Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. My name is Joe, and I'm a snakeaholic...Seriously though, I've been keeping and breeding various colubrids and pythons for about the last ten years. Lately I've been focused on pythons, but I bought this little guy as an easter gift for my wife. She fell in love with it last time we were in the pet store. This will be just a pet for us, not a breeding project. I'm including some pictures for your enjoyment, and I have a question or two. First off, it was sold to me as a "black and white california kingsnake". Is that an accurate common name for this one? Also, I want to sex it just so we know what to call it. Can I pop it just like I do with my baby pythons? Anything special I need to know about it? Lastly, as far as care goes, we've got it in a standard baby colubrid set up. Its in a 10 gal aquarium, paper substrate, hide on each end, with a thermal gradient of about 72-85. Sound about right? Thanks for any info you can give us as new king owners. Feel free to shoot me a link you have found helpful. Thanks again and enjoy the photos.

P.S. Let me know what you think about this little one. We LOVE it!

Joe Pociask Pythons

You have a nice desert phase, many are have hints of yellow in the white and are dark brown where yours is black. So you got a good one. Your set up sounds good. At least it's consistent with my colubrid set ups and Perlowin's book on Kingsnakes.

ooooh yea! that's a classic desert phase cal king , l.g.c. ,
a great pattern also , that animal will grow up to be a feeding
monster! mine can never get enough ,
your doing everything perfect ,
good luck

hey joe ,i see the link but it's not responding, do you have any pythons up for trade right now?

Hey, yeah...the link should be OK now. I'm not sure why it was down but its working now. I need to update my page though (sent a couple of things out this past week). Until then, e-mail me and I let you know what I have available. Thanks!
Joe Pociask Pythons

I saw a care sheet that reccommended a UVB bulb for these guys. I know that none of my other snakes require any UVB. SO is the caresheet I read in error? Do kingsnakes require UVB? Are kingsnakes typically diurnal or are they mostly nocturnal? Oh yeah, any problems with me popping this snake to determine sex? I've done several species of pythons and just wanted to make sure there weren't any reasons not to do it with this snake. Thanks!

Lampropeltis do not require UVB and you can "pop" them as you do your hatchling pythons. As a rule I usually do not attempt to "pop" a snake that is over a year old. IMHO it could be harmful or damaging. Only my opinion though.
John Lassiter

i second john's response