king snake and weird eating...

[recycling goddess]

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

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

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

[BD1]

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.

[Shelby]

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.

[recycling goddess]

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!

[Kilo]

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!

[recycling goddess]

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.

[JLC]

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.

[recycling goddess]

it helps a lot. thanks judy!

[fergie]

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



Gerty

[recycling goddess]

beeeeeautiful!!!