Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I just joined this forum since I was searching for information about how old Cal. kingsnakes live. My wonderful snake is about 37 years old (I've had him since he was a baby). The Internet says that the record for these snakes is about 32 years. I'd like a professional (vet. or breeder) to confirm his age since my snake is greater than I thought. Are there such places that can do this?

Very cool!

I'm not sure I quite follow though. Nobody could verify exactly how old your snake is by any known "testing".

Or do you actually mean get the snake "documented" into records as being the longest known living Cal. king?

Apparently you have been taking great care of this animal, so congrats!!..

Also, what basically were the snakes feeding regimen and environmental details it's entire life?

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Hi Doug - yes, I guess I would like to get my snake documented into some sort of records as being the oldest Cal. king since kingsnake lovers would want to know this.

I found him when he was a baby, so he has gone from pinkies, to baby mice (live), to adult mice, to baby rats, and now back to adult mice (still eating live mice). There were times when he was in his 20's that I would have to hold the mouse by the tail to feed. But, in his 30's, he is actually stronger and faster than before and can eat on his own. Last year I put two adult mice in his cage and he wrapped around both at the same time. Amazing guy. He has never been to a vet and has never stopped eating or shedding.

I live in warmer climate (Bay Area) and the snake has always been indoors (glass/plastic containers), so I have never used a heating pad or humidifyer, only an occasional rock warmer in the winter. This may be against normal caging instructions, but I was only 4-5 years old when I found him and started caring for him. He has lived on cedar shavings, but during the last 15 years, he seems to prefer plain newspaper.

Anyways, I could write forever about him.

If you have some old pictures of it you could scan from the 70's and take some current pictures, that would be sufficient evidence in my mind and a lot of others. Not that I don't believe you, but most other people like to see proof. If you could get all of that together, I would put it on my website and I'm sure if Hubbs was ever to update his common kingsnake book (he has talked about the possibility) I'm sure he'd mention it. In the mean time I will mention it on my website along with the info you provided. It would be great if you could post a current photo of him or send it to me.
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Isn't keeping a kingsnake on cedar shavings a large RED FLAG. Cheers

Well, they say it is, but is it? Obviously in this case it wasn't.
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Hmmmmmmm how do you know? do your really think you can put a king in real cedar shavings and not have problems, I recomend you try it. Then you can decide what you believe on this forum. Cheers

I'm not going to try it. I've heard enough people say it was not good. Maybe the kind he used was different in some way, I don't know. Have you tried it? Have you had problems with it?
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That is awesome my friend!!
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Genesis 1:1

As mentioned there is not way to confirm your snakes age, except your records. In order to claim the longevity record, you must have records that verify that.

As for the hobby, there are also other long lived Cal kings.

The original(founder)albino cal king lived to 35 and had lots and lots of offspring that eventually covered the world. This animal was originally from Balboa park and was at the zoo for years, before getting into private hands. I recieved this animal from my late friend Ted Davis. I bred that animal to death, well it would have killed me. hahahahahaha it was retired into the hands of Ross Adcock, also of San Diego, where he had it until it died.

Also Bill Wooden had a Cal king(az. locality) that lived to over 40(i believe). Mr. Wooden keep this king, a pyro and I believe a Rock rattlesnake, at room temps and fed them 8 times a year, they never reached full size.

Congrats and I hope that snake experienced life events. Cheers

WOW 37 / 40 years?? i have had animals for a long time, but i really had no idea they could live that long... I guess i am MUCH younger than you guys... ~

Great topic and great info from FR as well...

Can you post a pic of this 37 year old Cal King???

~ Mike Russo

First thing: Welcome
Wow, what a success story. Can't wait to see pic's. Also you can write to your hart's content. I will read you stories.

DAVY

Thank you all for your kind replies. I'll go home and take some nice photos of him (his name is Evel Knievel). I was 4 when I found him and at that time Evel Knievel had just jumped the Snake River (thus the creative name)!

I'll also try to look for some old photos of him. We used to take some photos of him with guests (that were initially afraid of snakes, but ended up loving him), but I don't want to post photos with people.

Cool name!
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Gerard

"Ten minutes to wapner..."

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

What you want in the old photo is a photo that shows the snakes pattern well enough to ID it as the same snake. You could always blur out the faces of the image or if you don't know how, I can do it for you. I've always heard of really old snakes, but never have I seen any kind of evidence. I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate seeing that kind of evidence.
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What you want in the old photo is a photo that shows the snakes pattern well enough to ID it as the same snake. You could always blur out the faces of the image or if you don't know how, I can do it for you. I've always heard of really old snakes, but never have I seen any kind of evidence. I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate seeing that kind of evidence.
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" but I don't want to post photos with people"

You can crop it on your camera's computer program too keep in mind...

I am sort of surprised that it did so well for so long being on cedar shavings all that time. Cedar is known to be irritating to reptiles and certain other animals because of the aromatic oils the cedar contains. But the drier the better, and if it was kiln-dried really well, I guess it would be better than stuff that wasn't baked real well. But hey, I used the stuff too back in the late 60's and through the 70's fairly often as a kid growing up because nothing was ever mentioned in any literature regarding it and there sure as heck wasn't an internet to search stuff at a moments whim like today..LOL! Now it is pretty common knowledge and is mentioned all over the place about not using cedar bedding for herps or the rodents they are fed either.

Anyway, cool story, and all you have to do is what Ross mentioned, and even when you post pics of it when you can here, remember to entitle the post itself something like "longest lifespan California king 37 years", or "oldest California kingsnake at 37" and the internet search engines will automatically hit on this after just a short while and people will begin to see it when searching for anything similar to this. The text used on Ross' site regarding this snake will also be "remembered" by the internet search engines and brought up on related searches too.

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Very cool account! Can't wait to see your pics and further details.

--Dennis