Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am sure that some of you experienced herpers have answered this question before but here goes. I am new to kingsnakes. Have kept pythons and boas before. I would like to know the best ways to set up kings for breeding. I bought several snakes at the Daytona show and elsewhere and currently I have them housed individually in 28 qt sterlite containers. Nothing fancy just water bowl, hide bowl and newspaper for substrate. I have an adult pair of striped, lavendar, and banana and have a lone male all chocolate snake. Also have some desert kings. I have introduced the bananas to each other and they got frisky with him following her around the container and trying to manipulate his body around hers. Did not see any copulation though. All snakes are eating very healthy. Any advice would be appreciated. Mike

Hi,
Your set up sounds fine for captive cal.kings. Were these kings your trying to breed now-(its a little late in the year for breeding now)but make sure you cycled them for around 3 months at 55-60 degrees for them. And when breeding getula you'll want to watch a little bit to make sure neither one is eating the other-(they will do it), and they'll breed up to 5 hrs-(I had a pair locked up for around 5 hours this year), they'll usually breed afetr their first shed and some after their 2nd shed-(I've heard of guys breeding their females after their 3rd shed too), then watch for the signs of beeing gravid-(stop eating, laying on top of the heat tape alot) and then that next shed will be thier pre-egg shed-(and they'll usually lay around 10 days after that shed. Good luck with them,
jeff teel