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How often and how much should I feed an adult male california rat snake? (4yo)

Just because the pet shop owner said I should feed him two adult mices per week, which seems a bit much... Even though he is quite a large snake. :)
 
two adult mice or one small rat should be about right, but make sure to keep an eye on his weight if you're feeding weekly. feeding every two weeks might be better.
 
What is a California Rat Snake? Do you mean King Snake?

If I was feeding a big adult kingsnake I'd either do one adult mouse once a week, or two every two weeks. But I'd watch closely to see if he was growing too rapidly and getting fat. Something to consider more with kings than corns is the feeding response. Keeping a king not quite so hungry, or rather, not letting him develop as extreme a hunger, will go a long way toward you not getting bitten when you want to handle and he thinks you want to feed.

If it is a rat snake of some type, I'd go with one adult mouse every two weeks.
 
As far as I'm aware, this is the one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baja_California_rat_snake
(in our native language we call them simply "Californian Rat Snakes".

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This is the one.
 
obboi: if feeding two adult mices every two weeks might be better, isn't it the same as feeding one adult mice per week? Which is the plan I consider.
 
Oh nice! I was unfamiliar with that species! I think two mice a week is a _lot_ of food. As a four year old, his growth should be leveling out from the rapid growth of a baby to the slow, gradual growth of an adult. I'd weigh him now, try him on one adult mouse every 10-14 days, and see how much weight he puts on. 10 grams per feeding is a nice rate.
 
Here's a picture that can give you a general idea about his length (he is on an adult sized bed).
 

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Wow- he's a big boy. I'm revising my advice again! I might try two adult mice every two weeks, or one jumbo adult mouse, every two weeks.
 
Nanci said:
Wow- he's a big boy. I'm revising my advice again! I might try two adult mice every two weeks, or one jumbo adult mouse, every two weeks.
Click to expand...

I would just like to ask - is there any particular reason you guys are sticking to two mice every two weeks? :) I mean, isn't it the same as feeding him an adult mouse every week?
 
i guess that the idea with spacing it out is so that when a snake does eat, he gets good and full. smaller meals more often can be done, but in general practice larger ones more often is the thing. someone else may have a better answer
 
Okay, he ate pre-killed adult mice without any problems just now (even though he was always fed live). :) Should I feed him only once every two weeks then?
 
reptire said:
Here's a picture that can give you a general idea about his length (he is on an adult sized bed).
Click to expand...

Can you get a decent photo of the head? The faded body blotches and lateral striping is a little strange for Bogertophis rosaliae.
 
I mostly works, better detail, closer, and possibly a side shot would really help. From the looks of it from that image and the previous body photo, I think you might be looking at owning a yellow rat snake (Pantherophis obsolete quadrivittata, though some researchers taxonomically don't recognize the subspecies and have even split the eastern US rat snakes; with the "yellow" rat snake now being called the eastern rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)) and not a Baja California rat snake (Bogerotphis rosaliae). The head morphology differenced between Pantherophis and Bogertophis is very visibly noticeable, with the greatest feature being that Bogertophis have "bug" eyes.
 
Oh, so it's a yellow (or eastern) rat snake then. :) Never was big on subspecies, thank you for the clarification. :)
 
HerpsOfNM said:
I mostly works, better detail, closer, and possibly a side shot would really help. From the looks of it from that image and the previous body photo, I think you might be looking at owning a yellow rat snake (Pantherophis obsolete quadrivittata, though some researchers taxonomically don't recognize the subspecies and have even split the eastern US rat snakes; with the "yellow" rat snake now being called the eastern rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)) and not a Baja California rat snake (Bogerotphis rosaliae). The head morphology differenced between Pantherophis and Bogertophis is very visibly noticeable, with the greatest feature being that Bogertophis have "bug" eyes.
Click to expand...

However, the wikipedia page for the eastern rat snake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantherophis_alleghaniensis
says that adults are black. He is at least 4 years old and not black at all!

So what kind of a snake do I own after all? Is it a cross-bred one?
 
That's what it appears to be to me. It's actually one of my favorite subspecies of rat snake. I say subspecies because the split and elevations of the original Pantherophis [Elaphe] obsoletus complex doesn't differentiate between the yellow rat snake (P. o. quadrivittatus) and the black rat snake (P. o. obsoletus) which is puzzling to me because you can get distinct animals within their respective ranges and then you get intergrade animals, or greenish rat snake within overlap areas of their range. The Zoological Museum Hamburg (aka The Reptile-Database) still lists subspecies under P. obsoletus, though The Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH) and The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) does not; SSAR's current recognition of the split and elevation threw me for a loop as they had previously not done such.

Taxonomy aside, that a pretty snake and I'd go with what Nanci suggested as a feeding regiment.
 
reptire said:
However, the wikipedia page for the eastern rat snake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantherophis_alleghaniensis
says that adults are black. He is at least 4 years old and not black at all!

So what kind of a snake do I own after all? Is it a cross-bred one?
Click to expand...

See my above reply...that wiki link is why the splitting of P. obsoletus complex (complex = P. o. obsoletus (black rat snake or western rat snake), P. o. lindheimeri (Texas ratn snake), P. o. quadrivittatus (yellow rat snake), and P. o. rossalleni (Everglades rat snake)) into P. alleghaneinsis (eastern rat snake), P. obsoletus (Texas rat snake), and P. spiloides (gray rat snake) so blasted stupid and confusing.
 
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