King Snake Eating Problem

[endydusk]

I have a Lavender Albino Cali King. She's about 20-21 inches long. The first few weeks I had her, she would eat f/t pinkies or fuzzies once a week perfectly fine. She had a great appetite.

However, she hasn't eaten in the last 5 weeks. I had been offering her food since then, but no go.

What does get into the striking position and strikes at the pinky/fuzzy that I hold with tongs. Normally she latches on and eats no problem. But for the past 5 weeks, she strikes, MISSES, and doesn't latch on to the food.

She has shed about twice since I got her, most recently 3 weeks ago. So I don't think that's the problem.

It looks like she's just attacking the food with no intention of eating.

What seems to be the problem? Why does she all of a sudden decide not to eat when she was previously a very active eater?

 

[DISCERN]

Are you leaving the food in there with her to eat, in private? If not, that may be the issue.

You don't have to give your snakes food with forceps, however, you may have the occasional one that prefers that, if you have a larger collection. I have one pine snake that insists on that.

It seems as though she is stressed, and her giving you the illusion of perhaps striking at the food, but not eating, is her saying she is striking out of being scared and defensive, not as a hungry snake.

Make sure she has a good hide box, so she can feel safe and secure.

Then, place a food item, leave the room, turn the lights off, and wait till next morning and check to see if she has eaten.

Her being a lavender albino, her eyesight is horrible, meaning, albinos can not see that well at all. It sounds like she is simply spooked.

Try that.

 

[D. Mong]

Are you leaving the food in there with her to eat, in private? If not, that may be the issue.

You don't have to give your snakes food with forceps, however, you may have the occasional one that prefers that, if you have a larger collection. I have one pine snake that insists on that.

It seems as though she is stressed, and her giving you the illusion of perhaps striking at the food, but not eating, is her saying she is striking out of being scared and defensive, not as a hungry snake.

Make sure she has a good hide box, so she can feel safe and secure.

Then, place a food item, leave the room, turn the lights off, and wait till next morning and check to see if she has eaten.

Her being a lavender albino, her eyesight is horrible, meaning, albinos can not see that well at all. It sounds like she is simply spooked.

Try that.

I agree with alot of that too. it is probably stressed big-time, and it could be a number of reasons. One thing that I didn't see being mentioned is now that we are in the heat of the summer months, MAKE SURE the temps are not too hot, and the snake has access temps in the mid to upper 70's on the cool end of it's enclosure, and only have a the opposite far end in the low to mid 80's for proper digestion. If it is too hot all the time, this can easily be what the problem is.

Also, Albinos don't generally have problems with their sight whatsoever unless the light is very bright which allows the light waves to reflect within the eye instead of being focused on the retina as it normally would. In low-light conditions, I don't see there being a problem, especially if it was eating fine prior to this a few weeks ago the very same way. It sounds very stressed, and stressed snakes will not feed as they normally would at all.

The husbandry conditions have to be checked like any other simple process of elimination. Something isn't what it should be, and could very well be temps.


~Doug