Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a new striped cali king last night. I don't know yet if it's a he or a she, so I refer to "him" as "him" until I know different. He is buried under the substrate (dry coconut bark)at the moment, so no pics yet. I won't be handling or feeding him until next weekend probably, but if/when I can get a pic without stressing him out, I will post one, or five. Anyways, this is the first king snake I've owned. In the past I've had ball pythons and an indian trinket snake. He's about 4-5 months old according to the pet store (they got him shortly after hatching, and they'd had him for close to 4 months) and he's about 19 inches long (is that about average?) I'll have a better estimation of his length after I start handling him. He doesn't seem nippy at all so far, which is great because I have a 3 yr old little girl who absolutely loves snakes and lizards (we also have an asian water dragon and a tibetan frog eyed gecko). She's probably destined to be a tomboy like I was

Anyways, any info that you could give that is not standard care sheet stuff would be great, since like I said, I've never had a king snake before. He's been on 2 live pinkies a week, but I want to switch to frozen/thawed. Should I anticipate problems switching? All of my other snakes were raised on F/T from birth, so I don't know how easy/dificult switching will be.

they're a little blurry because he/she is in the enclosure, and I'm not a very good photographer!

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Once I start handling him/her, I'll get better pics taken out of the enclosure

n/p

It must be a male cause the females have not been that nice.
Nice snake by the way.
John Lassier

I sold this one but I think it was a female.

That IS one of the nicer looking females I have seen.
All my widestripes and I believe Kerby's came from Don Shores.
Did you produce that one from his stock or another line.
It is a nice one especially if it is a female.
John Lassiter

Like I said I sold it and to the best of my memory it was a female. It also came from Don.

He/She got a little feisty with me this morning. I added a little more substrate since he (or she) really likes to burrow, and as soon as I stuck my hand in, his tail started shaking like crazy and as soon as I got my hand out, he(she) struck at me. Hopefully, we'll get settled down a bit once I start handling him/her which I'll probably wait until next weekend for. What's interesting to me is the color of this snake, sometimes it looks black & white and other times it looks brown and off white. Another question... I was told yesterday that kings tend to be very "cage aggressive" or territorial and that it is better to feed them in a different enclosure, so that they don't associate the feeding/hunting agression with their enclosure, and are less likely to strike when you reach in. Is there any truth in this, and does feeding them in a seperate area indeed help with that?

**What's interesting to me is the color of this snake, sometimes it looks black & white and other times it looks brown and off white.**

Take your snake outside in the sunlight, THAT will show you the TRUE color of your snake. Way better than florescent light, way better than UV light. Odds are, your "black" & white cal king is really a hard brown & white, especially as they get older. Cal kings change from babies to adults (not as drastic as cornsnakes though). Whites can turn to cream/yellow as they age, and black can turn into brown.

**Another question... I was told yesterday that kings tend to be very "cage aggressive" or territorial and that it is better to feed them in a different enclosure, so that they don't associate the feeding/hunting agression with their enclosure, and are less likely to strike when you reach in. Is there any truth in this, and does feeding them in a seperate area indeed help with that**

If you don't have that many snakes, then I would say yes, feed in a separate container. They can get a "condition-response" behavior. Since I have too many snakes and feed in the same enclosure, I have "learned" to change the water dish AFTER feeding my snakes! LOL

Kerby...

Nice girl! To answer your question, yes she seems average length for that age. I have a 6 month striped female that is now on f/t hopper mice (just switched from fuzzies tonight in fact), I suggest stopping the pinks at that age and get her on fuzzies... and by all means I mean frozen/thawed, or at least pre killed. One or two fuzzies a week at that age/size sounds right. Resist the urget to feed live, kings are voracious eaters and will accustom to frozen/thawed easily.

Or boy! =P

I went ahead and fed him today, which would have been his normal feeding day at the store, and he ate straight away, no probs so far. All they had were live pinkies though, so thats what he got. There's a dealer in town that always has good quality frozen feeders, so next week I'll be going to him for my mice. I did decide to make him a seperate feeding enclosure. I took a plastic shoebox with a lid and used a soldering iron to put holes in the top for circulation. I put a water dish in and lined the bottom with a paper towel. He took both mice under the paper towel to eat them. I guess he likes his privacy, heh. But, one thing that bothered me was that he didn't bother putting coils on or killing the second mouse before he started swallowing it, is that normal for kings? I've never seen a snake swallow a mouse alive before. I'm pretty sure that it was dead by the time he finished swallowing though, just freaked me out a bit. Then as soon as he was done eating, he went for a quick soak in the water dish. I've got him in there with his heating pad under one end, and I plan on leaving him in there for a couple of hours probably before moving him back.