Feeding kingsnakes

I just recently got a few kingsnakes. I have noticed that they have insatiable appetites. I have 2 very young ones, 1 subadult male, and 2 adult females. Each one dives at me with their mouths open expecting food even when I have just fed them. Can they be overfed? I want to feed them what they require, but I don't want to make them obese. Any recommendations? Thanks ahead of time.

Besides the obvious of feeding them seperately, yes they CAN be overfed. I used to only feed mine once a week but I did keep a Florida King as a "Garbage" snake for a few years and usually gave it something another snake may not have eaten.
He was the same as far as feed response in that ANYTIME I even went near the cage he bolted towards the glass as if he was going to get food! I even had to be very careful opening his cage as he would lunge out thinking he was going to be fed, yet he was very docile.....

There's two ways you can be asking this question.

1) If I feed my snakes too many mice at one time will they regurgitate? I can't say for certain because each snake is different. I would play it safe and feed it until it looks full enough.

2) Can my snakes show signs of being over fed in the long run? If they are small they will just grow faster. An adult can become obese if fed too much all the time. It seems a lot of people like their snakes to look fat but I'm not sure that's the best thing for the snake. We know its not the best thing for us.

Hope that helps

Well said Ross!,........yes, when young they will put all the calories toward growing rapidly. As they mature later on, a good eye has to be used to look into their physical body weight to conclude what any older individual needs to maintain a good proportional body weight.

Most tend to underfeed their kings and they com slamming ther gage at the drop of a hat. They must be fed more heavily than a cornsnake, etc..., especially when young and subadult. Their metabolism is like none other..LOL!


~Doug

Thanks for the info. A couple of my females are similar in size to the one in the posted picture. Can you tell me what and how often you feed that one? Also, how close in size does the male have to be to the female for breeding? My male is quite a bit smaller than my female as of now and I didn't know if I should bulk him up to get closer to her size and wait another year. Thanks for your input.

I know this thread is a few weeks old, but I justr had a loooong debate on this on KS. It's hard to give you a definative answer on how many mice to feed, cause I can't see you snake, and mice sizes vary from one person to another. I have bought large mice from rodent breeders that I would call, medium. But having said that if your snakes are near 3 feet, I would fed them at least 2 mice a week. That's a general statement and they may very well be able to take more. I feed my larger ones small to medium rats. One main point that was brought up is also the temps you have in your set up. The optimum set up should have a temp gradient so the snake can utilize the temps it needs to best digest the food. If you don't provide proper temps you may get some regurges. I keep my snakes in a warm temp controlled room in the mid 80's which does not allow them choices, but as long as I don't stuff them they do fine. Hope that helps. Oh the size difference shouldn't be a big problem as long as both are large enough to breed. Roughly 3ft is a good standard, though some will breed smaller, but it may cause problems. I had a snow Brooks prolapse her oviduct while trying to pas some large eggs. I punctured the eggs and removed them and she is doing great now, but I should have waited a year to breed her. Good luck!