In general, getula in the wild spend a great deal of time underground at quite cool temps. In captivity, that is automatically provided during Winter and Spring, but tougher to provide in the warmer months. In any case, you never need to provide temps over 84 for any kingsnake. Turn the heat pad off.

I know a few breeders that have bred all manner of kingsnakes with a room temp of 80-82 deg. Higher temps just means more food needed to maintain weight. I am talking about Cal kings, MBKs, speckled kings, desert kings and black kings. I would not feed them giant meals if you keep them at 80 deg.

(Just for clarity, in the wild, kings will move from warm temps well above 82 deg to underground cool temps. What they are shooting for is an internal body temperature of probably 82-84-ish deg, maybe higher temps when digesting a big meal, and much lower when they do not have food so as to not burn calories.)

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