Kings eating other snakes

[Ufoo9k]

bcr229 : Would they eat slugs too ? And isn't a MBK too small ? That is the king I am trying to get. But reading on it and it seems to be smaller then common kingsnakes. I don't want to end up feeding something that is too big D:
All this info I've been trying to find and you guys are all giving it, thanks

[bcr229]

I've never offered the slugs to my king snakes. I think people have fed slugs to larger lizards, if they have them.

My adult female MBK is a nice size, just shy of five feet. She's much larger than my female CA king even though she's younger.

[KMG]

Thanks guys!

How did you find that last link KMG!? I've been looking all evening and only got general info on kings!

It would be Piedpipper, but money is not the question. Giving a snake to the king wouldn't cost more or less then a rat when I did not buy it. Though I would also have to consider the time off the king would need between each feeding which I suppose would be longer then rats. I would also be almost impossible to have enough snakes to feed it. Would have to make sure it won't go on eating strike because of that one or two times it ate a bp. It's pretty much on theory and hypothesis. I will get a king soon and it'll be a few years before it is big enough to even think of trying. I might forget about it until then, bp babies are way too cute!

I found it on Google. I just searched a couple different word combos and it popped up. I knew I had seen it before and usually have pretty good look finding our threads with Google.

[chilliscale]

Wouldn't feeding a female ball back to weight aftrr laying be much more expensive than the cost of feeding rats or mice to the king? I see where you are coming from but it kind of seems impractical. To get 6 meals a year(the baby balls) you still have to feed the balls rats all year. Maybe like mentioned supplement with a deformed or stillborn baby but why use a ball Python?

[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).

[Ufoo9k]

For myself I was just asking if it was possible to do it and to make sure it would not be bad for the Kingsnake to get fed ball python. I do not want to feed it snakes all year round at all, but like it was said, if I breed unhealthy (or healthy) babies that are not necessary to my breeding project and that I cannot/don't want to sell, then it would be a good change in meal for the king.

[bcr229]

For myself I was just asking if it was possible to do it and to make sure it would not be bad for the Kingsnake to get fed ball python. I do not want to feed it snakes all year round at all, but like it was said, if I breed unhealthy (or healthy) babies that are not necessary to my breeding project and that I cannot/don't want to sell, then it would be a good change in meal for the king.

As long as the king snake is big enough it's not a problem.

Another option is to find someone near you who keeps eastern indigoes or king cobras. You can euthanize the culls, put the carcass and any stillborn babies in the freezer, and then give them to people who need snakes as feeders.

[Hypancistrus]

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.

I agree with this. I personally hate the phrase "just normals" and this is why I'll never breed bp's. The market is way too fickle and any time you start talking about feeding snakes that you produce as part of your breeding program to other snakes because you can't or don't want to go through the trouble of finding buyers for them... it just makes me uneasy. Is this really why we get into snake breeding? To find the "next coolest morph baby" that'll end up browned out and honestly not as good looking as an adult normal? And discard the normals as if they are feeder rats? I don't know. Just doesn't sit well with me.

But your snakes, your life. Your choices.

[bcr229]

Is this really why we get into snake breeding? To find the "next coolest morph baby" that'll end up browned out and honestly not as good looking as an adult normal? And discard the normals as if they are feeder rats? I don't know. Just doesn't sit well with me.

But your snakes, your life. Your choices.

Before morphs exploded into the scene, BP's were commonly bred and used as feeders for snake-eating snakes.

Bear in mind also that many feeders for our snakes are a byproduct of rat and rabbit breeders who produce them for pets and for competitions. Anything that isn't up to breed standard for shows, and that doesn't have the disposition to be a good pet, gets fed off.

[Hypancistrus]

Bear in mind also that many feeders for our snakes are a byproduct of rat and rabbit breeders who produce them for pets and for competitions. Anything that isn't up to breed standard for shows, and that doesn't have the disposition to be a good pet, gets fed off.

I get that... but in this case you aren't culling because of health, or temperament or "disposition," you are culling because it doesn't look right, it doesn't meet some arbitrary standard of "prettiness" or "usefulness" in making morphs. It's not the same as culling an animal because it is aggressive or unhealthy. In fact, in the reptile community, often unhealthy animals (albino basking reptiles, scale-less animals, traits that create genetic conditions like wobble) are still kept and bred and sold because they make money. It's not about health or temperament-- it's about money. When you kill an animal because of money, that's what bothers me.