We had a single cal king hatchling this year that has not shown any interest in mice. I had a couple corns that refused to feed (8-10 offerings, various methods) that I decided to kill rather than go the route of forcefeeding them this year. This year is the first time we have fed snakes to a snake so I took a few pics of this cal king's second meal to share.
The cornsnake was killed (brain crushed) just before being offered to the king.
Anyone who would object to feeding culled corns to kings should not look no further - I don't wish to offend anyone, but I find the process an interesting difference from feeding mice and thought I would share with others who might be interested.
The king is very vigorous in biting and wrapping as soon as the prey snake is introduced to his tub and he has bitten the neck near the head each time he has been fed.
You can see by the extended tongue of the corn that it is dead, but the bite around the neck in combination with the strong wrapping would be sufficient to aspyhxiate it. He wraps the corn very strongly and persists until reflex movement is almost gone
This was quite a long corn and it is a short, small cal king - you can see the difference in relative size of their heads
and comparable body sizes as he aligns the corn to start swollowing
almost completed with the typical bulges apparent as he swollows the whole body
Within 3 days the bulges are no longer visible, within 5 days there is barely an overall bulge in his belly. The cal king is thriving so far - I am a bit worried about converting him to mice, but was more concerned about getting him to start feeding and if he is a typical cal king he will eat anything once he is established.
It was over 2 weeks between meals and I plan to offer mice again for the next meal in another 2 and then 3 weeks time.
mary v.
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