Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a California King Snake that was born on February 15, 2008 and which I got at 2.5 months old. It was 15" long and 17.9 grams in weight then.

Currently, it is 18.5 months old and has already grown to more than 35" long and about 280 grams. This seems to be a faster growth rate than I have been able to find information on California King Snakes online. However, I have not been able to find anything definitive about Cali King growth rates (some tables from studies or biological surveys would be great) nor any definitive information on just how big they can get (meaning, exact measurements examples of the largest ones on record).

Can anyone point me in the correct direction to obtain this information? It would be much appreciated!

You can grow them faster if you feed them more.

I wouldn't call that a record.

Captive bred snakes can get quite large in weight. I've seen some wild ones that were long.

Kerby...

**I have a California King Snake that was born on February 15, 2008**

That is an odd date for a California Kingsnake to hatch out..............

Most breeders breed in the spring.

Kerby...

LOL, i couldnt get that date outta my head,the whole time reading the post ,he could live in the southern hemisphere.
I too have snakes taking long naps in the middle of Jan. USA northern hemisphere. Anyone have experience here in the USA cross cycling their animals to "do it " in the winter , i have heard this especially from people with big babies in the summer

I know people who used to have basement collections. They just put the lights on reverse timers to have babies in the off season.

Thanks i could see that would work, i think due to economy and "The Snake Scare" and the animals themselves dont need it unless your contacted with a major dist/franchise, i think seasonal breeding is all we need.Thanks ,Chris

I bought the snake on April 26, 2008 and was told that the snake was hatched on February 15 of that year. Could the person have been incorrect about that?

If so, given the size of the snake when I got it on April 26 (15" long and 17.9 grams) when would it have been more likely to have been born? March 15? Even April 15?

I saw the information on the date on the information sheet about the snake and the only thing that was clear was that it was born on the 15th of some month. The rest was a sloppy scribble that I could not make out, but the person working in the reptile sectio of the store said that it was February.

Any ideas?

The fact is it could have easily of been born on the date you mentioned earlier. The weight sounds right for this to be the case too. Those are USUALLY produced in the very late spring/summer months, but anybody can "cycle" a pair of ANYTHING to breed whenever they choose to, all you need to do is make the conditions "seem" right to the snakes with certain temps, lighting photoperiod, feeding, etc...for them to feel it's time to go ahead and reproduce.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

i was thinking the record sheet was actually 7/15 not 2/15??just a thought

Actually, it was not a number that I could not read, but an abbreviation for the month, like Feb or Mar or Apr. It certainly was not earlier than February, because it said (scribble) 15, 2008 on the information sheet for the birth date. However, the snake had only been in the store for less than two weeks when I bought it.

What I am concerned about is that the snake will get unmanageably large and outgrow its tank. I have it in a 36" long, 12.5" wide, 17" high, very nice and expensive acrylic tank setup that I was told should be sufficient for it to live in for the duration, since I was told by the store that I bought it from that this partcular one should not grow much more than 4 feet long or so, or 5 feet at the biggest, and that it should not reach that length until it was at least 3 or 4 years old.

But here it is, just around 1.5 years old and it is growing almost an inch a week for the past month currently, and gaining about 10 percent more body weight every week either.

I do not think I am overfeeding it, since I am only giving it about 15–20 percent of its body weight in mice per week (about 2 or 3 small adult mice).

>>What I am concerned about is that the snake will get unmanageably large and outgrow its tank. I have it in a 36" long, 12.5" wide, 17" high, very nice and expensive acrylic tank setup that I was told should be sufficient for it to live in for the duration, since I was told by the store that I bought it from that this partcular one should not grow much more than 4 feet long or so, or 5 feet at the biggest...
>>
>>I do not think I am overfeeding it, since I am only giving it about 15–20 percent of its body weight in mice per week (about 2 or 3 small adult mice).
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Most people say the length x width of the cage should match or exceed the length of the animal confined therein. By that standard your plastic tank would be good for a snake no more than 30", and is hardly suitable for a 4' snake, whatever age that length is achieved. It's really too small for your animal now.

Plus, your feeding regimen is extremely aggressive, the sort of feeding people do ("power feeding" when they're trying to accelerate growth to reach breeding size. One small mouse every ten days would be fine to maintain your snake's health and provide for modest growth.

On the other hand, a king under 300 grams at 18 months is not growing particularly rapidly. It's easy to get honduran milksnakes that big or bigger in that time frame, for example.

Most people say the length x width of the cage should match or exceed the length of the animal confined therein. By that standard your plastic tank would be good for a snake no more than 30", and is hardly suitable for a 4' snake, whatever age that length is achieved. It's really too small for your animal now.

Maybe I am missing something, but that math is not adding up. Are you saying that I should have a tank whose length and width are both as long as my snake? That would mean that I would need a tank that is 48" by 48" just for a 4-foot long snake? If you are saying that the length (36" added to the width (12.5" should match or exceed the length of my snake, then since my snake is currently 35" long and my tank adds up to 48.5", I should be good for about another foot of snake.

Which, incidentally, was what I was told when I acquired the snake, that since it would take 3 or so years to get to 4 feet, that the tank would be good to provide a habitat for the snake for at least that long. If not longer, since when I got the snake, 4 feet was about as big a snake as I wanted mine to ultimately get to.

Plus, your feeding regimen is extremely aggressive, the sort of feeding people do ("power feeding" when they're trying to accelerate growth to reach breeding size. One small mouse every ten days would be fine to maintain your snake's health and provide for modest growth.

I definitely do NOT want to accelerate the growth, hah! The vet I have (granted not a herp vet; I have to find one, I know) gave me the guidelines for feeding the snake on the regimen I have, because she said it would need that amount of nutrition to have enough so that it would not have any deficiencies while it was growing. So, maybe it is time to go get a herp vet for real, to set things straight.

On the other hand, a king under 300 grams at 18 months is not growing particularly rapidly. It's easy to get honduran milksnakes that big or bigger in that time frame, for example.

Maybe 35" in 1.5 years is not big for a Honduran milksnake, but what I have been able to find out for California Kings, that is pretty big for one that age—which is why I originally asked if anyone had any idea where I might find any studies or charts/tables on the average growth rates for this kind of snake.

In the past several weeks, it has started growing almost an inch a week and adding 10 percent of its weight per week, as well. Maybe it's just a temporary growth spurt (I hope!) or maybe the thing has a tumor on its pituitary gland and I am going to have Andre the Giant the Cali King Snake. So, any tables or definitive information on snake growth rates would be appreciated.

Can anyone point me to a URL or a book that might have that information?

I've read all these threads, but unfortunately, most growth charts mean absolutelt nothing. Growth has to do with so many different factors, it is impossible to make a standard chart to represent this. And I say this from several decades of snake experience.

A snakes growth all depends on.......

1) amount of food intake in relation to it's size.

2) type of food ingested

3) temperature(greatly affects metabolism)

4) genetics inherited from parent stock

5) individual genetic predisposition for growth, etc...etc...

So you see, it is quite hard to give even a basic guideline for this, as there are so many variables to this.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"