When To Step It Up

AngelSnake · 10-28-15, 08:00 AM

I just got my snake last Thursday. She/He (the owner was unsure so I just go with she until shes bigger and I am not afraid to hurt her while checking) is fed every Wednesday so I just fed her for the first time this morning. She is a very eager eater so no worries there. She's a king snake and around 10-11 inches long and about the width of a pencil. Im not sure how old that would put her at being fed pinkies once a week.
Anyways getting to my main question other than age. She still seemed hungry after her pinky this morning. When do I start feeding her two or even fuzzies? I was told meals twice the size of her head, but Im not sure how reliable that is considering the owner didnt even know her sex.
Thanks from Diamond & Cheryl

reptiledude987 · 10-28-15, 08:48 AM

If you dont have one get a scale and the general rule of thumb is to feed food items 10-15% of the snakes weight. depending what your snake weighs in at, will determine the size of food items you will want to offer. I prefer sticking to 1 food item per feeding as opposed to 2.
As for the age around that size it sounds to be under a year but to be much more accurate than that is difficult.

chairman · 10-28-15, 09:07 AM

Feed a prey item equal in girth to the fattest part of the kingsnake's body. I end up feeding my king two mice to get enough food in her; I'm switching to fuzzy rats to see if just one of those will suffice. But you could give it 10 mice, the last mouse's tail still sticking out of its mouth, and it'd still act hungry. That's just a kingsnake.

Bandit · 10-28-15, 09:23 AM

I agree with chairman...roughly the size of the fattest part of her body. You can probably feed her two if she is still seeming hungry. Kings are pretty voracious eaters and will happily take more than one mouse each feeding.

AngelSnake · 10-28-15, 01:49 PM

Thank you for the info. I will look into a scale as well.

**EL Ziggy** · 10-28-15, 02:01 PM

I also feed my young snakes the 10-15% of their body weight every 5 days until they turn one then I feed them a little bit less every 7-10 days. Your king won't be on pinks for very long so don't buy too many

.

chairman · 10-28-15, 05:26 PM

One might suggest that there's no such thing as a surplus of pinkies, only a shortage of baby snakes...

reptiledude987 · 10-28-15, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

One might suggest that there's no such thing as a surplus of pinkies, only a shortage of baby snakes...

100% true!!!

AngelSnake · 10-28-15, 07:29 PM

Ive only bought six so far. I didn't figure she would. Especially with how she ate today.

toddnbecka · 10-28-15, 09:48 PM

If he/she doesn't seem satisfied with one pinkie every 7 days you could feed every 5 days. Baby snakes wont get fat, they'll just grow a little faster if fed a bit more often. On the other hand, just because they want or will willingly eat more doesn't necessarily indicate that they need more, lol.