Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I currently have 2 kings, one is a mbk and the other is a brooksi. Anyways they both seem to hide constantly and hardly come out. They are both hatchlings, and they are not brumating. I keep each of them in a 10g tank for now, with a uth and they both have a hide and a rock to hide and burrow. For my substrate I am using well fine shredded paper. It comes from a shredder at work that shreds it to a point, that it is almost like confettie! I keep about 3 inches of it in each cage, and they love to burrow through it. So I was just wondering if there is something I could do to convince them to come out and explore. Any help is appreciated thanks.
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1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.1 Brooksi Kingsnake
0.0.2 ALbino Argentina Horned Frog
1.3 Lab mice

It sounds like your enclosures are set up right. And, if your kingsnakes are hiding 90% of the time; then it sounds to me like all is well!

Kingsnakes hide, that's just what they do.. There is really nothing you can do to change that..

~ Mike

Thats what I fugured that it is natural for them to hide! It would be nice to see them more active, but as long as they are happy thats all that matters.

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1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.1 Brooksi Kingsnake
0.0.2 ALbino Argentina Horned Frog
1.3 Lab mice

If you want to spark the minds of your serpents, I suggest aspen for the substrate. Looks nicer than shredded paper, and is packs together so when the snakes burrow, their tunnels don't collapse. When my Cal King was a baby, I kept her on newspaper. Thing was, since she's in my bedroom, she would annoy me by digging under the paper(the crinkling was pretty noisy at night for me). I'm so glad I switched to aspen as she grew. It really sparked her mind and she's constantly burrowing and exploring.

By the way, what type of hide do you have for your snakes?
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Scott

Reptiles
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0.0.1 Colombian Rainbow Boa(formerly named Precious by the previous owner....I gotta change that...)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
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1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)

Some people pride themselves on how cheaply they can make a hide.
But one commercial hide that king and corn snakes absolutely love:

www.exo-terra.com/EN/products/reptile_dens_i.html

Get the small den until they outgrow it.
The "snake caves" suck and are not liked by kingsnakes as they have no provision for the snake to wedge itself.

But these reptile dens allow the snake to wedge itself. They love them. Use one on the cool side and one on the warm side - and you can watch the snake leaving one making a b-line for the other as it thermoregulates.
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3.3.4 L. getula californiae
1.1 L. getula nigrita
1.0 Boa constrictor constrictor (suriname, fostering/rescue)
2.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Ah yes the old magnetic cave lol. Great story with that. I got the medium sized one for my ball python. He loves it now today even though the part I would remove to view him is gone. Why is that? Because he's so darn thick, his girth pushes the cave and the cover away from each other, causing the cover to fall on the floor! lol. I might actually give it to my Cal King(nowhere near as thick lol).
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Scott

Reptiles
--------
0.0.1 Colombian Rainbow Boa(formerly named Precious by the previous owner....I gotta change that...)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
-----
1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)

...my mistake I got the Large size not the medium.
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Scott

Reptiles
--------
0.0.1 Colombian Rainbow Boa(formerly named Precious by the previous owner....I gotta change that...)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
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1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)

Those magnet hides are cool if your snake will use them. I use home made hides from cut wood, and a flat rock aquarium sealed together. Not because it was cheap, but because this is the only way for them to wedge themselves comfortably. Mine are out crawling around (they are in 12 inch by 4 inch by 4 inch tall cages) so either the small cages or the hides could be causing them to be more active.

This is How I am currently housing my kings. Each tank is identical to this one. The hide is just a plastic hide I picked up at a reptile show. They seem to like the shredded paper better then the aspen. Also the paper holds their tunnels real well. The first pic is the tank and the secound pic is a close up of how fine the shredded paper is.

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1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.1 Brooksi Kingsnake
0.0.2 ALbino Argentina Horned Frog
1.3 Lab mice

I really have a love/hate thing going with aspen, I would love to find something else. I use newspaper and aspen, sometimes together. I love that finely shredded paper, where did you find that? I'm hoping you can get pounds of it cheap. Please tell, do you like using it so far? Thanks for sharing.

My simple set up below, rolled up newspaper hide (they do seem to like that) alot of squares of newspaper so I can take out the soiled parts almost daily, the smaller sterilite box with the water bowl for containing spills, the lid to the rubbermaid waterbowl is like the dinner plate- I usually put live pinks or fuzzies in there and they usually dont crawl over the little lip, and the lid to the bowl box I rest on top sideways. My snakes seem to like to poop right in the small box with the water bowl, which is actually very easy to clean with a dedicated srub brush antibacterial dish soap and rinse- it takes less than thirty seconds. The whole cage can be stripped, scrubbed and dried in a minute.

I got the shredded paper from work. We have this shredder that we empty every couple of weeks and normally when we empty it, I get the bag of shredded paper for my snakes and feeder mice. Its great stuff! I love it better then aspen. I dunno where they would sell it? I think you could pick up a shredder that does this at like office max, but I am not sure. Hope this helps
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1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
0.1 Brooksi Kingsnake
0.0.2 ALbino Argentina Horned Frog
1.3 Lab mice