Help! My Kingsnake is not growing!

[Lefitte]

I'm pretty sure baby MBKs often have markings on them? I remember a post on here about how no one wanted the babies with the markings even though they grow out of them and end up just as black as the babies who start off all black, it was a breeder who said it.

I would never notice growth on my babies unless I weighed them. It's really hard to tell unless you have a major growth spurt or look at pictures from a very long time ago compared to recent. My kingsnake only gained a few grams per week and that's not really a lot to tell by feeling and looking at them.

I've noticed a difference in mice depending on where I get them. Petsmart has the tiniest pinkies ever. Petco has slightly larger. The best ones I got were the local pet shop buys. They always just seemed the freshest. They also weren't flattened and always plump. Maybe you can stock up so that you only have to drive out to the breeder once a month or less? Or you can check out other local pet stores too if you have them for better quality mice. I still use the chain stores though, my local store closes so early that sometimes I can't get there or they're out of what I need.

I used newspaper for the first 9ish months with my Cali king. I used large strips for the bottom and then layered that several times with smaller strips. She loved burrowing too even though she had three different hides in her cage so I made it easy for her. You want to make sure that you have a bunch of hides and that they're the right size, just big enough for them to curl up and touch all sides.

80 degrees is pretty cool for a kingsnake. I keep my girl 78-85... which reminds me, I need to bump up her heat... again. We hit the first cold snap and I'm having to adjust hah.

If he's eating and shedding, Thor should be healthy. My girl didn't grow AT ALL for her first winter. She was still close to average hatch weight when I finally got a scale. She's made up for it though, went from 15g in December to 108g last week. If the cage is too cold, your snake might want to brumate [hibernate] which is what mine seems to have done. Thor will grow in his own time. As long as all other signs point to healthy, try not to worry too much. I know I did, so I totally understand where you're coming from and asking questions is the right thing to do.

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by chairman

Does your snake have yellow markings? If yes then I think that you have a black kingsnake, lampropeltis nigra, not a Mexican black kingsnake, lampropeltis getula nigrita. Overall not an extremely important detail but it's something that came to mind when I saw a MBK that wasn't solid black.
If your snake is eating once a week like clockwork then I'd say your only problem is that you haven't been feeding him quite enough. Increase his feedings to two mice a week. Make sure that the mice are just as big around as he is and you should be fine.
If you're really worried, pick up an inexpensive kitchen or postal scale and track his weight. You'll be able to see his growth easier that way; just remember that his weight will have temporary bumps as he eats and poops.

Baby mbk's will often have traces of white or yellow pattern that fades. The snake in the pic is an MBK, 100%.