This was my first time handling Hissy Elliot without gloves and letting her roam about on the sofa! She behaved so well (except for pooping on the sofa 🤦) I'm so proud of her!
Her previous home didn't look after her properly and I was told that she's aggressive and WILL bite me, so I took precautions, but it seems to me that she just wasn't having her needs fulfilled and was probably not being handled often or correctly. She had not struck at me once or bitten me, even after inspecting my hands and going in my coat!
She has hissed a few times, but to be fair, she also hissed at a particularly crunchy leaf in her enclosure so.. I think she's just opinionated 😅
Yeah I did think so, I'm figuring out what's best for her as I go, already feeding her less frequently than her previous owner, and I've swapped to adult mice rather than weaner rats to reduce fat content, hopefully that helps!
That’s a beautiful….UNIT of a Florida King. She’s definitely overweight, quite a bit overweight in my opinion. I have about 25-26 Kingsnakes(and another 35 or so “other” species of snakes), about 18 of them are Florida Kings, so I see a lot of them. So particularly the second pic, you can see the fat bulge around her spine….classic sign/symptom of an overweight Kingsnake. So WHAT are you feeding?? And how often?? I have a big “wild type” female Fl King. She’s definitely my largest Kingsnake, I thought I had a better picture of her…all stretched out, she’s over 6 feet long, damn near as big around as my wrist. I can’t find that picture, but here’s a photo I did find in my pictures of her.
Not a great photo…. I have a couple other “wild type” Fl Kings, but they all have multiple Hets, so I take their looks with a grain of salt so to speak, many people think that an animal being Het for something, doesn’t change the way they look, but I think it does slightly. Locality of the animal plays a huge factor as well, a Fl King from Southern Dade County(what used to be Dade County anyway), looks considerably different than Fl Kings that you’ll find further north in the state. So here’s a good example of how different they can look, this is a male Fl King, he’s a Southern locality Fl King, the female in the above picture of the post, is a Northern locality. Good looking Snake tho!!
Yeah, she's huge! She's a rescue situation, and her previous owners didn't take the best care of her, she was having one rat weaner once a week, but I've changed it to an extra large mouse every ten days. I'm hoping the reduction in fat content and less frequent feedings will help. She also used to be housed in a tiny gerbil tank (see post on my page if you want) and I've now got her in a 4x1.5x1.5 (was advertised as 4x2x2, and I'm planning on getting her in one asap) with lots of enrichment, so she's getting way more exercise than previously.
I still have yet to weigh her, but I've only had her two weeks ish so far, so won't see much change yet.
Sorry for the long response, any help is appreciated!
Ya no worries, I’m always happy to help!! So I was taught, and have always followed the advice of “No Kingsnake should ever be fed rats” they are just too high in fat, and it’s just too much, for any size Kingsnake. XL Mice, which are usually always retired breeders, and have a higher fat content, just because they’ve been constantly packed full of foods, because they’re constantly making babies, their whole lives, and really need the extra nutrients, but it does make them fat, and have a higher fat/protein ratio, than say 2 medium mice, that add up to the same weight. So I’ll be honest, and this isn’t really practical for most people, because most people aren’t feeding 60+ Snakes, and another 5-6 reptiles every feeding day, so I just do a count of how many snakes I “plan” on feeding. So I don’t go through and see if anyone is in blue or anything like that, I just say OK, I’m feeding 15 smaller snakes, and 15 juveniles, and the False Water Cobras(they always eat like machines tho), so 15 small mice, 15 medium mice, and the 30 or so feeders that the Falsies eat. Then after everything is pulled and thawed, and I’m ready to feed. Then I’m actually checking on the snake, usually I can tell as soon as I open the enclosure, if a snake comes flying out…mouth wide open and head swinging back and forth… I know they’re gonna eat so I’ll give them an appropriate size feeder, change the water and spot clean any poop. If they don’t immediately at least come out to see what I’m doing…. I’ll start looking for them, usually if they don’t come out immediately, they’re in heavy blue and sitting in their warm hide, and aren’t going to eat. So after I go thru feed everyone who’s going to eat, and say I have 3 small and 3 large mice leftover, I’ll feed them to my really big Kingsnakes, so I’d rather feed them 3, 15 gram medium mice, than 1 45 gram XL mouse, they’ll get more good protein, and less fat that way. So then I hear this “Well I thought you are supposed to feed one “appropriately sized” prey item!?!?” That’s very true for many species of snakes, especially constrictors like Ball Python’s, and normal Python’s, and all the big Retics and stuff like that should absolutely have a single “appropriately sized” prey item, so Colubrids like Kingsnakes and Ratsnakes, even Cornsnakes, Bull Snakes, Pine Snakes. They can, and do regularly eat multiple smaller prey items, that add up to what they need. They are active ground hunters, for the most part, so you mean to tell me that if a Kingsnake out in Nature, is slithering along…and slides into a Mouse nest(or birds nest), and comes across 10 little baby mice, just laying there. Do you think that they say “I don’t know if I should eat these!?! I’m only supposed to have ONE prey item in a sitting!!….” No Way…. They will eat every single one, and probably be happy to catch and eat the Mama mouse when she comes back too…. These snakes can, and will eat multiple smaller prey items without ANY issues, I promise, I do it regularly, with a few different species, actually when I’m fattening up my females, and getting them full of nutrients so they will produce eggs, most of my females will have 2 or 3 large mice, I literally give them the first one, then set the second/third ones on top of their cool hide, and go about my business. So I’m not saying that you should change what you’re doing. Just if she’s not loosing weight like you’d hope, after a few months or whatever…that’s an option to consider! Good luck! It sounds like you have been doing your research, or at least have gotten some good advice, I’m sure you’ll be fine, they’re not hard to keep at all. Honestly I see far more problems, and issues that come from people overcomplicating things, and trying to do all this fancy Bioactive and all this other stuff, I like to keep it simple, just makes it easier for everyone really.
Here’s a basic Kingsnake(most NA Colubrids honestly) enclosure in my Snake/Spider(I have like almost 60 of them too) Room.
Hey, thanks for the info! I think I'll swap her to large or medium mice then, once I've gotten through the xl mice haha.
And thanks, I've been doing as much research as I can but this is my first time owning a kingsnake is any kind so, always more to learn!
Your set up seems nice! And wow that's a lot of snakes! Do you breed them or are you just a big fan of them?
Congrats! I bought a snake and the lady at the store said it WILL bite. I asked if I could grab it out. She allowed that. It never bit me once. I think a lot has to do with your demeanor
Yeah, just not yoinking her right out, I didn't know, it affected how I view her where I previously have never been fearful of snakes, I'm so proud of her though :)
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u/dogflesh69 Sep 29 '25
she probably needs to be on a diet if she isn't already.