Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone - I found this guy today. It was foggy and around 65 degrees, but the temp under the rock where I found him was 70 degrees - I have a little digital surface temp reader, I think it is actually for cooking - Anyway...although I love looking for snakes I don't know a ton about them. This king snake was about 8 to 9 inches long, so I assumed it was a baby, but I thought this was a strange time of year to find a baby snake. I am in southern California so maybe the warmish winters have something to do with that?? If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

Good luck out there,

Jake

very nice snake..... where about in So. Cal did u find him. it is kinda odd to find a baby this time of year but thena gain it is gettin hot here in the high desert in so cal. but either way great find. keep herping...

I was on the coast (a few miles inland) in the Palos Verdes area.

Jake

Hi,
A friend of mine saw a baby zonata last sunday right by his house.It was in the 60's that day.He said he had kicked over a log and it came crawling out,it was sunny though.I went out today-(close to the same area,saw some snakes) they are on their way out,especially with these warm temps we are having right now.Nice find though,
jeff teel

Hey guys. We have been seeing them since December (and a couple in October)here in San Diego. And I'm seeing less of them now, maybe because the big hungry adults are out now. Bill (billboard) and I hit North County the day before yesterday and ended up with 12 helleri (some mating), 3 adult kings (2 stripers), 2 adult gophersnakes, 1 nightsnake, and the biggest ruber I have ever seen. Also we saw a few slender salamanders, fence lizards, southern alligator lizards, and western skinks.
Happy Herping
Nathan

I guess I can assume by the lack of surprise at the BABY part that I am way off base here, but I was actually more surprised at finding such a young snake. I have a king snake that is about 4 months old and almost 15 inches long, therefore I was thinking that this 9 inch snake would be even younger. I thought it was strange that a snake would be born in the winter.

I know that I am making a lot of assumptions on a very limited knowledge base, but I just wanted to clarify the part that the timing of the birth was the part that puzzled me.

It is good to hear that snakes are out and about though...I hope everyone has a great time in these next months.

Thanks for all the help,

Jake

Here's the deal, Jake. That "baby" hatched last year, probably July/August, not during the winter. They are found quite frequently late winter/early spring under A/C as they brumate too. In the wild a baby snake doesn't get an "appropriate" sized meal once every 5 to 7 days......LOL. You'll find that wild snakes generally don't grow at the same rate as captives. They may ultimately get as large, but it will take years longer.

n/p

np