Care Sheet for King SnakesAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.22 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 07/31/2006 |
Main Category: | Snakes |
Sub Category: | King Snakes |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Anonymous |
Years Experience: | 3 to 5 Years |
Species: | California Kingsnake |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Florida Kingsnake |
Sexing and Characteristics: | To be 100% sure, see a vet/"pro" to have the beauty probed.
Females to tend to be a bit longer, with longer, more slender tails. Note that this is not always the case... |
Mostly Active During: | Night |
Substrate and Water Needs: | Water: Please change everyday. If you really love your King you’ll change his water every day. Clean and disinfect his water-bowl at least once a week as they sometimes defecate in them...
Substrates:
-Newspaper will work fine if you are not worried about visuals etc or if you don’t have the time to clean another type of substrate. Just put it in the tank and throw it away when dirty... Very easy.
- Carpets like ’turf is also good as it’s easy to replace and looks much better than newspaper. Just be sure to keep about 2 or 3 ’sheets’ handy so that when 1 is dirty, you can just put another in while it’s being cleaned.
-Aspen bedding is another good option. Snakes love to burrow in them too. Bad part is that you often have too try and clean the tunnels out cause the King will do its thing in them
- I personally use a type of Aquarium gravel for most of my Kings. It looks awesome but is hard to clean as it doesn’t soak up the snakes ’mess’ and it will drip to the bottom of the substrate.
- For my hatchling Albino Cali king I use a Mixture of sea-sand and shells(grinded down to a sand-like texture). The baby looks absolutely gorgeous with that under it and he seems to enjoy it as well, digging around. Just be sure to take your baby out when feeding as some of the substrate may be swallowed with the prey... YOU DO NOT WANT THIS. Can be fatal sometimes. I’ve never had any problems with shedding before as well. If you want to be sure, just take him out and put him in another tank temporarily when you see his eyes start to cloud over. Make sure he feels safe in there so put in plenty of hiding spots and try to get the Humidity up a bit to help the shedding process (Not to much though). |
Lighting and UVB: | No special lighting needed, although it is a plus. Normal light bulbs or special ones like basking lights are a bonus but aren’t really needed if you already have your temperatures set up properly with a good gradient.
Some of the other fluorescent lights are cool. ’Specially ones like Reptisun as they give off light at a wavelength similar to the sun. It’s good for the snake and their colours really shine under some of them. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | Keep the tank drier than usual. California kings do not need high humidity at all. (You can just increase it a bit when shedding time is due)
California Kingsnakes and all Kingsnakes in general are very hardy animals, so you don’t have to be EXTREMELY fussy about Temps. just make sure you have a good gradient going between 73 and 87 degrees. (23-30 degrees Celsius)
Make sure you provided hiding spots on both sides of the tank (warm and ’cold’). |
Heating and Equipment: | I my opinion the best option is to use a undertank heater. If you are using a large tank (eg. made of wood), just put the heater under a sheet of glass that’s just slightly bigger than the heater and then put that under your substrate. |
Caging Provided: | I generally use aquarium tanks as these provide the best visibility to view your babies. My largest tank is a wooden one, which may also be make to look like attractive pieces of furniture, so its also a good option.
California Kings and Florida Kings generally are not climbers but will do so occasionally if you do provide items for them to do so. It makes any tank look better as well if you have a vertical piece of wood.rock jutting out. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | Generally just go for the usually pinkie-fuzzy-hopper-adult mouse route. California and Florida Kings (Basically all Lampropeltis) will almost eat whenever offered. They’re monsters! Florida Kings do get bigger and grow faster (generally) so keep watch.
Generally feed anything that is about the same width as the widest part of the snake. Kingsnakes will eat things much wider than they are, but its harder for them to digest a meal like that. Rather feed 2 or 3 smaller rodents a few times a week than one LARGE one once a week. The snakes will grow faster like that too... |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | No supplements needed. |
Maintenance: | ***I’m not a Herpetologist so don’t use my info alone. Do some more research as well.... Just look after your snakesss |
Some Words on this Species: | California Kingsnakes are awesome snakes too keep. they come in lots of different colors and with many different patterns. I Love them. Young ones tend to be a bit jumpy bit if they are happy with their ’homes’ and are handled gently everyday, they should calm down. Same goes for Florida Kingsnakes although they may tend to be a bit more aggro. In general though they are friendly snakes that will usually bite only as a last resort when frightened. |
How Members Rated
This Care Sheet | Rate This Care Sheet
Please keep all comments constructive to California Kingsnake husbandry methods and care. Any degrading, sarcastic, or disrespectful comments will be removed. |
Total Members Rating: 9
| 1 |  ( 0 ) |
| 2 |  ( 0 ) |
| 3 | ( 1 ) |
| 4 | ( 5 ) |
| 5 | ( 3 ) |
|
|
