Getting a Kingsnake Eating

[Werewolves]

I appreciate the guidelines! I’d definitely prefer to do a shorter period if it comes to that. If she’s still refusing food into December than I’ll evaluate the situation and decide on a plan.

I took a picture of this problem child when I peeked into the quarantine closet for my morning check, as she was out in the open:

[Bogertophis]

She sure is a beautiful snake! You'll get her figured out...

[Craiga 01453]

Hmmmmm....I just breezed through this thread.

I've never had a a King take any time off from eating. My Kings have always been garbage disposals year round.

I think the warm side temps are actually a bit high. I've actually had better success with cooler hot spots for Kings.

I think Bogertophis had an interesting point in questioning the seller's motives for selling an animal that age. The brumation idea is interesting as well. I've never brumated any of mine, since I don't breed, but it seems to me the current temps are plenty warm enough that if she was cooled already these temps would snap here out of it. But I may be mistaken since I have no hands on experience with brumation.

As for moving her out of quarantine... Did you say there are multiple snakes in the same closet for QT?
Did they all come from the same breeder? Were they all brought home the same day?
This I very important, as QT should be limited to one animal per room at a time. There are exemptions to every rule, but if the came seperately they should be QTd seperately. If they all arrived same day you're probably in the clear, but if you added any at a different time the clock resets to 90 days from latest addition.

[Werewolves]

As for moving her out of quarantine... Did you say there are multiple snakes in the same closet for QT?
Did they all come from the same breeder? Were they all brought home the same day?
This I very important, as QT should be limited to one animal per room at a time. There are exemptions to every rule, but if the came seperately they should be QTd seperately. If they all arrived same day you're probably in the clear, but if you added any at a different time the clock resets to 90 days from latest addition.

Yes, I have a milksnake in there too that came from a different breeder but picked up at the same expo. Unfortunately, that closet's the only safe place for quarantine atm - I don't have a big place and the only other spot far enough away from the established snakes couldn't be closed off to the cats (the cats are accustomed to snakes in the bedroom and ignore those, but I figured they'd harass a new cage on the kitchen counter). The milksnake's done great, eating voraciously even when I accidentally fed her during shed the first time.

[Craiga 01453]

Yes, I have a milksnake in there too that came from a different breeder but picked up at the same expo. Unfortunately, that closet's the only safe place for quarantine atm - I don't have a big place and the only other spot far enough away from the established snakes couldn't be closed off to the cats (the cats are accustomed to snakes in the bedroom and ignore those, but I figured they'd harass a new cage on the kitchen counter). The milksnake's done great, eating voraciously even when I accidentally fed her during shed the first time.

Ok, moving forward it will be wise to only QT one at a time. I'm not sure if you saw tttaylorrr's thread discussing her two animals passing? But it started by quarantining two animals in the same room. Just not worth the risk to the animals. Unfortunately Taylor learned the hard way, but since she was cool enough to be willing to share her story the rest of us can learn from it.

Also, just throwing it out there, but snakes and other pets don't mix. It would be in your snakes best interest to keep the cat away. My cats aren't allowed in my snake room and when snakes are out cats are locked in other rooms. It's simply not fair to the snakes.

[Werewolves]

Ok, moving forward it will be wise to only QT one at a time. I'm not sure if you saw tttaylorrr's thread discussing her two animals passing? But it started by quarantining two animals in the same room. Just not worth the risk to the animals. Unfortunately Taylor learned the hard way, but since she was cool enough to be willing to share her story the rest of us can learn from it.

Also, just throwing it out there, but snakes and other pets don't mix. It would be in your snakes best interest to keep the cat away. My cats aren't allowed in my snake room and when snakes are out cats are locked in other rooms. It's simply not fair to the snakes.

I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Luckily I wasn't planning on getting any more snakes for at least another year, until after I move.

As for the cats, I do lock them out of the room when I'm handling any snakes - they just sleep with me in the room at night and can't reach the cages even if they tried to because of the stand heights. I suppose the snakes could smell or see them if they look down, though.

[Bogertophis]

I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Luckily I wasn't planning on getting any more snakes for at least another year, until after I move.

As for the cats, I do lock them out of the room when I'm handling any snakes - they just sleep with me in the room at night and can't reach the cages even if they tried to because of the stand heights. I suppose the snakes could smell or see them if they look down, though.

Cats are pretty springy jumpers, are you sure they can't hop up onto the cages? I can recall someone's cat doing that & breaking thru the screen top with their landing.

[Craiga 01453]

I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Luckily I wasn't planning on getting any more snakes for at least another year, until after I move.

As for the cats, I do lock them out of the room when I'm handling any snakes - they just sleep with me in the room at night and can't reach the cages even if they tried to because of the stand heights. I suppose the snakes could smell or see them if they look down, though.

Ok, sounds good. I just like to point things like that out. Since a lot of new keepers or potential keepers come here to learn, I feel it's important to help educate along the way.

[Werewolves]

Cats are pretty springy jumpers, are you sure they can't hop up onto the cages? I can recall someone's cat doing that & breaking thru the screen top with their landing.

One cat doesn't ever jump higher than 2 feet up because she's got a stocky body and short legs, she's infamously clumsy. The more agile cat is also the smarter one who's actually trainable, and who I've had the longest - she's lived with this snake setup for most of her life and hasn't caused a problem so far. Neither of them even look over if my snakes are rustling around in their cages in the evening.

I 100% agree that it's best to keep reptiles and other pets from interacting and that's part of why I won't be getting more for a while and have plans for a snake-only room. I always want to be careful with my animals, I just know my current batch pretty well by now since they've been established for a while (besides the new snakes) and am not too worried.

(tbh, the friend that I got my BP from was letting the BP slither freely on the couch with her four cats and said they were "friends" because the BP was calm... seeing pictures of that nearly gave me a heart attack!)

[Craiga 01453]

(tbh, the friend that I got my BP from was letting the BP slither freely on the couch with her four cats and said they were "friends" because the BP was calm... seeing pictures of that nearly gave me a heart attack!)

Uggggggh!!!! Sounds like the snake is lucky to have found you!!!! That made me cringe just reading it!!!