Non-feeding king

[anendeloflorien]

Ok, I've never heard of anyone having issues with a king not eating but I've got one here. It's really getting frustrating.She's an albino cal king I picked her up about a month and a half ago at the Manchester NH show. Since then she has eaten once, a small pink that I left in her tub overnight the day after I got her. She's just a little worm and while she's not really losing weight she just seems to be getting somewhat sluggish and not really as active as she was. I've tried just about everything and I'm just wondering if anyone with more experience with kings might know of some other things to try.

So far this is what I've tried:

#1 leaving a f/t pink in the tub overnight (worked once)
#2 tease feeding (no go)
#3 deli cup in tub overnight (no go)
#4 deli cup with live pink overnight (no go)
#5 brained pink in deli cup overnight (last night and still no dice).

Does anyone know of any type of scenting that can be done? Would scenting with another snakes skin work maybe? The temps are 84 hot side and 75 cool side with an ambient humidity around 45-50%. If I'm doing something wrong here or if there's something I should be doing please let me know.

[scutechute]

I've heard of people scenting with feeder lizards before, never tried it though. I think they just buy one and keep it in the freezer, then rub down their pinkies with it, and throw it back in the freezer for next time.

I picked up a baby arizona mountain kingsnake a couple years ago. It didn't eat very well at all for the first year. I had to brain EVERY SINGLE pinkie to get it to eat. After this past spring he turned into a freaking eating machine. No idea what happened.

Best of luck to you!

[anendeloflorien]

I've heard of people scenting with feeder lizards before, never tried it though. I think they just buy one and keep it in the freezer, then rub down their pinkies with it, and throw it back in the freezer for next time.

I picked up a baby arizona mountain kingsnake a couple years ago. It didn't eat very well at all for the first year. I had to brain EVERY SINGLE pinkie to get it to eat. After this past spring he turned into a freaking eating machine. No idea what happened.

Best of luck to you!

Yeah my other king who's about a year old is just a dang garbage disposal. He will eat ANYTHING! He's growing like a weed too lol. I've already tried braining the pinky, that doesn't bother me really. I might go tonight or tomorrow and see if I can get a couple of anoles or something that I can keep to use to scent.

[Brandon Osborne]

Have you tried tease feeding? Sometimes they take a little coaxing into knowing what to strike at and what is food. Baby kings more often that not, are not rodent feeders. We have to train them to feed in captivity.....and that even goes for captive bred animals. Try teasing it by feeding with forceps or large tweezers. Good luck.

[anendeloflorien]

Have you tried tease feeding? Sometimes they take a little coaxing into knowing what to strike at and what is food. Baby kings more often that not, are not rodent feeders. We have to train them to feed in captivity.....and that even goes for captive bred animals. Try teasing it by feeding with forceps or large tweezers. Good luck.

I've tried tease feeding but she just doesn't seem to want to go for it. I've gotten a couple other ideas also, namely cleaning the pink off well before feeding and lizard scenting (last resort....). I'm gonna try to stop and grab a live pink tonight to try if I can find some real small ones at the pet store. I just fed off my mice because I had them for 3 months with no babies lol.

[Brandon Osborne]

Don't give up on teasing. Sometimes it can take as long as an hour to get a strike and hold. You also have to sit still until the snake is near done with its meal. Trust me-raising a bunch of baby chondros will test your patience in more ways than one. Just don't give up. I'm sure it will come around.

[anendeloflorien]

Don't give up on teasing. Sometimes it can take as long as an hour to get a strike and hold. You also have to sit still until the snake is near done with its meal. Trust me-raising a bunch of baby chondros will test your patience in more ways than one. Just don't give up. I'm sure it will come around.

So pretty much just sit there and keep moving the pinky around and kind of trying to get her to bite and hold on right? I've tried that before but not for that long. I'll have to give it another shot. I struck out on getting live pinks tonight so hopefully she'll take a small f/t one if I try it that way.

[RichardA]

Some of my colubrids would go off feed in winter, heated or not. They know the pressure and such outside for winter more then we do.

Might give it a bit and try again later.....sometimes a few without a meal will help them figure it out....lol

[Argentra]

I feel your frustration. The MBK I got for my BF is a very irregular feeder despite having been a good eater at the breeders. He took a FT pink for his first feeding, but then he got really finicky and has only eaten three times in a month and a half - mostly live. He was on FT pinks before we got him... grr.

I don't really mind giving him live pinks, as long as he'll go back to FT when he's older. I just don't have anymore of that size right now. Would you knowledgeable Kingsnake people recommend that I just keep giving him live pinks or should I go on trying the FT?

Oh...sorry for the Good luck getting yours to eat again!

[anendeloflorien]

Hey guys just a little update here she finally ate for me the other night! I was so psyched lol. She must have been hungry too cuz it took almost no time for her to latch on to the pink and start swallowing it down. I'm hoping that she continues to eat well. Thanks for all the advice guys!