Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a cali kingsnake i adopted a few weeks ago. He's about 46" long, not sure of age. Typical black & white banded.

I noticed today that his belly has gotten a yellow coloration that was not there a few days ago. Is this an indicator of pre-shed?

Well,....the onset of them getting duller, and getting a more opaque(milky) appearance to them is a definitive indicator that they will soon shed, although whites can become a drabber beige just before they get opaque. this is quite obvious, and gets so pronounced within a couple more days that they eyes cloud over to a solid bluish white. This is their skins natural oil between the old and new layer preparing for them to separate. Approximately two to five days AFTER the eyes fully clear once again, it will go ahead and shed it's skin. This depends on temp and activity level which have a lot to do with one another.

Note:........making sure the humidity level is above about 35-40% or so will help ensure that it sheds in one piece without having stuck-shed issues. A fairly large water bowl, brief, fine water misting, and making sure the slightly raised humidity doesn't escape out a big screen lid(just for example) will help immensely.

As long as the snake's enclosure isn't a big open-top screen with very low humidity, the decent-sized water bowl is usually sufficient enough though. Otherwise, I would place something over a majority of it to prevent the loss of humidity during shedding, but not all of it. This only needs to be done in the latter stages of the pre-shed process.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thanks for the info. He was definitely much brighter white before this. Eyes still clear though. I have him in a large 55gal with a screen top. Top is covered but humidity is still quite low. I will mist and supply a humid hide. perhaps he'll use it.
thanks again.

r

.
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com