Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At night - Cool end - around 68 Warm end - Around 72.

Need a warm end and a cool end so the snake can regulate its own body temp.

No special lighting is needed for snakes. Do not need a UVB light like lizards. Lizards need this to process food into calcium. Snakes get their calcium from the bones of their food items.

You can however put a low watt bulb on the warm end to keep the ambient temps up. I use a 40 watt on a 20 gal long. Snakes need a heat source on the bottom of the cage to help them properly digest their meal. They bask in the sunlight to warm up so they can get "energized" and move around. I use a human heat pad to provide under tank heat. Cheaper and come with a setting switch, where as UTH's dont and are lots more expensive.

A minimum of one temp gauge. It should be placed as close as possible to the floor of the cage on the warm side to give proper readings. I just lay mine right on the bottom of the cage. If you get the kind that has a sticky backing, pull the whole sticky backing completely off. This is to keep your snake from rubbing the wax paper off of the sticky and becoming stuck to the gauge.

FEEDING - Hatchlings - I usually feed mine 1-2 pinkies every 3 days. Once they are big enough to handle 3 pinks, move them up to peachies. (small fuzzies). I use this general rule of thumb until adult hood. Once the snake is big enough to handle medium to large mice, I only feed one mouse a week.

They do not need anykind of supplement. Adding calcium to their food can cause hard stools and problems with defecation.

Dont handle them for a couple of days after feeding to keep them from regurging.

I feed my snakes in a seperate container once they reach yearling size. I have never had one regurge. The only handling I do is picking up the snake from one container and putting it in its enclosure.

Fresh water should be changed out atleast every couple of days. The water bowl should be large enough that the snake can soak in it if it wants to. For hatchlings, I use the small plastic plant saucers. They are sold at K-mart, target, and wal-mart in the plant section. I think they are right around 4" in diameter and maybe 1/2" deep. These are just big enough for the snake to get in the water, and it is not deep enough that the snake could get trapped and drown.

HANDLING - Once you get a new hatchling, let it settle in for a week before feeding it. Otherwise handle it for atleast 10 minutes a day to get it used to handling and keep it from being nippy. Lots of people say not to handle a hatchling, but I do. You just have to be very careful not to hold it too tight as you can break its bones. They are pretty squirmy when small, so it would be a good idea to hold it over your bed, carpeting, just over its container. Just somewhere that if it happens to squirm out of you hands it wont fall far or onto a hard surface.

ENCLOSURE - I use the 12qt sterilite containers for hatchlings. Too big of an enclosure can stress the hatchling out. Once they are large enough (yearling) to switch over to aspen bedding, you can put them in a 10 gal. or a 20 gal. long. You need a minimum of one hide, best to have 2. With hatclings, they may not use them. I have my hatchlings on newspaper substrate and a hide in the enclosure. They hardly every use it, preferring to hide under the newpaper. They like a hide that is nice and cozy. Snakes like a hide spot that is small enough for them to feel secure, but not so small as to be cramped into it.

I use shredded aspen as substrate for my snakes once they hit yearling size. Newspaper for hatchlings up to yearling. The newspaper for hatchlings makes it very easy for cleanup, no ingestion of aspen, and if the snake does not eat the pinky, it is easily seen and disposed of. Where if you have a hatchling on aspen that does not eat, then you start to smell the pinky a couple of days later.

A couple of reason I feed the yearlings - adults in a seperat container:
1. no chance to ingest aspen, which leads to impaction and can kill your snake.
2. The snake will not relate opening up of its enclosure with food and mistaking your hand for food.
By feeding in a seperate container, my snakes only go into feeding mode once they are placed into the feeding container. Kingsnakes are notorious for going into feed mode and will strike after something that seems like food and ask for forgiveness later!! LOL

Dont use cedar as this contains an oil that is toxic to snakes.