What Have They All Been Eating?

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Hello All,

Just decided to satisfy my OCD for a bit and list all the prey items my snakes have been eating over the years. Hopefully this list may offer an alternative or two for any problem feeders you may have.

SNAKES

Pantherophis g. gutattus (CB) - mice, small rats, baby chicken*

Lampropeltis g. californicus (CB) - mice and small rats; (WC) - mice and kinked neonate corns

Pituophis c. annectans (WC) - mice and small rats

Thamnophis a. hydrophilus (WC) - trout filet, chorus frogs, small Northern Red-legs and Foothill Yellow-legs, tadpoles, large guppies, goldfish (rarely, due to thiaminase)

T. e. terrestris (WC) - chorus frogs, pinkies, trout filet

T. e. elegans (WC) - chorus frogs, tadpoles, baby W. Fence Lizard, trout filet

T. ordinoides (WC) - earthworms, tadpoles, chorus frogs, baby No. Red-legs

T. s. infernalis (WC) - chorus frogs, trout filet

Hypsiglena torquata klauberi (WC) - Skilton Skink, baby W. Fence Lizard, kinked neonate corn, neonate garter, baby No. Alligator Lizard

Diadophis punctatus occidentalis (WC) - CA Slender Salamander

Contia tenuis (WC) - CA Slender Salamander

Eryx colubrinus loveridgei (CB) - mice

SALAMANDERS

Ambystoma gracile (WC/CB) - larvae - daphnia, mosquito larvae, tubifex worms; adult - earthworms, waxworms, crickets

FROGS

Pseudachris regilla (WC/CB) - flies, fruit flies, crickets, small earthworms, waxworms, small moths

Rana aurora (WC/CB) - flies, crickets, earthworms, waxworms, moths, small grashoppers

*The one time I fed a baby chick to a snake was rather hilarious, but I won't do it again. I had a stubborn Pacific Gopher Snake at the time, so I opted to try a bird; he wasn't interested. So, I tried to "pawn" it off on my gluttonous amel corn, and she took it. Prior to the take, however, she was flicking her tongue, and the chick actually thought it was a worm and nipped it. I couldn't stop laughing.

Steve

[guidofatherof5]

Very good information. Thanks for posting it.

[ConcinusMan]

Lampropeltis g. californicus (WC) eating mice? how the heck did you manage that? mine never ate rodents. Showed no interest at all. Fed them western fence lizards, southern aligator lizards or just about any lizard found in So. CA, and occasionally smaller king snakes or gopher snakes.

All very good info though.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Lampropeltis g. californicus (WC) eating mice?

Yeah, started her on pinkies after I caught her as a yearling. I even made the mistake of feeding her a kinked neonate corn (which she ate of course); I figured once they get the taste for reptiles, they'll refuse mammals. Not "Penny"! She's fussy on occasion, but she always eventually takes the mouse! No more reptiles for her by the way.

[ConcinusMan]

Interesting! I suspect her age to be a factor even though she was WC. Any WC kings I kept were already at least 24 inches when collected, and refused mammals. These were all coastal San Diego Co. where about half were striped phase, and always chocolate brown and yellow, or very black and white. Interestingly enough, I very rarely found one under 24 inches or over 4 feet. On rare occasion when I did find a neonate, I usually fed it to my larger kings. I know, sick, perhaps a bit wrong, but it happened because I was desperate to find free food for them and wasn't having any luck finding Alligator lizards under debris. Found baby kings instead, and thought, hmmm... that'll do.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Penny was WC in San Diego (Rancho Penasquitos area). She's a coastal brown and light yellow - chaotic pattern (I believe the third codominant trait - the unpredictable aberrant pattern; these guys mix and match all the time) Awww! Feeding kings kings; that is sick... but no worse than me maintaining my other WC herps with various herps (esp. the night snake!)

[ConcinusMan]

ahh yes. Chocolate and yellow. My favorite. I found a few myself(San Diego, spring valley area) that had both patterns. Rings or partial rings on upper 2/3 giving way to stripes on the lower 1/3, roughly. Similar to this one

Is that what you mean?

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

This snake is remarkably similar to Penny. The fatter than normal bands (if you want to call them that) create the same chaotic, thin, and sometimes diagonal light bands (like your snake's mid-body. Penny however does not have any real striping going on, but 2/3 down the body, she gets the circular dorsal "motley" effect.

Supposedly, any 2 of the 3 pattern traits can mix at one time. Your's looks like a striped/aberrant, whereas I believe Penny is a banded/aberrant. I suspect there's more going on, unless the aberrant trait is just crazy in that it can mimic the other 2. I'm better versed in corn genetics than kings.

I need a better picture, but here's one...

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

[ConcinusMan]

True, the one in the picture is predominantly striped. Still, the same basic principle. Broken bands, spots, whatever. Penny is yellow alright, but very dark brown, nearly black. She has great face markings.

My favorite ones (least common and hard to find where I was collecting) are the chocolate/yellow colored banded variety, much lighter brown and deeper yellow. In the area where I was finding them, chocolate and yellow striped, broken bands ("zippered" pattern) and/or spotted like penny were just as common as normals.

Anyway, about the feeding, I suspect habitat to be a factor in their preference too. I always found them in deep canyons or the steep walls of the canyons, with a sage scrub/desert mixed habitat where lizards were the most abundant food. I returned to one of these canyons (fragments of habitat in an urban area) after being gone 10 years and it was so overgrown, choked with vegetation, I didn't find a single lizard or kingsnake.