Cruelty to a kingsnake
by wftright
Mar 29, 2006 9:58 PM · 666 views · 66.7 k · 480 x 403
Keywords: California Kingsnake, rat, ball python
I just received my first shipment of frozen rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory. I've never tried tried to feed a rat to my kingsnake, and I wanted to try him on these rats. I wanted to divide the pack of 20 into smaller ones to feed to my young ball python now and larger ones to feed to my kingsnake now and my ball python when she grows. I was weighing the rats on my scale and putting them in bags, but my kingsnake needed to be fed tonight. I set aside his rat by putting it on top of his cage.
About halfway through the process, my kingsnake must have smelled a rat, literally. He came out of his hide and started looking at me. His tongue was flicking agressively, but he never really went for the top of the cage.
Sometimes, he takes a long time to find and eat his food. I was happy to see him showing an interest early, so I don't regret teasing him. If his reaction when I put the rat in his cage is an indication, he's forgiven me.
My CalKing is now in the process of trying to eat this rat. The snake is about 43 inches long and weighs 400 grams. At 50 grams, the rat is bigger than anything that I've ever fed him and maybe bigger than what his previous owner ever fed him. (I never met the guy, so I don't know the details of his care.) The rat is no bigger or at most barely bigger than the diameter of the largest part of my snake, so the snake should be able to manage this size prey. However, he's having to work harder for this rat than he usually does with adult mice or the fuzzies that I sometimes give him for dessert after he eats an adult.
The Big Cheese people gave me a nice distribution of weanling rats in this package. I told them that I had a young ball python to feed, so maybe they were particularly careful to ensure that I received some weanlings at the lower end of their stated range. They advertised that these weanling rats would be 30 to 50 grams. My scale weighs in 5 gram increments, and I had 5 - 30's, 3 - 35's, 3 - 40's, 5 - 45's, and 4- 50's. I think that's good quality control on their part.
Bill
About halfway through the process, my kingsnake must have smelled a rat, literally. He came out of his hide and started looking at me. His tongue was flicking agressively, but he never really went for the top of the cage.
Sometimes, he takes a long time to find and eat his food. I was happy to see him showing an interest early, so I don't regret teasing him. If his reaction when I put the rat in his cage is an indication, he's forgiven me.
My CalKing is now in the process of trying to eat this rat. The snake is about 43 inches long and weighs 400 grams. At 50 grams, the rat is bigger than anything that I've ever fed him and maybe bigger than what his previous owner ever fed him. (I never met the guy, so I don't know the details of his care.) The rat is no bigger or at most barely bigger than the diameter of the largest part of my snake, so the snake should be able to manage this size prey. However, he's having to work harder for this rat than he usually does with adult mice or the fuzzies that I sometimes give him for dessert after he eats an adult.
The Big Cheese people gave me a nice distribution of weanling rats in this package. I told them that I had a young ball python to feed, so maybe they were particularly careful to ensure that I received some weanlings at the lower end of their stated range. They advertised that these weanling rats would be 30 to 50 grams. My scale weighs in 5 gram increments, and I had 5 - 30's, 3 - 35's, 3 - 40's, 5 - 45's, and 4- 50's. I think that's good quality control on their part.
Bill
Comments (2)
NAUTICA
Mar 7, 2007 3:57 PM
WOW ! YOU GIVE A LOT OF INFO ABOUT YOUR SANKES TAHT'S A GOOD THING.. BY THE WAY NICE SANKE. WHAT SIZE TANK DO YOU HAVE YOUR KING SNAKE IN
wftright
Mar 7, 2007 11:49 PM
I keep him in a 55 gallon aquarium.
