Feeding Babies

 While there are still a couple holdouts from my first clutch of 2025. Most of the babies are now eating, thankfully. Eastern kingsnakes can be hard to get started, but in my experience, once they get going there is no slowing them down. I may be biased, but these are just some of the coolest animals ever. I just can't get enough of these babies. Some have a lot of red in their chain pattern while others are mostly yellow and black. 

As fun as they are to work with, I have to admit the ones that are refusing food so far frustrate the hell out of me. For them the next steps will be trying to scented pinkies. I will try the age old tricks. One of the easiest scenting methods I know of is to soak the pinks in the water from a can of tuna fish. Don't ask me why it works, but it is often all you need. I suspect it has something to do with the snakes having an innate fear of rodents when they are this size. If you think about it, an adult mouse could easily ruin one of these baby kingsnake's day. 

I have heard many folks like to also drop the pinkies in a cup of boiling water. I have personally never used this method, but I am not above giving it a try if other ways do not work. I also have a large population of skinks running around in my yard. I have contemplated trying to capture one or two to use for scenting purposes as well. At any rate getting these babies going is always an adventure and sometimes you have to get creative.

I'm still awaiting the second clutch of the year to hatch. This one is super exciting too. Hoping we get a couple of lavender hybino mosaics as that is one of the sweetest combos in Florida kingsnakes if you ask me.

First Clutch All Shed

 The first clutch of 2025 are doing fine. All babies have shed out and are looking great. Five of the seventeen have already eaten their first meals. One of the babies even took a second meal already. So I am confident these ones will be doing just fine. One of the albino babies took their sweet time getting into their first shed. It shed almost a week after all the others, but seems to be in good health. I started to worry since everyone else shed. So I put the problematic youngster in a shoebox with moist paper towels and it did the trick. The shed came off perfectly. They have not eaten yet, but I will keep trying.

These albino eastern kings are really awesome looking snakes. I love their pink color they have now. Eventually though that will turn to white. The normals are great looking too. All of them have the typical feisty attitude of a baby lampropeltis getula. They are quite cute when they are looking and acting like little cobras. I will offer them all another meal in the next few days. Hopefully those that have eaten will eat again and those that have not eaten will start. They have to be getting hungry as I am sure they have already absorbed all their yolks. 

We are also a couple weeks away from hatching out some hypo mosaic Florida kings with some of those being lavender hybino mosaics. I am really excited for those snakes to start pipping. So far all the eggs from that clutch look great. After that we will have another clutch of Florida kings which should all be hypo along with about half of them being T- hybino. So stay tuned, as things are getting very busy around here.