Feeding Stages for Cal. Kings

[stevesemerko]

Just wondering if some of you could tell me your "system" with feeding Cal. Kings to promote healthy growth (size and weight). What I mean is:

For the pinkie stage - How often do you feed, and how many?
For the fuzzy stage - How often do you feed, and how many?
For the hopper stage - How often do you feed, and how many?
For the adult stage - How often do you feed, and how many?

I don't think my kings are the size and weight they should be for a year or more old (I have never raised any snakes from a baby).

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

P.S. I am not sure how much they weigh right now but they are roughly just over 2' in length and they are still on pinkies. I have always went with food of approx. the same size as girth and to me they never looked like they could handle anything much bigger.

they don't move up as rapidly as corns, but I would think yearlings would be at the hopper/juvi mouse stage at least

[munchy]

this is how i do it.
pinkies and fuzzies - 2 or 3 once every 7 days
hoppers - 2 every 10 days
adult - usually one sometimes two every 10 days
hope that helps.

[Will]

Will's 'recipe':

All mine get fed once every 4 days, instead of one big meal every 7-10 days. Pretty much keeps something in their bellies at all times, without endng up with fat snakes -- at least not yet...

All prey sizes - One item every 4 days until they take 2 per feeding for a few feedings and then I bump them up to the next size and start all over. When you bump them up from, say fuuzies to hoppers, pick out the smallest hopper you have, don't just toss in a mutant-giant-mouse either though, they should be able to handle it.

Once they reach adults they get fed one large mouse every 4 days. I don't bump them to 2 adult mice every 4 days, unless it is a female getting ready to breed, in which case she'll get a bit more. The growth rates seem to be great, without ending up with obese snakes, I have one yearling Cal that went from 70g to 220g and countng -- and I got her in May. My 3 or 4 month old Honduran males are already downing single hoppers with no complaints, I think they weigh in the mid-60g range right now. Sorry , no lengths.

If you can invest in a decent postal scale, THIS SITE is pretty neat. It tells you how much you "should" be feeding your snake. Keep in mind, different snakes have different metabolic rates(Kings will use more energy compared to body mass than a less active species would), and is using mice as athe food source, so you don't have to follow the chart to the "T", but it is a helpful guideline to see whether you are feeding it enough.

[cmack]

My cal.king is only 5 months and has recently moved up to fuzzys! As mentioned above, I take the smallest of the bunch and start with that one. Also if the food size is not increased then the snake will not increase to the natural size. I know a person with a ball python who has fed it an adult mouse once a week for the last three years and is only half the size it should be by now. Luckily he has recently switched to small rats (Thanks Trevor) and does not take advise from the local pet stores.

later,
Chris

[stevesemerko]

Thank you guys for the help.

Will - thank you for posting that site that should help out nicely.

Steve

[ruthupton]

Hi there. Excuse me for coming into this thread but I didn't think it was right to start a new one to ask a fairly similar question.

I bought a Californian Kingsnake today. My books says she is a striped desert phase. She is roughly four months old and is roughly thirteen inches long.

The store manager said to feed her a pinkie roughly every three days. Does that sound about right, and if so, how long do I feed her these before going onto the next phase.

I have never kept snakes before. I bought a year-old Royal Python last week but had to take her back today because she was riddled with ticks and mites. I swapped her for the Kingsnake.

[Andy_G]

I would go with one fuzzie every 5-6 days.