king snake and weird eating...

my king snake isn't eating well at all.

okay i'll start from the beginning. when i got her and gave her the first feed... she attacked her food. what a GREAt eater.

she wiggles her tail cause she thinks she's a rattlesnake when she sees her food coming... i was thrilled about her eating habits.

so then last week i go to give her food and find a pinkie mouse in with her. i realized she hadn't eaten the one from the week before! i saw her go for it and thought she'd eaten it (frozen thawed). so i tossed it out and offered her another pink.

i had to do the dance with the pink... she was wiggling her tail and striking at the tongs but wouldn't take the pink so finally i put it along the side of her enclosure and left her alone... she ate it.

so this week... i went in... she was wiggling her tail again and in strike pose... so i set the pink down on the side of the enclosure near her and left her alone.

she didn't eat again.

so... i did the "adam thing to do" i filled her enclosure up with crumpled newspaper and i'll see if that helps her to settle down. she's always out and about... checking everything out all the time. so i wonder if she's stressed and that's why she's always out and about.

we'll see if this helps.

if anyone has any other suggestions... i'm here to listen :sunny:

edited to add: link to her other thread... which shows pics of her

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=39239

I am having the same exact problems with my albino king. One week he seems hungry, the next week he couldn't be bothered. When I first got him, I couldn't give him pinkies fast enough, now suddenly nothing. He used to be out quite a bit more too, now I NEVER see him. I got a corn snake around the same time that I got the king and the corn had put on so much more weight and is a voracious eater. The king has stayed scrawny and stays in his hide all the time, even at night. I've wondered if maybe he has pinworms or some sort of internal parasite.

When my cali king was a baby, he was very similar to yours. I always just left the pink in the doorway to the hide the snake was in, and he'd eat it most of the time.

Baby colubrids are very skittish.. adding the crumpled newspaper is a good idea.

okay good. i'm glad my intuition (and knowledge) kicked in for her. i'm sure 'puppet' will eat when she's good and hungry... and she never uses her hides... she's always laying out in the open.

so hopefully this newspaper trick will do the trick! :P

I have to agree with Shelby... I have had this problem with 2 of my corn snakes... They just rattle there tail and strike at the pinkie. If I put the pinkie inside of there hide... they eat it every single time!

my corns eat fine... it's just this king snake. i think i'll change her hides as well... they are small... but i'll find something even smaller and see if she starts using it.

My cape gopher snake was difficult to feed when he was young. I fed f/t from the start and would have to make sure the snake was totally hidden and in a dimly lit room to eat. (Three years later, I've still never seen this snake eat because he won't eat if he's being watched at all.) And then one day he wouldn't take his little mouselet....and didn't eat again for about 4 months! This was when he was still pretty young, mind you.

To this day, I have no idea what caused him to go off feed like that. I finally broke down and purchased a live pink for him and he scarfed it down and never ate f/t again, despite my efforts. Now he eats live mice, but still only eats every 2-3 weeks. If I try to offer food too often, he shows no interest in it.

Not sure if any of that helps...just thought I'd share my experience with a young, non-feeding colubrid and maybe you can glean something useful from it. ;)

it helps a lot. thanks judy!

Just as we were coming into our winter over here in Northern Ireland, i noticed both my Black King and Cali King were showing little or no interest in their food. I knew this was no big deal as many snakes will become less responsive to feeding from time to time. Even though the snakes are in a viv where the temps and conditions remain the same i guess the snakes can sense the change in the seasons and will naturally try to go into brumation and thus triggering their appetites to dull. I have kept my temps and lights on the same cycle and both snakes have again started feeding as normal. If you persevere, you will probably find normal feeding shall resume sooner rather than later.

Gladys

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../gladys008.jpg

Gerty

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...77/gert144.jpg

beeeeeautiful!!!

I needs me a sexy mexy...

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Originally Posted by cassandra

I needs me a sexy mexy...

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Hi Cassandra, Gladys is actually a Black King (L.g. nigra). A lot of people mistake her for a Mexican Black and from above she is identical to a MBK but when you see her underside it gives her away

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../gladys002.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../gladys017.jpg

Mexican black kings ARE lampropeltis getula nigrita. Mine only has one little white dot on her underside, but most do tend to have some white.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Mexican black kings ARE lampropeltis getula nigrita. Mine only has one little white dot on her underside, but most do tend to have some white.

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Yes indeed, Mexican Black Kings are lampropeltis getula nigrita but my snake is lampropelits getula nigra (Black King snake). Heres a small link to a site dedicated to Black Kings

http://www.blackkingsnake.com/

Hm interesting. I didn't know there were subspecies. Learn something new every day! The spellings of the names are so similar, I had no idea.

Symantics...Gladys is bootiful. =)

well i spoke to friggin' soon. she isn't eating at all. i've got her enclosure filled with newspaper... and she still isn't eating.

any advice would be appreciated.

we brought her home nov 25th ... she ate really well dec. 5... didn't for two weeks... ate again on dec 26th like she was starving... hasn't eaten since

Well...just keep trying. Like I said...my gopher didn't eat for months...and he's fine and did eventually start eating regularly. Give it some more time...weekly attempts for a little while...then move to every other week if he continues to refuse to eat. And if he hasn't started eating again within a month or so....try a live pinky?? Or...you could try a live pinky at the next feeding, I guess. I just went for several months before breaking down and trying live. (At that time, I was taught the "evils" of feeding live and was actually scared to do so!)

i'll see if i can find any live pink mice at the petstores. i know they used to get in live... but i don't know if they are still available. ;)

thanks judy. i worry cause she's so young.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

i'll see if i can find any live pink mice at the petstores. i know they used to get in live... but i don't know if they are still available.

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I have noticed that sometimes young colubrids are too intimated by the movements of live pinkies and fuzzies to even go near them. Young corns and kings that need to take their first meal will take longer to catch on to eating if they are offered live pinkies as apposed to p/k or f/t ones. With p/k and f/t, they are able to smell the entire body of the item without having it bump into them, which makes them slither away.

I would stick with the f/t pinkies. If your cali has been eating f/t pinkies, then we know that f/t isn't a problem and so live wouldn't matter.

actually i've never had a problem getting very young corns to eat live pinks - as the pinks barely move around at all. that's what i fed all my young corns... but this little girl... i haven't tried on live.

i'll give it a shot, worse case scenerio, she won't eat it and i can feed it to my other corn who's still on pinks ;)

but thank you regardless :)

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Originally Posted by _BoidFinatic_

I have noticed that sometimes young colubrids are too intimated by the movements of live pinkies and fuzzies to even go near them. Young corns and kings that need to take their first meal will take longer to catch on to eating if they are offered live pinkies as apposed to p/k or f/t ones. With p/k and f/t, they are able to smell the entire body of the item without having it bump into them, which makes them slither away.

I would stick with the f/t pinkies. If your cali has been eating f/t pinkies, then we know that f/t isn't a problem and so live wouldn't matter.

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Granted, I don't have a TON of experience here...but that's the complete opposite of what I went through with my young colubrid. He started out eating f/t and seemed to be doing ok with it for 2-3 months...and then just quit eating completely, no matter what I tried to do to get him to eat. It wasn't until I broke down and offered live that he ate...and he hasn't fasted like that again since. (3 years ago)

That's just my personal experience.

she ate... she ate... she ate...

i gave her a live pink and left her alone... went in this morning to check on them and there was only a snake in the enclosure!!! she realllly like the newspaper and curls up in it... so i'm leaving it in there. anything to keep her happy.

i'll pre-order another live pink for next weeks feeding!

shelby you have to be one of the best artists iv ever seen...i just checked out your deviant art and whoa is the word that comes to mind

I know this thread is a bit old but I figured I would add my $.02 of helping with picky colubrids.
The use of 1 or 2 of these techniques is a good start
-Keep the snake in a deli cup over night with its prey
-Use a live mouse(pinky or fuzzy olny!)
-Braining(poking a hole in the head of the dead mouse to expose the brain matter)
My favorite to help picky feeders was the braining and the delicup overnight. Its like solitary confinement and it keeps them focused on one thing, eating

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Originally Posted by _kyle_

shelby you have to be one of the best artists iv ever seen...i just checked out your deviant art and whoa is the word that comes to mind

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Call the cops Call the cops.................this thread has been Hijacked!! :D

Congrats Aleesha!...................maybe she likes that smell of fresh live pinky....or maybe even just the stronger smell from being with her litter that triggers her to eat......either way........i'm happy 4 ya!