Can i feed my snake..........

[arampapik]

Whats going on guys.
I have a newbie question.

I have a California King Banded (black and white) snake. I was told its a she, and she is about the lenght of a 10 gallon tank. 20 inches or so. Had her since October, and i feed her at an average of 1 Large Fuzzy every 3 or 4 days. It is surprising how this little guy chases after a fuzzy, kills the poor little hopping fuzzy and eats her.

My question is, don't snakes get tired of the same meal every time? Do all they eat are mice? I asked the pet store if i could put a guppy (little fish) in my snakes water dish, and they said that the snake would not eat it. I was gona try it anyway, but i wanted to ask you guys first.

I mean, i would get sick if i ate steak every single day of my life.


I tried posting a picture, but no matter how much i compress the picture, it says its TOO BIG.

[Andy_G]

Feed your snakes THAWED mice, and reduce your feeding to every 5-7 days.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Buy a book on the captive husbandry of Kingsnakes. It will answer a LOT of your questions.

They don't get sick of the same meal week after week. I'm sure in the wild they eat a variety of prey but in captivity, it's best to stick to the frozen/thawed mice and/or rats.

[arampapik]

What is the reason to giving them Frozen/Thawed mice?

[samurai]

so your snake doesnt get hurt by a sharp bite to the face

[arampapik]

Do all of you feed your snakes Thawed/Frozen mice as opposed to Live prey?

[Matt_K]

Upload your picture to your FREE gallery by clicking on 'gallery' under the sites banner at the top of the page.

-Matt

[CamHanna]

Do all of you feed your snakes Thawed/Frozen mice as opposed to Live prey?

I feed nearly all of my snakes frozen rodents; I have only one that absolutely will not eat them. Hopefully I will be able to get it on FT as well. The reasons for feeding FT are three fold.

1, Your snake won't be injured (killed) by the feeder.

2, The feeder won't be subjected to the 'discomfort' of constriction.

3, You can keep months worth of frozen feeders in your freezer which saves you trips to the petstore and means you can get a discount from the feeder breeder.

Fronzen-Thawed feeders are just a better deal all around.

[gonesnakee]

As already stated a dead mouse will never hurt your snake, whereas a live one can kill it. Not such a big deal when feeding pinkies/fuzzies but now you have a snake accustomed to live prey. Subadult & adult mice don't just die peacefully they bite & scratch & fight to stay alive. Doesn't take but a second for a snake to lose an eye & also risk of secondary infections from bites/scratches is very real also. Not worth the risk. Also do you want to have to continually go out of your way to buy live mice that might just result in the death of the snake? Live mice are a pain to keep also. Much easier to go to the freezer & thaw out its meal & feed then to obtain or keep live mice. Mice never escape from the freezer into the house either, whereas live ones well... From the mouse's point of view it would suck to be killed & eaten or eaten alive now wouldn't it.
In reguards to feeding frequency/prey size I'd say what you are currently doing 1 large fuzzy every 3-4 days is fine, but I would go to weekly feedings & feed a couple prey items at a time. To transfer the snake from live to dead I would suggest no meals for a week or maybe 2 & then tease feed it with F/T (frozen/thawed) prey that has been warmed up to approx 80-90 f (too warm & the mouse will start cooking or the guts will blow out of it). Being a CK it should transfer easily. In reguards to other prey items when I had my first snake also a CK I tried things like frogs, fish etc. & the only thing the little guy would take anyway was mice & they will also usually take rats of appropriate size also. In reguards to prey size a general rule of thumb is the same size prey (or slightly larger) as the thickest part of the snake & feed 2-3 prey items every week depending on their size & the snakes shed cycles etc as many snakes will not eat in shed. Go thru the forums & read the various threads & a basic CK book will tell you most everything in reguards to all the basics anyhow,
Good Luck Mark

[arampapik]

Originally posted by Matt_K
Upload your picture to your FREE gallery by clicking on 'gallery' under the sites banner at the top of the page.

-Matt

thanks matt. This way i can only link the picture, correct?

[Matt_K]

once it's in your gallery, open the picture and right click on it, go to properties and copy the URL in there. In your thread/post use the IMG tags and paste the url in there.. [IMG] then your URL and then close the tag by using the same thing but with a / before IMG.

-Matt

[SnakeyeZ]

I feed frozen thawed aswell...why take the risk?

[arampapik]

Test

[arampapik]

Thanks Mat, appreciate the help.

[Matt_K]

anytime