Feeding Kingsnake

TheBoogieDown · 09-05-12, 08:27 AM

So, last night was the second time we tried feeding my roommates kingsnake. We tried the first night and he adamantly refused to eat. He would crawl over the pinky, he would flick his tongue at it, but ultimately, he would ignore it and go relax somewhere. So, after leaving the pinky in his terrarium and doing the whole "I'm just going to sit over here and not watch you" thing, we gave up. Last night, we tried again. With the same results. I, personally, was afraid that he was going to be a difficult feeder, so I hopped on the interwebs and did a little research. One thing I came across was to "pith" the pinky (which upon further inspection of the word was how they killed cattle... and I'm pretty sure that's what the psycho in "No Country For Old Men" was using to unlock doors). I was like "hell, I don't suppose it could hurt." So we did it. Did a little home brain surgery with a sterilized needle (on the pinky of course haha), and plopped the pinky in his terrarium. Not even 5 minutes later the pinky was gone... I suppose my question is this: are there any dangers to pilthing before feeding? Also, why do you think he refuses to eat it unless you pilth it? And, maybe some of you other folks who have difficulty feeding could try this and see if it works, assuming its safe.

bcoop1234 · 09-05-12, 08:55 AM

I did the same thing for my baby sunglow boa... He would not eat and then i slit the head of a f/t baby rat and put him in a small cup and left him there... came back 40 minutes later and it was gone. This was after 3 weeks of trying to get him to eat... Now he takes the f/t rat off the tongs almost as soon as i put it in front of his face.

Jlassiter · 09-05-12, 08:58 AM

Braining is a very common technique to get stubborn feeders to eat the European fancy mice we force upon them.

TheBoogieDown · 09-05-12, 10:17 AM

Yeah, I was just glad he finally ate. Although, we did notice something else about him... He likes to sit on top of his climbing tree and then lower his head down and eat with his body stretched between the tree and his rock. That was quite the entertainment.