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Feeding Baby Grey Banded Kingsnake

R

Runs_With_Wolves

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I just bought a baby grey banded kingsnake. She'll arrive Tuesday morning. So I have a bunch of fuzzy mice for my older grey banded king snake. Can I cut a fuzzy in half for the baby? Will that still be too big? I don't know how big she is, but she is a non-feeder.
 
Good luck with that.

I used to produce a modest number of gray banded kings years ago, but finally threw in the towel on them when 99% of them insisted on lizards for their first several meals. Some never did want to take pinky mice at all.

If you can find baby fence lizards (or strangely enough Mediterranean or house geckos) or equivalent locally, then you might have a fighting chance at getting yours feeding.

Again, good luck.
 
What Rich said. You are going to need some lizards. Reach out to your breeder for a source. Although I'm not sure he's the best guy as he sold a non-feeder without explaining the process of getting them fed, to someone who had never done it before.

Also, no you can't cut the fuzzy in half, it would still be too wide. You could try decapitating the fuzzy and feeding the head.
 
I think the point is that grey banded king snakes don't even think of mice as prey at first. They have evolved to eat other reptiles and when they are born that is what they want to do.

Trying to tease feed with something the snake doesn't even consider food is annoying at best and scary for the baby at worst
 
Runs_With_Wolves said:
The breeder says he gets them to eat by brain splitting the mice. I hate doing that, but if I have to I will.
Click to expand...

I know some people swear by that method, but I can't recall a single instance where I had a problem feeder anything that took a brained pinky after refusing other offerings.

You really need to be looking for a source of feeder lizards pronto.
 
If you can't find feeder lizards a company called ReptiLinks sells anole scent.
 
FYI, I never had any luck getting gray banded kings to eat anoles, much less anything scented with them. Sceloporus worked best for me, but I also had luck with Mediterranean and house geckos.

I got to the point where I was having to buy the lizards, freeze them, and then putting them in a blender to make a paste for scenting that I kept in separate vials in the freezer. I think it was about that point that I decided I didn't want to work with gray banded kings any longer, as it was getting ridiculous trying to get them to feed. And push comes to shove, I actually started liking fence lizards a whole lot more than the king snakes. Sceloporus aren't as common in Florida as you would think they should be. They were a LOT more common up in Maryland where I used to live.

BTW, something I just thought of that I was trying out towards the end of my gray banded king days that I thought was looking promising. I had a bunch of these little horticultural planter bases laying around for one reason or another, and I drilled a hole in the center of them wide enough for a little gray banded king to crawl into that hole with the bases turned upside down in the cage. It formed a sort of cave with the entrance at the top. The gray banded kings liked hiding in there, and I also moistened those bases as the clay tended to hold moisture, which I think was beneficial for the kings. Maybe the clay resembled the stone crevices they tend to hang out in the wild. In any event, I seem to recall I was having limited success getting some kings to eat more readily by just dropping a feed item into the hole of the base in with the gray band sitting inside. Not sure you can even find these real clay bases any longer, as probably all of them are now made of plastic and coming from China. But if you're not sure what I am talking about to look for them, I'll attach an image. Just get one small enough that the gray band feels cozy inside. Not too big to where it might not feel protected, and not so small that he would feel cramped. Probably around 4 inches or so in diameter would do it.

Again, good luck!
 

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WebSlave said:
FYI, I never had any luck getting gray banded kings to eat anoles, much less anything scented with them. Sceloporus worked best for me, but I also had luck with Mediterranean and house geckos.

I got to the point where I was having to buy the lizards, freeze them, and then putting them in a blender to make a paste for scenting that I kept in separate vials in the freezer. I think it was about that point that I decided I didn't want to work with gray banded kings any longer, as it was getting ridiculous trying to get them to feed. And push comes to shove, I actually started liking fence lizards a whole lot more than the king snakes. Sceloporus aren't as common in Florida as you would think they should be. They were a LOT more common up in Maryland where I used to live.

BTW, something I just thought of that I was trying out towards the end of my gray banded king days that I thought was looking promising. I had a bunch of these little horticultural planter bases laying around for one reason or another, and I drilled a hole in the center of them wide enough for a little gray banded king to crawl into that hole with the bases turned upside down in the cage. It formed a sort of cave with the entrance at the top. The gray banded kings liked hiding in there, and I also moistened those bases as the clay tended to hold moisture, which I think was beneficial for the kings. Maybe the clay resembled the stone crevices they tend to hang out in the wild. In any event, I seem to recall I was having limited success getting some kings to eat more readily by just dropping a feed item into the hole of the base in with the gray band sitting inside. Not sure you can even find these real clay bases any longer, as probably all of them are now made of plastic and coming from China. But if you're not sure what I am talking about to look for them, I'll attach an image. Just get one small enough that the gray band feels cozy inside. Not too big to where it might not feel protected, and not so small that he would feel cramped. Probably around 4 inches or so in diameter would do it.

Again, good luck!
Click to expand...

Oh, a terra cotta? I'll try that.
 
I guess you could try anything, but bear in mind the natural history environment of the gray banded king snake and consider what the likelihood is that fish would be a natural prey item for them.
 
I had a mussurana that was reluctant to eat and that is what I did. It ate it within 5 minutes, it was a very fresh shed.

I would start small, sometimes you can entice a snake with a scent (shed, frog, toad, depending on species) and then put a pinkie in its mouth once it's opened.
 

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Ok, so the shed didn't work. I tried a tiny commet fish and tease feeding. She bites the fish and then spits it out. Weird thing is, after she spits out the fish she keeps her mouth open. Almost like she unhinged her jaw and doesn't quite know how to put everything back together. . . Or maybe she just hates the taste of fish. :/ I ordered some scents and food drom that place y'all said, but it wont be here till Thursday.
 
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