Snakes will only eat when they are hungry, right?

Wrong!

In the wild, most snakes are opportunistic feeders. If they get the chance to feed, they will take it as they don’t know when they will catch their next meal.

This is also the case in captivity.

Corn Snakes and Kingsnakes, in particular, will eat much more than they actually need. This results in a slow build up of fatty deposits in the body.

This picture shows a Corn Snake that was being being fed every three days since it was a hatchling. I’m guessing that the original owner was told to feed the hatchling every three days and carried on feeding every three days as the snake grew.

Because it always fed, he would assume that it must be hungry and continued this feeding program.

The excess fat causes various problems for the liver, kidneys, heart, lung, etc. Eventually resulting in the premature death of the snake.

Don’t be tempted to ‘power feed’ your snake.

Jim Lind