King Cobra Dinnertime.

As many of you know, king cobras in the wild feed on snakes. It is completely unnatural for them to eat rodents. Many years ago at a presentation at Out Of Africa (in their former location), they said they had to smother their rats with the fluids from a sliced up rattlesnake to get the king cobras to eat it. I wonder if most zoos do feed rodents and if they have trouble getting kings to eat them?

It depends on the individual and how it was raised. Wild caught individuals are the hardest to switch to rodent diets. It generally is done over a period of time, slowly decreasing the offers of snakes and increasing the offers of rodents. If they are bred in captivity then they can be “taught” to eat rodents from the beginning.

Most of my visits this impressive snake is usually hiding out of sight or with just its head or tail showing. This time it was out and moving around actively in 'hunting mode' so evidently expecting to be fed. Later I happened to come back and saw this.

I wonder if it wouldn't be feasible to raise garter snakes or corn snakes to feed to king cobras?

@Arizona Docent Some private keepers indeed do that, but you will need to breed a lot of feeder snakes to do that .

@lintworm Yes but don't most snakes have multiple offspring with each birth? Why would it be so difficult to breed lots of feeder snakes?

I wonder; has any research been done or published into the potential impacts feeding a king cobra on rodents has on their health?