Kingsnake keepers-- a little help please???

[MoJo]

Congrats on finding her! Thanks for the nice words on Carmello.

I have never heard of braining a live piny - I think most people would find that cruel too. Has he already tried live? If not I still think that would be the first thing I would try. If she is roaming that much I would think she is hungry and looking for food!

Jo

[anji1971]

Lori, sorry I'm I little slow, but congrats on the beautiful new babies!! I read this thread last night, but my little brain was just way too tired to reply to anything at the time!! And it seems like in that short period of time you've already had a few adventures with them!! Best wishes for the feeding problem, unfortunately I don't have any advice for you, as I'm a total dunce when it comes to these kinds of snakes! But if anyone can do it, it's you, Lori!!

[sschind]

First off, I can see a very light tinge of orange in the picture of the snake hiding so it is possible it is a low grade apricot. Sometimes I think that's what our minds are attracted to. Something different. If all he had on the table were nicely colored apricots maybe you picked this one out because it was different. I'm just curious, was it priced the same as the others?

As far as feeding I personally will never sell a snake, for a pet, that has not eaten. My standard practice for babies is to feed them once a week until they have fed 4 consecutive times, and then they are ready to go. If they feed 3 times and then skip one I start over. If that snake eats another 3 times and skips I will sell it because at that point I feel, that with 6 meals out of 8 is established. I start out offering frozen If they don't eat frozen after two or three tries I will try live. I have had snakes eat three times then just stop and never eat again. As for those that never feed. After about 6 to 8 weeks I will try to force feed it. Mouse tails for tiny babies, small pinkies for bigger ones. If they won't go for that, the small babies get fed to the non feeding kingsnakes (which always got them started) some of them were sold a food for other snakes (so I guess yes I do technically sell non feeding snakes but not as intentional pets)

Most of the people who buy these cheap non feeders are those least qualified. No offense to you Lori but you were not prepared to take on the snake. "Not prepared" in the sense that you did not plan on buying a non feeder so you could not possibly have been prepared. Not "not prepared" as in not capable. He did give you information but they make it sound so easy, "oh just try this that should work" if it were that easy they would have tried it, and if it would have worked the snake would not be a non feeder and would not be discounted. Most non feeders I see for sale are pretty much beyond hope. That is because the seller has tried everything they can think of to get it to eat including hoping that it will start to eat just before it starves to death. Nothing has worked and they want to at least get a few bucks to pay for the wasted pinkies.

My personal opinion is that it simply isn't worth it. Even if you stress that it is not feeding, my experience with people is that most of them will hold it against you anyway if the snake dies or at the very least these people tell other people that you sold them a non feeder and they don't always tell them the entire story, now I have people thinking I am selling non feeding snakes. I know this because people bring me snakes all the time that aren't feeding and all they ever say is "I bought it from some guy at the swap" They never tell me if it was bought as a non feeder and many times it is very obvious that the snake hasn't eaten.

I must make a distinction between non feeders and problem feeders. Sometimes snakes will just be problem feeders. They will only eat once out of three tries, or they will only eat live, or they will only eat little white bulldog puppies (oops, sorry, I remembered that from a tall tales book about the hodag) sometimes they will only eat a certain prey item. These snakes can be fed it just takes a bit of perseverance. Some of you may recall the free flame garter I was including in a lot several months ago. It would not eat on its own but once you got a rosie started it would finish it. More like assist feeding rather than force feeding. I pointed this out and I feel that this was acceptable.

Sorry for the long post. In short, I guess if the guy is totally up front about it and you want to take the chance it is up to you. Personally I wouldn't want to take the chance as a seller to have anyone for any reason think I was selling non feeding snakes.

[drache]

I have never heard of braining a live piny - I think most people would find that cruel too. Has he already tried live? If not I still think that would be the first thing I would try. If she is roaming that much I would think she is hungry and looking for food!

Jo

kings don't only roam when they're hungry
true, most of them just like laying around
I do have a cal king though who's a roamer at times and an escape artist (perhaps the two go together)
he does seem to enjoy the stimulation of coming out of his enclosure and hanging out with humans
he's well-fed and if I fed him every time he roams, he might just eat, but he'd end up obese (one solution to the houdini issue)

also
I don't think it's all that difficult to make a king believe the mouse is alive when it isn't - all it takes is dexterity with tweezers and some acting talent
for that a f/t is fine

and
I'm glad you found the snake
whew!