Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Flipped tonight at a construction site at 730pm as heavy storms approached. This site has produced 7 mole kings over the past five years and is in the process of being turned into commercial property...latest I heard was that it would become a nightclub. Cell phone pic isn't the best. I held onto the snake and will take better pics soon while I'm deciding what to do with her.

Appears gravid. Does it look gravid to you guys?

Thanks for looking,
Michael

Sweet find!

Yes, she sure does look heavy in the aft-end!..

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

That's a good looking girl! Very light colors, and she very well may be gravid. It's the perfect time of the year for it.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

Glad you found it. It is one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Too bad the area is about to be desolated. The "moles" are rare enough as it is.

--Dennis

Yes, Michael, I think you could be right.....Me thinks she's gravid too........
HOW ARE YOU BRO???!!!! (Yes it REALLY is me)

ZEE
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Hope all your projects are successful this year bro!
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

Thanks, bro!!!!

Keepin' my fingers knotted...LOL!
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

How are you? Are you back home? When are we meeting up in the sandhills? This weekend would have been perfect weather for it!!!

Michael

Hi Michael!
I will be home in early June.... I will try to get with you IF i have time. I sure would like to!!!!!! At least for a LITTLE herpin', maybe......You can e-mail me your phone number, and I'll call you when I'm back: carstenzoldy@yahoo.com
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Did you rescue her before her habitat is destroyed? This sort of thing makes me really angry; building some stupid useless structure over a nice wild place.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

I collected her. The buildings that sat there for ten years empty have been torn down. There are stacks of "I" beams next to the edge of the lot and trucks are parked on the property, so a structure is going back up soon. They have already bulldozed brush over all of the A/C I had set up there except two pieces, and she was found under one of the two.

I have her set up with a nesting box, offered her a fuzzy but she refused...could be either she is too gravid to eat or she just doesn't recognize the lab raised rodent...moles can be picky.

This is my second time around with gravid moles from this spot. I found the pair below from the same spot in 2006. The babies can be so difficult and frustrating to work with that I ended up getting two onto mice and sent them to Mike P in NY and released the rest in 2006. I have five more years of husbandry experience and am more patient now, so I am hopeful I can establish a small colony of these guys. I am sure I will be reaching out to the people on here for advice at some point.

For now, I gave her plenty of vermiculite in a big hide for her to dig in and made it drier than I would for a typical nesting box, as I always find moles in xeric habitat. Will watch her closely and switch it to dirt (from the locale where I found her) if she shows any issues related to the vermiculite.

I'm open to any suggestions. I have kept moles off and on since 2003. They can survive and feed on newspaper or aspen, but tend to go off feed frequently...not sure if they just "need" to burrow in dirt. They will take lab rodents, but are off and on. They aggressively eat worm snakes and skinks, but nobody can offer those consistently.

Let the fun begin...

I would not use vermiculite in any nest box.

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

me neither.....

Why not? What do you guys use?

I often used long leaf sphagnum moss and this year I'm using good ol' sphagnum peat moss (as in pic above). It's more natural (have you ever seen a wild snake nest in vermiculite?) and they like to burrow and "nest" in it.
Years ago I had a Cal king that was a very active "nester". When I used vermiculite in her box, it got all over her and into her nostrils and mouth. Probably was harmless but she looked like she had it caked in there...I didn't like bothering her during that time to clean her up but felt I needed to and to switch media....
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Yeah Mark, I much more prefer the two choices you mentioned as well, and for the very same reasons.

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

I have used the long strand sphagnum moss for years in my boxes. I just started back using the vermiculite base with spagnum moss on top this year. I have to say that the snakes seem to enjoy rooting in the stuff and seem to settle into their boxes faster and lay with less distress when I use it. Will definitely keep an eye out for eye or nostril issues though.

I really need to find a good substrate for these moles...something dry and easy to burrow in...more dense than aspen, more dry than cypress mulch...is there anything out there that you guys can think of. Maybe some kind of sand/dirt mix? I really think keeping a snake long term on newspaper that is accustomed to burrowing 99% of the time eventually stresses the snake and it stops feeding. I have kept moles since 2003 and know there must be a better way. Ideas?

Thanks,
Michael