Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone! So I'm a relatively new king snake owner, and my snake is getting ready for his first shed with me.. His eyes have turned a cloudy white, and he hasn't left his hide except to go soak in his water dish..
Should I feed him during this time? Or should I wait to feed him until he's finished shedding?
Thanks in advance!

Some individuals feed during shed, others don't.
As your new, from what you said, your snake is soaking in the water bowl. Snakes only do that if they are dehydrated. Maybe you have a screen top, no secure shelters. A snake shelters where is entire body is not exposed to air. Tight burrows, tight cracks etc.

Once your cage is right, snakes my drink a little on occasion. Soaking is snake talk for, I am losing water to fast. Normally all you need is a cage with no air loss. and a water bowl to add humidity to the air and occasional drink.

Its not a fine line that's difficult to achieve. Its easy and can be done with all kinds of cages. There are all manner of tools to help with this, from adding a little moisture to the substrate, to having a moss box or tub. To simply spilling a little water in the cage with adding water. The key is to stop the humidity from leaving the cage.

Normally, if you heat a cage, UTH or lite, you also heat air. That air raises out of the cage and takes humidity with it. It basically drys the cage out. Much like a house heater does. If you "close" the cage to prevent air/humidity loss. It also allows you to use less electricity.
to review, to soak is normal when a snake is dehydrated, whats best is, prevent it from being dehydrated. Remember, kings are not water snakes and have no affinity to water, but do require 50% humidity or slightly above. A normal house in winter, can have 3 to 10% humidity. which is why snakes(particularly kingsnakes) live in the ground where its humid. Best wishes

I probably should have written that differently.. He's only gone through his water dish once.
He has two nice, snug hides. Half of the terrarium is covered (as yes, I have a screen top.) I will try getting a humid box for him as well to add to that!
I also have a humidifier close by that runs constantly, and I mist it down a few times a day.
I was really asking about feeding during shedding, should I try to feed him and see if he eats? If he refuses, how long should I wait to feed him again? I only just noticed the cloudiness over his eyes yesterday, as he's albino, so it's a wee bit hard to tell.

The point is, cover the top all the way. You shouldn't have to mist your cage at all. Kingsnakes normally do not drink water in nature, in most cases, its just not available to them. Their whole design is to conserve moisture. If your hunting kings and its dry under rocks or boards, they simply won't be there. They will be where its humid. Humid does not mean wet. They like it dry and humid.

As mentioned, when you heat the cage, it also heats the air and the air quickly rises out of the cage and takes humidity with it. Which is why you have to mist. Cover the top and it traps the humid air in the cage. If your worried about the snake breathing. Just remember, they live IN THE GROUND, with no open air. They occasionally crawl on the surface when its warm and humid, to go to other holes in the ground. The smallest of cracks, like where the door slides in, is plenty enough for the snakes to breath well. Remember, they normally live underground.

I bring this up because chronic dehydration causes lots of problems for the snake. From immediate, to prolonged.

I am not a fan of constant rehydration, like mentioned in other replies. Reptiles are not designed to pass water. Even their urine is semi solid. They are designed to extract all water from their prey, and conserve it by all means. Both physically and behaviorally.

And yes, I have some experience with kings, I have kept and bred them since 1964. And I was the first to produce albino kings, way back in the early seventies. So yes, I have a passion for Cal kings. Best wishes

I have no way to cover it.. And I have two lamps on the top of the screen to keep it warm. I can't completely cover it, since one lamp is always on. The air is too cold in my house to not have a lamp on.
The humidity in there is about 40-50% right now, which is what it's been at.
I think I'm confused.

Please keep at this as its very important. When you heat cages from above the lid, you are heating the air, from the top of the cage, to the bottom. The snake only cares about what he mass it sits on is, not the air. That hot air, rises up and takes the humidity/water, with it. You keep adding water in order to maintain that 40% or so. But as soon as you put it in, it goes right out the top and you have to do it again and again and again. Now imagine if that was you in there. You would be sick as a dog.

I now and have for 50 years, put the lite fixture and the lite, in the cage. And then cover the lid. When you do that, you can use a much smaller bulb, to achieve the same heat. So what wattage are you using and what sized cage.

When you place the bulb in the cage, you can use 25 watts or even 15 watts, or those new screwball bulbs, they are not hot enough to burn anything, muchless the snake. In 50 years, I have not burned a kingsnake yet.

One friend of mine, avoids all that by covering the top using a lite outside the cage, on one side. aimed at one corner. There are many ways to do this.

When pet shops sell that stuff, got me, my dark side says, to kill the animals so you can buy more. My other side says, they simply could care less and leave it up to you.

But, if you do not heat the cage, not lites or pads etc. and only go by room temps. Then that lessens the problem a whole lot.
Heres a way for you to learn(if you want) get another tank just like the one your using. Set it up with the lites on top, just like your doing now. Do not cover the lid at all. only no snakes inside. put in a water bowl and measure how fast the water evaporates. Do not add water. measure how long it take to evaporate all the water. The cover half the lid, and test again. Then put the lites inside and completely cover the lid and test again. Remember, when you put the lites inside, only use enough wattage to have the same temps you had before.

Now after you have measured how fast the water evaporates. You now should think of your snake as the water bowl, because the exact same thing is happening to the snake.

Now the bad part. If you do that a few times, you will see white stuff in the water bowl. That's calcium/salts, It will keep building up. Back to your snake, as your snake keeps losing that same water thru its skin and respiration those same products are being deposited inside your snake. Which results in gout, both visceral and skeletal. It builts up in the kidneys and causes kidney failure. Which to the average keeper is having a very healthy snake(looking) die.
please take the time to test this. The advanced test would be including the snake and observing which one does the best.

I am sure your getting the picture. The constant watering and misting, are leaving calcium/salts/minerals in your cage and in your snake. The truth is, your snake can process some of that, just not a lot of that.
The language of snakes. If a normal land dwelling snake sits in water, it means its A. Hot, B. dehydrated
If a snake needs to be soaked in order to shed normally(one piece normally) then its dehydrated.
If it needs to be soaked to look healthy, then its not healthy, its dehydrated.
If a normal snake refuses food when temps are good, chances are, its dehydrated.
If a otherwise healthy snake regurgitates partially digested food, its most likely dehydrated. Again, I hope this helps. Once you limit dehydration, snake keeping is so very easy and fun. Best wishes

Thanks for this advice.
I stopped misting the tank, I never did mist the snake, and levels have been at a great temp, and great humidity.
He had a perfect shed, and is doing well.

FR's response is very good, please read.

Here are some choices you have.

Choice 1: Reduce ventilation - Cover most of a screen top if that is what you have, and then have a water dish large enough such that humidity levels are in the moderate range. Also provide tight hides.

Choice 2: Provide localized humidity - Use a humidity chamber. Example, a plastic shoebox with a hole cut out and filled with damp moss or eco earth. Place 1/2 over the heat.

Choice 3: Manual maintenance hydration - Soak the snake in a plastic shoebox with just 1/4 inch of water in it, for like 3-5 minutes. I usually place the last 2 inches of the box over a heat source. Doing that once in awhile usually ensures a hydrated snake, even when kept in a dry cage. I do that every few weeks with mine when ambient humidity gets low while I am cleaning cages. Works amazingly well for their general well-being and skin tone.

I've been keeping snakes for many years also, and Frank's comments were a good reminder to me to watch for dehydration.

As far as feeding goes, if its hungry during the shed cycle there is nothing wrong with feeding it, but if it doesn't eat until after it sheds, that's fine too. It won't starve.
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Kent