Questions about feeding habit of the King

Hi,

I want to know something about King Cobra natural preys:

King Cobra eat other snakes like ratsnakes, young pythons and others species of cobras (Naja sp.) and it's immune against the other cobras venom...

So, my questions is:

-- Some one know or hear about if King Cobra eat Russell's Viper or Malayan Pitviper in nature ??

-- They are immune against the Viperidae venom ??

Thanks!

Marc

Nobody have any idea about that ?

I'm just curious Smile

Hi Marc
I know of 2 Kings that used to eat dead Bitis Arietans without a problem. One of my Kings has eaten a number of dead Atheris species but I dont know if they will take other Viperidae.
Cheers
Gavin

Thanks Gavin for your response Wink

I know they can eat dead prey without any problem...

When a King Cobra capture a live snake he have chance to be biten by the prey and this is why i want to know the consequence of a viper bite on the King.

P.S.: sorry for my bad english Embarassed

well, our kings here refuse any kind of cobras...

they feed perfectly on ratsnakes and Tokeh (Gecko gecko), seldom take P.reticulatus..

I just picked up this 12' female Malay King. She was said to be eating any kind of snakes, and they had fed her some Mangroves right before I got her. Two days after I got her home, I sewed a piece of frozen thawed Albino Gopher Snake to the nose of a thawed jumbo rat, and she ate it. This has worked great for me in the past.

I also picked up a hatchling Malay King that was supposed to be taking scented pinks, but it has not taken them for me, nor has it taken thawed Cornsnake hatchlings. I'm going to try some other things including the chicken heart thing and scenting pinks with the chicken heart.

Questions about feeding habit of the King MalayFemale001

Questions about feeding habit of the King MalayFemale001

That's what I said, when I opened the container in my hotel room to bag her. She was bigger than he told me she was. She is a bit bigger than my male. I hope she doesn't eat him when I put them together.

RC

Well some good news about the female Malaysian King. She has eaten frozen thawed jumbo rats 3 times without even scenting them, let alone having to sew a piece of snake to the rat. I can not believe how fast she has taken to the rats.

Here is a photo taken today, of the female eating a Jumbo Rat. She is hammering them down now. The photo was taken through the lexan. I didn't want to disturb her by opening the cage back up.

Questions about feeding habit of the King FemaleMalayKing6_7_09

Questions about feeding habit of the King FemaleMalayKing6_7_09

Thats a great success Randy, nice to see that

Thanks Markus

This has been a great experience. Finally NOT having to struggle to get one eating Rats. Out of 7 or 8 Kings that I've had, she was, without a doubt, the easiest King to get eating Rats. I still can't believe it myself sometimes, lol.

Randy

Great succsess Randy!
Do you expereanced any differences of the digestion, when you feed rats instead of snakes (or reptiles in general)?
Are there any long-time-experiences, how this kind of feeding affacts to the Kings???

cheers
Markus

Thanks Markus

I was told by a good friend that Kings will do fine on a strictly rodent diet, but that they do better on a diet of snakes.
The only difference I have notice in feeding rodents compared to snakes, is that the Kings will become overweight if your not careful. But, maybe it was because I could never find enough snakes to make a King gain that much weight.

I had a 3.35 meter male Indonesian King that got very fat from eating 1 jumbo rat every 5 days. His cage was only .6 x 2.43 meters, so he had planty of room to stretch out, but not really enough room to "roam".

Being that Rats are so much easier to get than large snakes, (I breed my own rats and mice), I will continue to feed rats to any Kings that will take them. Even if I must sew a piece of thawed snake to the thawed rat.

I'm still force-feeding baby Corns to the baby Malay King. He is taking them a little easier now. Not fighting me so much to keep from eating them.

I think it's really easy to put weight on them with rodents, de do have a lot more fat than reptiles Smile

It would be interesting how fast CB kings from a "rodent eating king" would start on rodents.

Hopefully I will be able to try that experience in the next year or so

Guest

awesome snake Cool

,goodluck with the small one

Hey Randy
So the little one is being stubborn I see. I have managed to get the other 4 small Malaysian Kings to take mice now just rubbed in chicken hearts. The one eats mice no problem. It has taken me about 2 years now to get this far! I imported 21 babies and only lost 1. I forcefed pinkies and the on to fuzzies from day one. When they were about 2 to 3 feet long I sold off all but the 5 I have kept and I believe one has died from all those I sold and everyone else I have spoken to has them on mice so the patience paid off! My very big male, about 4 metres will still not eat anything! I have tried everything you can think of and still nothing so I am still force feeding him. Been 3 years or more now! I would love to see my big ones smoking rats like your big female! I see she has a nice red head as well!
Good luck with the baby!
Cheers
Gavin

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