On tuesday 8th December 09 I picked up a fresh wild-caught Malaysian King Cobra, which had very recently arrived in the country on a shipment from Kuala Lumpur, Peninsular Malaysia. Upon getting it back to mine, it was given a warm soak for around an hour. On the advice of another King Cobra keeper, the snake was treated with frontline straight away and given its first dosage of Metronidazole (Flagyl). The treatment of Metronidazole will continue every 2 weeks for another 4 treatments before a stool sample is taken to the vets. The snake weighed 1.73kg on the day of arrival.
On saturday 12th Dec, i offered it a 2ft defrosted royal python that had been frozen for several months. The snake was cut in half to allow the blood scent to be more prominent. The King Cobra took this over night.
2 days later, i offered the snake a bit more of a substantial meal, it was given 2 large segments of a defrosted corn snake. These were placed in the vivarium over night and were gone by the morning.
On the 18th Dec i offered the snake a washed medium rat with a 1.5 inch section of cornsnake pushed and sewed onto the nose of the rat. The insides of the corn which were pushed out, was then rubbed onto the rats body to improve the scent. Once again, by the morning, this had been eaten. This method was used successfully again on the 24th Dec.

And i thought this may be of interest, a couple of photos of preparing the rat:






On the 29th, after the king had passed through its most recent meal, it was weighed and had gone from 1.73 kg to 2.065 kg, an increase of 373 grams. Not a vast amount but it was a good sign that the king was settling down and the wormer was doing its job. That night i offered it a washed rat that had been scented with snakes blood, but did not attach a peice of cornsnake. This was offered in the evening and was gone by the morning. The following day, after feeding the rest of snakes, one of the kaouthia refused, so instead of chucking the rat away, i washed it and placed it in with the king, with no scenting. By the morning, it had been eaten! So hes gone from fresh WC to rodent feeding in just over three weeks, a great end to the year. I feel that i have been very lucky with this guy

Here are a few photos:







Cheers, Tom

great looking king you have there.. Also cool to see how you get it to feed some rodents..
Where do you get your feeder snakes from?

cheers niek

Very nice looking king and that style of feeding is really cool, good idea. Good luck with him

Nice King!

But i like the indian Kings a lot more...

I know this style to feed Kings, but i do know that i works so fast on WC´s

Great Job!

Good job Tom.

I don't know if you read my posts somewhere, but sewing the piece of snake to the rats face has worked great for me in the past. The only difference was I used pieces of Gopher Snake. Not that it really matters as long as the King is eating snakes.

Randy

My CB'09 Malaysian King has been eating Corn snakes stuffed with pinkies, but I've run out of live baby Corns, so I've been stuffing frozen thawed baby snakes. A few weeks ago, I sewed the head and neck of a thawed Corn snake to a hopper mouse, but he would not eat it, so I kept stuffing the snakes with pinks.

Today I sewed a frozen thawed Corn snake to a mouse, and the baby King ate it right away. If he goes like the adult Kings I have converted in this way in the past, he should be on frozen thawed rodents in no time.

Thank you everyone.

Niek, i got the dead snakes from the freezers at local reptile shops, luckily i did not have to buy any live feeder snakes.

Randy, yes ive seen your post about sewing snake peices to rats, it seems that this method is being used successfully by quite a few King Cobra keepers. Have you ever had success with breeding your kings?

Cheers, Tom

A wonderful educational thread, thank you guys for all the info.

Does anyone breed kings in Europe? Are cbb babies ever available?

Thanks
Yasin

Hey Yasin!

I know a guy in germany who owns a pair a lot of time - i think, he bred the last years but i had no contact to him a longer time...
Then there was a guy in northern europe (think sweden or finland) who sold babies at hamm for a few years.

Regards,
Rene

Thanks for the info mate.

Contact info would be great, especially the guy in Germany!

m.yasincakmak@gmail.com

I have never bred Kings before. I was going to try and breed my Malaysians, but she was VERY thin when I got her last March. The hatchling I have is supposed to be from eggs she laid. I'm assuming she bred in the wild, and laid the eggs right after being caught, but I'm not sure. She was too thin to have been living in captivity when she bred, but you never know. I believe she laid eggs in Dec. 08 or Jan. 09, as I got her and the hatchling from my friend at the Columbia, SC. show on March 28, 2009. He had just imported them right before the show. So she must have bred in Sept or Oct. 2008. She was not up to normal size last Sept/Oct, so I decided to wait.

The same buddy has a male Indonesian King and he was going to give her to me to breed to my female, but he forgeot to bring her to me. If he still has him, I will get him later this month, and I'll try to breed Indos and Malays next fall.

Randy

Here's a pic of "Albert", my big user friendly King....I feed mine Burmese Pythons f\t that we catch wild here in S. Florida....LOL...Your snake is very beautiful with a nice confirmation....

Frozen burmsicles are the treat in Florida these days, aren't they Tom?

it is wonderfull picture Tom, your Albert looks huge, how big is he?

Wonderful example my man! I am hopeing to pick up a banded king this spring. Best of luck especially on your breeding project.

P.S.- I like the burmese idea. They have to have some use besides eating.

a really nice king.

Indead a really nice king