Kings eating other snakes

[Ufoo9k]

I want a kingsnake and I'm getting into breeding ball pythons. One has nothing to do with the other, but would like to know if it would be possible to feed baby BPs to a kingsnake ? As a rat breeder, as feeder and some as pets, culling is important and also necessary to get the best out of the rats and to feed the snakes I have. I am wondering if BPs have a good nutritionnal value (read somewhere that snakes as a whole are kinda good ?) and if it is "worthwhile" for the King. I know this is a pretty awful question to ask in a snake loving community, but I love my snakes, as I do my rats, and I just want the best for them as well as for myself since it would make is "easier" then finding good people to take care of them or keeping them all.

I prefer not to have "this is awful to the snake" responses as it is the same thing if you change snake for rat.

[Caspian]

It would have to be a very, very large kingsnake to eat even a newly hatched BP, I would suspect.

[Mark C]

It would have to be a very, very large kingsnake to eat even a newly hatched BP, I would suspect.

I don't normally like to necro ancient threads, but wow. This is dangerous. An adult common kingsnake (L getula) is easily capable of killing and consuming an adult BP, and will if given the chance. I've seen it happen.

[Bogertophis]

I don't normally like to necro ancient threads, but wow. This is dangerous. An adult common kingsnake (L getula) is easily capable of killing and consuming an adult BP, and will if given the chance. I've seen it happen.

I agree with you on both counts- First, an adult king snake can certainly kill snakes larger than themselves- they're very effective constrictors- though consumption may be another matter. Snakes have been known to die from trying to eat one that's the same size as they are, so one that's much larger can be problematic (causing internal injury- & snakes can die from regurgitation alone if they aspirate).

And we generally avoid adding to necro threads but you're forgiven, lol. I'm surprised no one cleared this one up long before now. (And welcome!)

[stickyalvinroll]

Hmmm I've seen a bp breeder feeding his frogs and turtles a bp when it was serverly kinked or dead. But I mean it's your animals so do what you want with them. However idk if a kingsnake could fit a bp like caspian said.
http://youtu.be/iiYcnCNYLKc

[piedpipper]

I understand the concept here and it totally makes sense to do this with deformed or dead hatchlings but I hope you're not considering it with healthy ones?
There would really be no reason for that as you can just as easily sell them to someone for a pet even if they're just normals. From an economic perspective thats also one heck of an expensive meal for the king snake even if they're just normals.

[Zincubus]

I understand the concept here and it totally makes sense to do this with deformed or dead hatchlings but I hope you're not considering it with healthy ones?
There would really be no reason for that as you can just as easily sell them to someone for a pet even if they're just normals. From an economic perspective thats also one heck of an expensive meal for the king snake even if they're just normals.

Yep . That's my view as well .

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I understand the concept here and it totally makes sense to do this with deformed or dead hatchlings but I hope you're not considering it with healthy ones?
There would really be no reason for that as you can just as easily sell them to someone for a pet even if they're just normals. From an economic perspective thats also one heck of an expensive meal for the king snake even if they're just normals.

Anything healthy somewhere could be sold as a pet instead of being fed off, does this also mean only deformed or dead rats should be fed off and healthy ones sold as pets?

Some animal are raised as feeder it's that simple, some people use feeder rats, mice, snakes, rabbits, some people eat chickens etc while others see those same animals as pet.

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[pariahdog]

Agreed with Deborah. I breed rats as both feeders and pets and it would be hypocritical to say I would only feed non-healthy snakes when I feed off healthy animals of another species (rats) all the time.

I can't offer much on the actual nutrition value of bps but good on you for doing your research and opening an interesting topic.

[piedpipper]

Anything healthy somewhere could be sold as a pet instead of being fed off, does this also mean only deformed or dead rats should be fed off and healthy ones sold as pets?

Some animal are raised as feeder it's that simple, some people use feeder rats, mice, snakes, rabbits, some people eat chickens etc while others see those same animals as pet.

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Yes that is true. However, as chiliscales said, it would be ridiculously impractical to spend all year breeding, feeding, and watching the females, incubating the eggs, etc. all just to feed the babies to a king snake. That is not comparable to raising rats if only because of the amount of time and effort required to produce only a few bp babies. Especially with bp's being such an extremely low production snake (in terms of egg count).

I don't know if the OP's plan is to do this (i.e. go through all that trouble just to feed them ALL off to king snakes) or to just feed off the sickling individuals. The OP didn't specify their plans as to this regard. I'm just saying if that is the case it would be extremely costly in terms of time and effort spent breeding, incubating etc. and rats put into the breeding females (even if you didn't pay for the bp babies directly).