Cal King feeding times

I have a 04 Cal King that is hungry every two days. Is it ok to feed him that often or should I wait five to seven days. I have been feeding him a large pinkie every five days. Two days later the bump is gone and he is moving around to find food. I think two large pinkies would be too much at one time for his size. With two small pinkies he does the same thing. Thanks in advance for the help.

You can continue to feed him every 5-7 days if you want, but I'd bump it up a little personally. I'm sure he can handle two pinks at one time - or you could feed one every 3-4 days (what I would do). I'm sure he's old enough for a fuzzy, unless he's really small. It is possible to overfeed young snakes - ESPECIALLY KINGS :eatpointe - There's nothing wrong with feeding baby snakes twice a week - they'll grow faster too.

Personally I'd stick to the 5-7 days. Snakes digestion isn't designed for frequent meals. Here's a study that will explain what I mean. http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/206/10/1600

Keeping a snakes digestive tract at a constant acidic level COULD have long term health effects. Another note, during digestion, snakes metabolism rises (heart and respiratory rate), and they're body temps actually rise above ambient temps (up to 1.5 degrees externally, possibly higher internally). So, keeping a snake in a constant digestive mode (more than every 5 days) also keeps their heart rate up, temps up, respiration up, and stomach acid level up. Not something I'd want to do to a normally dormant animal.

Originally Posted by AcesKings

Personally I'd stick to the 5-7 days. Snakes digestion isn't designed for frequent meals. Here's a study that will explain what I mean. http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/206/10/1600

Keeping a snakes digestive tract at a constant acidic level COULD have long term health effects. Another note, during digestion, snakes metabolism rises (heart and respiratory rate), and they're body temps actually rise above ambient temps (up to 1.5 degrees externally, possibly higher internally). So, keeping a snake in a constant digestive mode (more than every 5 days) also keeps their heart rate up, temps up, respiration up, and stomach acid level up. Not something I'd want to do to a normally dormant animal.

That whole post and, the study it cites, were based upon a limited study on Burmese Python(s); and had nothing to do with neonate or sub-yearling kingsnakes. It probably had nothing to do with sub-yearling Burms either.

The fact of the matter is that young snakes, such as California Kingsnakes may be able to handle being fed every few days and you cannot use a test on burms to apply to cal kings. To assume that feeding it more often than every five days based upon a study of Burmese Pythons is a bit far fetched. I am ot saying that a kingsnake digests food faster than a burmese, but for anyone to say because it happened this way with a burm - it must also happen the same way with a cal King is a bit of a stretch. Burmese Pythons are known to incubate their eggs and to raise their body temps while doing so. Would you also say that cal Kings do the same; I doubt it.

Remember that young snakes, often do well on an accelerated feeding schedule, possibly because of their accelerated growth rate. So Cal Kings are frequently fed every 3 to 5 days when neonates. This does not seem to have any negative effect, as these snakes mature to healthy adults that go on to live long lives and breed successfully.

Nonetheless I agree that feeding a cal king every two days would not be good. I would not hesitate to feed one every 4 to 5 days, so long as the emal has bneen digested and the snake has pooped since eating its last meal, and I know other breeders who feed similar colubrids (also kingsnakes) every three to four days when young. This accelerated feeding schedule, based upon my personal experience - personal communications - and reading I have done, should discontinue at about the six month to one year mark.

As to the original question, just because a snake is out and about exploring its cage does not mean it has fully digested whatever it last ate. Never feed any snake every two days.


All the best,
GB

I am ot saying that a kingsnake digests food faster than a burmese, but for anyone to say because it happened this way with a burm - it must also happen the same way with a cal King is a bit of a stretch.

Actually it does. I've read studies on many snake families and all the studies have found their digestive systems works in primarily the same way. With higher metabolic rates, and higher stomach acidity, but at varying levels. The only study sighting temp increasess was with a Northeastern Brazilian rattlesnake. Since all the other traits were present in the other studies, I don't see it as being a stretch to apply this to other families.

The only one I have read specifically about Kings is more about size of prey. On how Kings can swallow snakes equal to or larger than they are. In this study it took a Cali King 15 days to fully digest a Cornsnake 1.17X it's own size. Obviously it won't take that long for a King to digest one or 2 mice. The closest I could find would be the Garter snake taking 2.5 days to fully digest a mouse. Given it would take ABOUT 2.5 days (depending on prey size) to digest, and a few more hours to return to a normal state (.5 days?) your only giving the snake 1 day or so to "relax".

I did emphasize "COULD" in my statement about the health effects, because I couldn't find anything stating for a fact it is detrimental. Which is the reason I started looking into snake digestion in the first place.

Since this is the Kingsnake Forum....(PDF Format)
How Snakes eat snakes

I still don't see anything addressing baby snakes (or sub-yearlings) which grow at an astonishingly fast rate as compared to adults. I would think this is because, among other reasons: because they eat more food per meal, proportionately than do adults, or that they eat more often than do adults. They certainly need something to fuel the rapid growth rate. Have any studies been done on this?

The snakes used in the above Kingsnake study were 40 cm (15.75") or less. Given the only one to fully digest a snake took 15 days to do it, pretty much implies how fast their digestive system works. The King weighed 17.1 gr and it's prey snake weighed 20 gr. Large pinks (as stated in the original post) weigh about 2-3 gr. =1/10-1/6 the weight of the prey snake. Using the 15 days it took to digest 20 gr of prey, it would presumably take about 1.5 - 2.25 days to digest a pinky. You could probably take a bit of time off that to compensate for the easier digestion (smaller overall mass).

In any case, we both agree 2 days is too often to feed a King. 3 is pushing it in my book too. 4, I guess would depend on the predator to prey weight ratio, and # of prey offered.

Maybe you could try one larger and one smaller pink since you think 2 larger pinks are too much.