Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there,

I was previously the owner of a corn snake. I am now looking at another snake, and one snake caught my eye which was the desert phase californian kingsnake. From what I can gather, desert phase simply means that the colour of the snake is black and white, am I right in thinking that?

Are californian kingsnakes a similar process to look after as corn snakes? What temperature will I need for this snake? I was using 85f for the corn. What size do kingsnakes get to, and are there any special processes I need to take into consideration when transferring from a corn snake to a kingsnake?

The bottom line really is is this snake suitable for me? i.e. if I could look after the corn well, will I find a cal king just as easy to look after?

Any information you can give would be great, thanks!

A Cal King would be pretty much the same as owning a corn. They get to about the same size. Kingsnakes do seem to be much more flighty and have a much stronger feeding response, so if they are hungry, watch out, they may try and eat your finger. I've actually seen one snake that "ate" someone's finger all the way down to the hand before realizing it couldn't finish and released the person.
-----
alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 2001 Coral snow cornsnake
0.1 2002 Pastel Ghost poss Het Amelanistic cornsnake
1.1 2002 Bloodred cornsnakes
0.1 1998 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 2000 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake
0.0.13 2004 Eggs (potentially normals, hypos, caramels, and ambers)

Lots of different California Kingsnakes out there. Here are a few of mine

Kerby...
My California Kingsnakes