New to Snakes ~ what is normal growth? shed?

[blondie098]

ok, so if he sat in his spa with the poo and urate, will he just wash himself off with his clean water (we changed his water as soon as we saw the mess)? Or do I need to bathe him (that just sounded weird when I typed it LOL)?

What are the sizes of mice so I have it for reference? I know there are numerous sizes ~ I found a chart a couple weeks ago, but don't remember what site I was at.

 

[Floof]

It wouldn't hurt to wipe him down, gently, with a damp paper towel. Just hold the damp paper towel around him and have him slither through. Fortunately snakes aren't quite as good at being unsanitary as some beardies (i.e. my little butthead), so they generally don't need to be "bathed" unless they have a particularly bad shed and need a soak to help loosen it up.

As far as mice sizes...

Pinky mice are newborn to a few days old. You have "small"/newborn pinkies, and then "large" pinkies, a few days old. Generally 1-3 grams.
Fuzzy mice, which come in "peach fuzzy" (the transition between lg pink and fuzzy, just as they start getting hair... hence "peach fuzz") and regular fuzzy. Generally 5-7 grams.
Hopper mice, after their hair has come in and their eyes and ears open up. Named so because they tend to hop around like little jumping beans. Generally 8-11 grams.
Weanling mice. As the name suggests, this stage is about when they're weaning off Mom. Usually closer to 15 grams, up to 20 grams for especially big 'uns.
Adult mice can range from 20 grams on up to 40 grams (generally big retired breeders). Some sellers will assign sizes ("large" and "small"), otherwise most adults you'll get will be in the 25-30 gram range, give or take a few grams.

There's a nice chart on the CornSnakes.com forum called the Munson Plan for feeding. It's designed for corn snakes, but it can probably be applied to kings, too. It's a chart that helps judge what size mouse your snake should be eating (with a recommendation on frequency) based on your snake's weight. I'll see if I can find it and post it here when I do.

 

[blondie098]

couple more questions, just cause hubby brought them up:
If weanlings are not available, looks like a "rat fuzzy" would be a gram equivalent? Do snakes get finicky when you change between mice/rats? The one specialty store is across town, and I won't start to be near them until school starts, our 9th grader attends a specialty school 1/2 way across town... puts me 1.5 miles from that store when I pick her up after school. But we do have a Pet Supplies Plus up the road from us, not sure what size variety they have... just trying to prepare if they say "no weaned" -- but have a rat fuzzy available.

Also, hubby asked about chicken meat. Chicken is one of our main staples, and I have a gram scale, I could cut a long chunk the appropriate size/weight. If he ever starts snubbing mice/rats, is chicken a viable meal? He said when he worked at our local zoo *many years ago*, they fed that as an option, but he wasn't a trainer or anything, he just helped feed animals as an extra helper here and there.

 

[Floof]

Yes, rat fuzzies are about the equivalent of a weanling or small adult mouse. It would be better to stick with mice if you can get them (the specialty store is your better bet; big chain stores only seem to carry the most basic sizes i.e. pinky/hopper/adult), since rats are fattier and a rat fuzzy is going to have underdeveloped bones/less calcium.

As far as him getting picky, it's not all that likely. King snakes, especially, are opportunistic and tend to not be picky at all. If he does get stuck on rats for whatever reason, it should be simple enough to switch him over by scenting the mouse in rat bedding or rubbing it on a rat.

I'm not sure that chicken would be an acceptable diet. Being just muscle meat, it doesn't have the nutrition from bones or organs. You can add a calcium supplement to make up for the lack of bones, but the organ meat... I imagine that would be much more difficult to compensate for.

If he goes off feed for whatever reason, anyway, you're going to have better luck figuring out why he stopped eating in the first place and correcting that than you would getting him to eat a slab of chicken.

If he ever does decide to go off feed and it's just a winter or breeding season thing (not a problem you can fix), you can either wait it out or tempt him with scenting. Chicken broth is, actually, one thing used to scent mice, and successfully at that. I wouldn't go so far as to offer him a slab of chicken, but you can probably use some of the juices from your chicken to scent a mouse if he ever decides to be a snot. (Other scenting methods include scenting with strong-smelling mouse bedding, rat bedding, tuna juice, lizard, other snakes, washing with a mild soap so it doesn't smell like people...)

Okay, seriously. I'm getting VERY curious why "j e r k" is considered such an awful curse word on this forum that they actually censor it. Considering that word is a standard part of my vocabulary, it's getting a little obnoxious... Lol!

 

[blondie098]

wow, who censored you? I thought we were a pretty lax group around here, of course I am new to the snake corner of the boards, I'm usually over in dragons because we have 4 ... and I know all the mods over in dragons ... was it one of them? LMK, now I'm curious... they usually only censor if someone is really being a troll, we've had a couple very heated threads in dragons in the last few years...

BTW, this last hopper offering had a little more "juice" to it... I wonder if he didn't smell the others and didn't realize there was food? Ew, so the gooey'er the better? LOL I am one of the few women who plays with her critters' feeders... I love playing with my supers, they're just so creepy and wriggly LOL... and we've bred hornworms before, those are fun to play with too... but that zombie mouse bit was a little creepy, I must admit!

 

[Floof]

Oh, not censored by a moderator, it just replaces it with asterisks. I tend to "preview" and re-read my posts a few times before actually posting it, and I've noticed a few times over the last couple weeks, when I've typed "jerk" it automatically asterisks it! Weird. I haven't actually sent a post without switching it out for a different word, so let's see if it really does do it this time...

I'll admit... I've been guilty of playing with feeders, too, LOL. I once was thawing out an extra-large rat and noticed that its tongue was sticking out. For some reason I got curious about it and started playing with its tongue.. LOL. Then again, I was a pretty morbid teen to begin with! Superworms creep me the heck out. I stopped using them after my boy got constipated from eating too many, and I'm glad for the excuse to never touch them again (unless I'm literally being paid to deal with them!)... I actually had one BITE me! Not that it hurt, but still.. That is just SOO creepy!

 

[blondie098]

wow, Alex must have patched in an upgrade to the boards, and that word is just probably on the magical list of disallowed words... I hadn't seen that yet LOL ~

Ok, so I have to ask, ... don't fall out of your chair laughing... Can I play with my snake now??? Please??? He ate! and pooped! and he's looking at me like "love me please"... LOL

 

[Floof]

Haha! Go ahead! He ate, he's pooped, you've had him for a few weeks. I think it's safe to say he's settled in enough to start taking him out. Have fun!

 

[blondie098]

LOL ~ off to see if Beetlejuice wants to come out and play LOL

 

[blondie098]

ok, tell me what it means when he does this:

We take him out, he settled right down within about 1-2 minutes... sat there peeking left and right from behind his towel... finally started to slither around, and he wrapped around hubby's arm, then started this back and forth, like a see-saw motion... all the while he would tighten, relax, tighten... then he started rubbing his face on hubby's elbow, almost like he was "rutting" on hubby's dry skin on his elbow. At first we thought he was trying to constrict... he tangled himself up all around his arm... but then he started the see-saw wiggle.

Reminded me of when dragons run around and rut on the carpet and the edge of the couch...

BTW he also likes to try and bully his way into hubby's armpit ~ ew... hubby said it tickled

 

[Floof]

I actually don't know... Face rubbing makes me think of two things: Trying to shed, or preparing to taste-test your hubby's arm. Since he didn't chop down, I would think it's the former... I guess, make sure there's something rough in the cage and keep an eye on him over the next couple days, in case he's ready to shed... Though you would probably have noticed if he had gone through the blue stage. Hmm...

 

[blondie098]

well, tho, he his in his tubes for a couple days, we hardly saw him... he looks super shiny at the moment, could we have missed the "blue" part and now he's at the clear stage and ready to slough?

I know I have a million questions, sorry to be such a newb!

 

[Floof]

Hmmm... Yeah, it's possible he went through the deep blue stage through those couple days. Some do seem to get particularly shiny before shedding, too.

No problem! It's good to have questions.

 

[blondie098]

I have a poor little sweet snake, curled up in his spa, with VERY blue eyes to my naked eye... and all the rest of him is off color, too ... poor baby but that's good, because we have shed!!! I will thoroughly check to make sure it is complete... any suggestion of how long 'til he wriggles out of his skin? will he leave it out in the open? Or hide to wriggle it off?

 

[Floof]

From the point he's at now, you're probably looking at a week or less til he sheds. Usually it seems they shed in the open (and usually when no one is around), so the skin is right where you see it.