.

Typically, when a snake can take 2 prey items per feeding, it is time to consider moving up a size, but you don't need to worry about using 4 fuzzies instead of 2 hoppers, if that is what you have. Your Cal King is certainly like ours in being willing to eat as much as she can see in front of her. I actually think they like pinkies better than fuzzies - slide down easy, high fat and moisture content - sort of like snake candy. Our old male Cal King will polish off a dozen pinkies or peach fuzzies with no problems when we have extra feeders.

Mary v.

**Andy_G** · 02-14-03, 09:53 PM

Funny you say that! She's just started up her shed cycle lol. She's either buried or in water dish/humidity box. She HATES water through and through when she isn't going through shed hehe.