My first baby snake!

[Bogertophis]

Oh yeah, I forgot my main question for raising a snake. Not sure if I'm overthinking this, but how do you know if you're feeding the right amount? I don't want to stunt him by underfeeding him, but I don't want to accidentally powerfeed him, either. I assume it's probably pretty obvious if a snake is underfed, though? I'm not sure how easy it is to do either of these things, so sorry if this is a stupid question. I just want him to grow up healthy!

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Keep in mind that colubrids are slender snakes, & their stomach is slender too, so especially when they're small, I tend to feed 2 items (2 pinks or 2 fuzzies) for a while before moving up to a larger size rodent. (As hatchlings, they all start on just one pinky at a time.) It's something that I "eye-ball" so it's hard to give a fixed response to. You don't want to see a big bulge after they eat.

To give you an example, I have a TX longnose snake, whose narrow gape (along with slender body) only allows him to eat fuzzies (10 mm wide x 25 mm long), even though he's about 3' long- so a typical meal for him is 6 fuzzies. He's a special case, btw- in the wild, they're not really rodent eaters at all- they like small reptiles (lizards, small snakes), but he's pushing 20 years old now & healthy, not fat, so I must be on the right track? For a slender 36" long snake, putting 6 fuzzies in his tummy translates to about 6" (one sixth) of his entire length, which is what he's comfortable eating. He actually won't overeat, but he's an unusual in that regard. Also keep in mind that young rodents (pinks/fuzzies) digest pretty easily- furry rodents take more enzymes to get the job done.

Your MB king snake will certainly grow big enough to eat adult mice- I think it helps to look at snake anatomy diagrams though when considering what to put in their stomach. Mostly it won't be more than one adult mouse at a time when he's mature. Like many snakes, your king snake will probably tell you he's "starving" when he isn't: feed the right sized meals weekly for now, & gradually lengthen the interval to 10 days when he's an adult; elderly colubrid snakes do best eating about every 2 weeks.