Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently I found a post on the internet from a rancher who had found a California Kingsnake that had been injured in the recent Cedar fires near Julian / San Diego California. No one had replied so I gave them my contact information.

Basically the snake was burned on the outside of its mouth, and some strange (not sure if burned) scarring along the side of its body.

I took the snake to a local reptile specialty store in Oceanside CA and they removed some of the external scarring along the mouth. They also examined the inside of its mouth and everything looked normal with no obvious injuries. They told me it was going to shed soon hopefully. The problem is we're not sure if the eyes and external senses were damaged as well. Right now its eyes are clouded over so we don't know if its permanently blind or not.

I haven't handled the snake other then transporting it and setting it up in a terrarium. I don't have a heat lamp on it since its currently in brumation, but I do have a standard under the tank heat pad and water dish on the cool side. The substrate is newspaper. Also I threw in an old hide box, currently on the warm side.

My goal is to have it shed and hopefully release it asap. I'm not sure about the behavior or phisiology of kingsnakes. I'm worried because it absolutely shows no reflex at all when I have my hand near its head. I know with my corns and my bf's python, even though they're tame they always pull their heads back a little when I go near them.

I'm posting here in a effort to find out if this is normal for a king. From what I've observed it likes to rest its head on its body or the water dish with its mouth open for periods of a few hours a night. I'm really curious as to if this is normal. Again my experience is only with corns and pythons, none of mine have ever done this.

If anyone out there could give me some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. The king is about 2 1/2 feet in length, it seems healthy, but again I know nothing about them. Also worse case senario and it does prove to be blind, what would be the best course of action? I don't agree with keeping wild caught animals which is why I want to release it as soon as possible, but I don't want it to become hawk bait or starve either. Thanks for your help.

-Julia

I don't know too much about kings, I've only owned one for a few months, but I do know that a snake will probably be okay if it's blind. After all, snakes do have their tongues that they use. I heard that their tongue is more useful and more sensitive than their eyes, so the snake will probably be okay in that aspect. I sure hope it will turn out okay though, it's probably dehydrated or in some sort of shock. Good luck!
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~Banana~

I'm posting here in a effort to find out if this is normal for a king. From what I've observed it likes to rest its head on its body or the water dish with its mouth open for periods of a few hours a night. I'm really curious as to if this is normal.

No, this isn't normal. However this behavior is more typical of snakes with respiratory infections. I wonder if it has some sort of respiratory trauma from the heat/smoke of the fire?

I would also be concerned about any burns to the tongue. I had a cal king I found in AZ a few years back that was extremely skinny when I found it. When I looked closely I saw it had extensive scarring on the underside of the head. Later, I realized it no longer had a functional tongue. Without a tongue in refused any food I offered it for 3 months so I eventually euthanized it. It acted like it wanted to eat the food items, but in the absence of olfactory data it wouldn't try.
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Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham