r/kingsnakes

Hi! I recently got a CA king snake (Harrowhark 🖤). I forgot to get the hatch date but she's around 12" and 19g (hasn't gained weight in the 3 weeks I've had her) so about the size of a hatchling I believe. She eats super well! Following the directions of an exotic vet tech I'm feeding her 1-2 pinkies every 5-7 days.

But I'm worried that she's possibly stressed. She's SO active and always looking for places out of the tank. She glass surfaces a lot. The breeder told me she could stay in a 6 quart bin for another 6 months which I personally didn't like and wanted something a bit bigger with more heating and lighting flexibility. So I got a 10. After seeing how active she is I put her in a 20. She's pending a bioactive 50 once I get my ball python into a 120 bioactive set-up.

She goes through periods of rest and activity through the day and night. She has 3 main hides and often burrows in new spots or sleeps under leaves. She has lots of leaf litter, basking rock, CA native grass, branches, and hanging hoops she loves. Temps range from 70-90+. Evening drops a little bit she always has over head heat. I've put her in the 120 that's pending set up for her to explore. It's got a bunch of potted plants in it and I added leaf litter and a textured mat to explore hoping she just needed more enrichment and explore time. She's a bit squirrelly but seems interested in me and even approaches sometimes.

I'm not sure if this is normal activity or I'm missing something. The only thing I can think of is maybe I started handling her too early (I've had her 3 weeks, I waited about 3 days to handle and feed), maybe her environment has changed too many times, or maybe her sleep patterns are being thrown off because I made the mistake of a red pm light. I need to replace it with no light ceramic heat.

Any thoughts or advice?

Edit: a few extra specific details

Hey guys, I have a few questions about my new brooks I picked up at a show around 3 weeks ago. Hes really young, probably under 2 months and is still pretty skittish but getting better fast. I have been following Lori‘s choose based handing so hopefully I can get me used to me. One question I have is when I should upgrade his tank, he’s in a 10 but already grown soo much and is very active. I have a 25 lined up and was wondering when to switch him. another question was how bad do I need to get him a background? He clearly messes with his reflection and idk what kind of background to give him fair his tank is all glass. Thank you guys if anyone can help much appreciate! I know you can’t tell in the pic but the rock in the back is hid he loves it

Hey everyone! So I adopted a rescue Cali King here a month ago and finally brought her home on Thursday (July 2nd). Her previous owner, who was the woman who ran the rescue, was giving her a rat pup once a week on Sunday nights.

My local pet store has a variety of frozen prey, but I stupidly didn't think to check for rat pups specifically. I meant to buy them in bulk at the Tinley Reptile Show we went to last Saturday and completely forgot on my way out.

Anyways, onto my question. After researching for 30 minutes, I decided to buy a 4 pack of medium mice to hold her over until I can get the pups next week. I've seen so many varying answer online saying to give her 2 medium mice and some are saying 1 jumbo mouse (couldn't find those). She's a 4 foot adult and I don't know her exact weight. The medium mice I grabbed are not as big as the thickest part of her body. Can anyone help me here? What would everyone recommend feeding her? Attached picture of my 2.5 year old son holding her to show her size!

No questions or concerns, just wanted to show how damn cute, curious, and beautiful she is. Voracious eater, professional rattle snake impersonator, and the prettiest iridescent scales in the sunshine ❤️
She’s 6 months old now, and rules her domain.

Feeding advice with smaller prey items

My sweet boy Reno (Stuart's milk snake) is growing like a weed, he's gaining about 15-20 grams a month right now, and last weigh in he was up to 216 grams. These gains mean he's moved up a prey size again, but I still have 7 small frozen mice that only weigh about 14-16 grams. I picked up some larger mice that fall within the 10-15% body weight range, but I still have these smaller mice I need to use up.

Would it be preferable to A) pick up 7 fuzzies and feed him a small mouse + fuzzy as a single meal every 12-14 days, or B) feed him a single small mouse, but feed him more often (like after 8 days)? I'm thinking whichever way I go with this, I'm going to still feed a properly sized prey item every other meal because I know neither option with the smaller prey is ideal, but I just need to know which would be better for him. Thanks! Pic for snake tax.

quite literally made my day

Hello everyone.

On 25th my snake had his first big mouse. Its been 9th day now. He pooped once, in 4 days, but today I took him out and saw his belly is still rounded.

He is 257gramms, 2 years. Mouse was 21 gramm.

Temperatures on cold side 23-26c (depending if aircon is on). Warm side warms up to 29-31.

Do I call the vet? How long digestion might take? Do I make an appointment to the vet for when I can (maybe tomorrow or a day after)

Thank you. I'm very worried and have noone to ask.

P.s. on the floor he moves normally and held his body firmly wrapped around my hand when I took him out. He was not agressive and when I touched his belly slightly he didn't hiss or move away in pain.

I am so proud of my baby boy. He's about a year old and has been essentially bounced from bad situation to bad situation- he spent 6+ months in a pet store not receiving the care a milk snake should get, and then was adopted by a former friend who proceeded to neglect him at every single turn. The friend was forced into giving me the snake after the snake nearly died from stuck shed and a lost history of neglect in his care around two months ago and last week he entered shed for the second time in my care (First time was likely stress induced from almost dying.) This morning I woke up and found a full shed in one piece in his enclosure. When he first came into my care, I had to remove his shed for him using olive oil and a q-tip, and now he's seemingly finally able to just be a snake.

Hello! Recently took my male MBK to the vet to have a checkup and they said he looks great. He apparently only weighs 13 grams and he’s only a year old? A bit worried he’s underweight. He’s skipped a meal and I believe he might skip again this week. He last ate on June 20th and never skipped a meal before (sometimes was a bit reluctant but would always eat) He’s currently on pinkies. Does he generally look to be at an okay weight? I’ve been worried that maybe I’m doing something incorrectly and want to be as informed as I can

First and foremost, I just wanted to thank you guys here in this forum! I've been asking a lot of questions lately the past few days because I'm finally picking up my MBK tomorrow morning and this is the first reptile I've ever owned. I'm trying not to be too nervous of a new snake mom, but I can't help myself, so I'd like your opinions on these tanks that I have: one for travel and one for home.

The first picture is the tank I'm planning to bring her home in when I pick her up. I covered the sides with a scenery background do she doesn't get overwhelmed (taped on the outside). Please be honest, is that too much? I also put some fake pothos leaves in there so she can have a place to take cover. I didn't think to get a proper smaller hide 🫠 Although I probably could buy that at the reptile store where I'm picking her up unless they just give me one.

The second pic is the home tank and I'd like like to know what you guys think of the setup so far! The same background I used for the travel tank is taped on the wall behind this one as that's all I had left 😅 I have damp moss for hydration and to keep the humidity level up a bit in the tan hide on the warm side (humidity has been a consistent 45%-55%). The big wooden cave has a lot of those pothos plants behind it, the driftwood for climbing, and I have only one rock near the heat lamp. I had another grey flat rock, but it got too hot too quickly, and I think I need to switch out my daylight bulb.

I have a 100W daylight bulb and a 60W basking bulb at the moment, but it got up to about 93°F on the rock and even on top of the moss hide with both of them turned on. I had a 100W basking bulb but found out that was too hot, and the only option I could find in person to test right away was the 60W. The 60W alone got the rock up to 88°F and I'm waiting for my UVB tubular bulb to come on Sunday. I was supposed to get it today for further lught/temp testing, but the order got delayed 🙃 Any advice in placing items differently or even replacing/removing anything early tomorrow morning would be greatly appreciated!

I understand that this is probably normal thing but I'm just genuinely curious about what it is. Just personal marks or do they have any biological meaning? I can't come up with a proper google search to help determine what these pits/deepenings/whatever-these-things are :(

I'm getting a (roughly) 9 month old female Mexican Black Kingsnake in two weeks and am just about finished with my set up! All I'm waiting on now is a humid hide, water bowl, and climbing enrichment/decor :)

I'm also more than likely getting a larger branch or something on the hot side as her basking spot. I'm new to reptiles in general so I've been messing around with the temperature in the tank and figuring out how to work the heating lamp I got before I actually get her. If anyone has any recommendations as to what to get for a basking surface I'd love to see/hear about it!

I just wanted to share a video of my sweet boy. During his play time for enrichment, he'll follow me around the bed and he enjoys climbing my arms. That is all, have a good day 😊