Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The monster speckled kingsnake I caught a few weeks ago ( 5'7" and nearly 4 pounds) appears to be pregnant. About 6 inches from her head, she suddenly bulges, and remains fat as a tick all the way to 1 inch from the anus. I mean fat as a tick!!, Like right after you feed a snake a mouse that is so big you can see the skin between scales, she's like that her whole body almost!!! Her eyes have started to cloud, she should shed in 4-5 days. What should I do? She's in a 55 gallon acquarium, w/ a hide box ect. Eggs hatch 60-70 days after being layed. What temp do I keep them at and where? ( before I have used tupperware sucessfully). PLEASE give me everything you know about gravid speckled kings. THANKS

Six inches from her head? That doesn't sound like she's gravid... in general I expect a snake that is full of eggs to still not swell for some distance from the head. Here's a picture of a gravid california kingsnake. She's approximately 4 feet long, and she's only "full of eggs" for the bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of her body. You need to post a picture.

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~Sasheena

shasheena's right. but regardless, if the snake IS gravid, you can incubate the eggs the same way you've apparently incubated others, no tricks necessary, and like other colubrids she'd lay maybe 8-10 days after her shed.

terry

He probably just ate a big snake. And I do mean HE!! I could be wrong but chances are its a male if he is that big.
Jeff

I agree with Jeff - HE, probably ate a long snake! Don't be surprised to see HIM regurgitate a part of the eaten snake's body since the stomach does not reach that close to the head. In order for the kingsnake to survive possible decomposition problems from undigested parts , he will regurgitate parts of his meal that could not fit into his stomach about 3 days or so after eating. Have seen other Kingsnakes INCLUDING speckleds do this quite regularly! Just wait a few days and you'll see. . .(or smell - LOL)

Good luck with him!

Zee

I dont know Jeff he said he caught that snake 3 weeks ago. If that snake was gonna hurl it would have done it way before 3 weeks. I also have the impression the thickness is a new observation ??? I guess he needs to give more details i.e. was the snake thick and fat when captured etc...

Keith
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I probably exaggerated, the thickness starts around 10" from " his or her head" . I keep trying to post pictures of the snake , how do I do it, copy and paste? When I caught the snake he was as thick as he/she is now. Only the past few days(3 or 4) he/she was been puking/passing ( haven't witnessed) this green fluid with what looks like peices of eggs( hard eggs not reptile eggs ) and these green peices of what looks like vines about as big around as a pencil. I think he/she came along some rotten bird eggs on this beach and ate them. This beach is miles long connected to marsh, snake often go 2 sun themselves on the open beach so its a great place for snakes.

At the top of this page is a bunch of links, near the bottom of the links is one named "Photo Gallery"... go there, sign up for your own free photo gallery, upload your photo to the photo gallery, and then when you post a message, at the bottom of the message page where you type your message will be a scroll down image list, and your images will be in that list. Then you post the message, with the image, and you're fine and dandy!
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~Sasheena

If you are still having trouble with the pics, email them to me and I will post them for you.

canopicjar@fuse.net

That changes everything! Strike that last post I made. I would definetely have to see some pics to give you a better guess. . .

Sorry,

Zee