Feeding
Snakes, whether they be Royals, Corns or any other snake,
should be fed on appropriately sized food in captivity.
Our snakes wild relatives may go weeks without feeding.
They feed once a week, poo once a week and shed their skin around once every 4-5 weeks.
When feeding hatchling Royals
we start them off eating mouse fuzzies or rat pups every 4-5 days.
It’s best to get Royals and all large snakes
onto rats as soon as you can, as eventually, due to the small size, mice will not satisfy them – and sometimes it’s
hard enough getting a Royal to eat, never mind eat 4 or 5 mice at one sitting.
Royals are notorious for stopping feeding for no apparent reason, and sometimes it takes
months for them to start again.
Do not worry too much about this, as long as your Royal is not losing much weight it
is a natural thing.
Hatchlings that are not eating, however, should be given the once over by your reptile vet.
There
are hundreds of things to try to get the Royall eating, although you will find they will star themselves when they are ready.
My favourite is heating the rodents head, I got this tip from The Complete Ball Python book.
First, I thaw the rodents
in the snake room, this lets the smell waft around the room and gets the snake interested.
Be careful to make sure the
rodent is dry before you try this too! I thaw them lying on kitchen roll to absorb any liquid, when they have thawed to room
temperature, I carefully hold the rodents head on a hot lightbulb for 30 seconds.
This gives the snake a heat source
to lock onto, if they looks interested but backs off, I go back and reheat the rodents head.
This normally does
the trick, and I usually get a nice strike from the snake.
Our Black Pastel, however, likes his rodent placed at the
door of his hide, he then drags it in and eats in private.
They all have little idiosyncrasies that we have to put up
with for a quiet life!!
Be careful NOT to wave the rodent in your Royals face, they are shy feeders and this alone
could put them off. Always use tongs when feeding.
Sometimes though,
it’s imperative to get a non-feeder feeding again.
There are numerous tricks, if you have been trying mice then
try rats, heat the head, heat the whole body, crush the head, thaw the rodent in mouse/gerbil bedding (if you ask at a local
pet shop they will give you some).
Try feeding gerbils or multi-mammates if the snake is big enough.
Hold the rodent
in tongs and wiggle it, drag it around the snakes tub, leave it in overnight.
To be honest, the only thing that worked
for me was heating the head on the lightbulb.
It’s normal for Royal Pythons to not want to eat during a shed.
Funnily enough, Spider Royals, or anything with Spider genes in it, eat like buckets. My
Spider, Ghana, even eats while in shed.
You shouldn’t have many
problems feeding Corns, as they are normally buckets.
All mine take from the floor fo the vivs and tubs, but occasionally
there will be a difficult one.
Try all the tricks above, but if anyone has any tips please feel free to email them to
us and we will add them to the list.
Housing
Royal
Pythons require an enclosure designed to house them securely.
Royal pythons are powerful snakes and great escape artists
so proper enclosures are a must.
Housing a small baby royal you can use a Faunarium with a heat mat with a thermostat
and a digital thermometer and move upto a vivarium as they need.
If housing more royals you could use a rack, as we use
home built rack's for all our Royals.
Heating
Royal
Pythons require relatively high temperatures.
The ambient temperatures should be in the low 80's F and a hot end
of 90-95 F which will cover one third to half (MAX) of the enclosure.
You can use heat mats, heat strips or if using
racks you can use heat cable all with a good Thermostat.
I wouldn't use hot rocks.
