Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Is it necessary for Kingsnakes/Milksnakes to have stone or other piece of furniture to help them shed with?

We have a baby Kingsnake (Tarahumara) that is only 4 months old, I noticed he started to get blue on Sunday. Everything cleared up on Tuesday and on Wednesday he had a perfect shed. He only has aspen shavings, a water bowl and a paper hide in his small 6 qt enclosure. I did notice that he turned the place upside down with big lumps of aspen shavings all over the place... LOL - But other then that the shed was perfect eye caps and all.

So I know as a young snake it's probably not necessary but might be handy for them. Now how about as they get older and grow bigger?

Any help would be appreciated.

Justin

By all means put a rub stone in w/ the neonate or adult, it isn't going to hurt anything, and they very well might use it too. Some of the snakes in my collection seem to have a more difficult time w/ sheds then others, and those are the ones that get a rock or rough water bowl to use as a rub stone.

-Dell

Thanks Dell. Would you use just an ordinary small flat stone that you find in the desert or what would you suggest?

Thank you,

Justin

P.S. That is a great looking snake. Is it a Variable?

Yeah, a flat stone would work fine. Some folks might tell you to boil in water, and that wouldn't be a bad idea. But I've never done that.

The L. t. multistrata, Pale milk snake you're asking about hasn't really changed much from that photo. He's a young adult there.
He's a year older in this photo, but I need to up date his photo to something more current because he as yellowed slightly.

-Dell

Yeah, flat on the bottom so it can't rock around, fairly heavy so it doesn't get pushed around, and rough....done deal!

A concrete cinder block broken into appropriate-sized pieces with a hammer work excellent for this too.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com