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I bought a Super Brooks king snake on Monday from a local pet store here. I've had a Rosy boa for quite some time now and I just wanted another snake. This guy is really young, only around 12 inches long. At the pet store I put my hand in his tank and he crawled right up onto me and was a very active little snake. I got him home and set up the tank with a good undertank heater and a timed light, water bowl, hide spot, and a long piece of hollow driftwood. It's set up on my desk in my bedroom. It seems like whenever I leave the room he is active but when I walk in he runs to the hidebox, in the driftwood, or burrows himself in the substrate. I haven't handled him at all since I put him in and I want to feed him this weekend but I don't want to spook him by digging him out of where he is at. I guess my questions are:

1. Will the snake become more active with a little more age? My rosy burrows and hides a lot, that's fine, but he at least roams around and lets me handle him every now and then.... this little snake never shows himself.

2. How do I feed him if he is never above ground? I usually feed in a different container but can't really get the king without digging for him.

3. How big do "Super Brooks" king snakes get? The main reason why I wanted this snake was because he is very young and I want to see him grow over the years, just wanted a general idea of how big he will get

Thanks!

1. Will the snake become more active with a little more age? My rosy burrows and hides a lot, that's fine, but he at least roams around and lets me handle him every now and then.... this little snake never shows himself.

Thanks!

To answer your questions.

1. Most kingsnakes stay pretty active throughout their lives. Though they do hide quite often, I would say you'll see them about 50% of the time. As they get older, they'll also get used to your presence and tolerate you a little more than as hatchlings.

2. My method of feeding kings, especially brooksi, is every 4-5 days as hatchlings up to about 3' and once a week after that. Usually when they smell food, they'll come right out and search for it. If it's eating frozen thawed, just set them in the cage and I'm sure he'll find them. Kings are great hunters.

3. The term "Super Brooks" was coined by Brian Barczyk to describe his bloodline of brooksi. These are described as having a high crossband count as well as super yellow coloration. Depending on the sex and how it's fed, it can reach a size of 40-72" or larger. A friend of mine had a super from Brian that was a massive 5.5' male. If you have any background info on your king it will tell you a little more. Either way, I'm sure you'll love this guy. Brooks kings have been my favorite kings for over 10 years and counting, so enjoy and become addicted like I did.

Brandon Osborne

The term "Super Brooks" was coined by Brian Barczyk to describe his bloodline of brooksi. These are described as having a high crossband count as well as super yellow coloration. Depending on the sex and how it's fed, it can reach a size of 40-72" or larger. A friend of mine had a super from Brian that was a massive 5.5' male. If you have any background info on your king it will tell you a little more. Either way, I'm sure you'll love this guy. Brooks kings have been my favorite kings for over 10 years and counting, so enjoy and become addicted like I did.

Brandon
The term "super brooks" has been used and misused by a lot of people. Over the last few yrs I have seen that designation from Southern Reptiles albino hybrid to any normal brooksi. I am afraid the petshop may have used this as a marketing ploy.

TGizzle,
The only way to find out for sure is if you post a pic and we can give you a better idea of what you have.

I'll snap a picture the next time it's moving around. I'm not a big fan of the pet store where I bought it but I saw it as kind of a "rescuing" of the snake. They don't have or sell many snakes and pretty much gave it to me (I bought everything else there too though). It is bright whiteish on the bottom and black with wild stripes on the top. I'll try my best to get a picture. Does it really tramuatize them if I move the substrate to reveal the snake? I've heard it's not the best for them but I'm not really sure. Thanks...

This help with any information?

Definetly not a super brooks but a normal floridana (florida king)they are very tough and make great pets though. Yours looks very healthy! You will not have to be as delicate as you have been with this snake. They are tough snakes and can handle more stress than any other spp of colubrids.
Have fun with it!

Cool! Like I said, the breed didn't really matter to me, I just wanted to get the snake out of that pet store and it was really nice and calm. I think it's finally starting to adjust, moving around in the tank a lot more now. I'm not sure of the sex of the snake, are king's easy to distinguish like boas are?

To visually sex the king you would need a male and female of equal size to compare tail lengths as the male has a longer tail . Otherwise you would have to probe it. I could very easily pop that snake (invert the hemipenus)because it is still small enough to do that (you cannot pop larger kings)but if nobody ever showed you how to do it(or what to look for) I would not try it as you will hurt the little fella/gal.
In general males get a lot bigger than females when fully grown. All the males I have ever kept have gotten considerably longer and larger than any of the females in the floridana/brooksi group.

I was at the pet store buying a live feeder for my Rosy Boa so I decided to get a few frozen pinkies for the new King. When I got home he was sitting on top of the hide box in his tank so I put him in a smaller plastic cage and let him sit in there while the pinkies thawed. I warmed them up with a little hot water and dropped them both in then covered the whole thing with a pretty thin pillowcase (allowed a lot of light but the snake couldnt see anything else. I opened it up an hour later and both pinkies were gone. Here's a pic I snapped after eating

Careful. The floridanas ARE tough BUT that sand you have can cause impactions, mouth rot and is generally not a healthy substrate. They are tougher than other colubrids but sand is one thing that can even do these guys in.

That stuff is just in the little plastic cage that I feed the snake in. It's the calcium stuff that is basically salt. It isn't the substrate that he's normally in.