Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click for 65% off Shipping with Reptiles 2 You
Click here to visit Classifieds

Zonata husbandry question

kfisher29 Aug 08, 2012 12:46 PM

Hi,I've been keeping reptiles of all types for 20 years,but have never had zonata. I'm suppossed to be getting 2 female zonata. One is a yearling and the other is 2 years old c.b.. I've done all the research I can find on how to keep them properly,but thought I would ask the experts here the best way to keep them. I've read they need to be kept cool,in the seventies,humid,with a warm spot. I have 2 10 gallon tanks with an undertank heater on each tank. The bedding is cypress mulch and I put pvc pipes in each tank buried for hiding and also ceramic flat dishes on ech side of the tank for hides as well and of course waterbowls they can fit in. Is this over kill? I noticed alot of people just keep them in sterilites with a water bowl. I guess I'm trying to avoid the zonata disease thing as much as possible. My question is will the 2 10 gallon tank setups be good for them?

Thanks,
Kevin

Replies (7)

Zach_MexMilk Aug 09, 2012 03:13 PM

I am no expert in zonata in anyway, but I have successfully been keeping a rather large Kern county intergrade Z in a similar setup you proposed for a few years now. It is in a glass tank with cypress mulch as bedding, with an underpad heater that gets a warm spot at around 79F or so. I am not too much of a stickler when it comes to temperatures, but I have found it has worked well. Air temp in my room is rather cold, around the low to mid 60s due to living in the San Francisco coastline.

I have a "leveled" structure of cork bark that allows the snake to either rest on the floor of the cage where the heat pad is, or to escape "upward" to another "level" of cork bark where it can get cooler (essentially, the reverse of how they would do it in the wild, underground to cool off, higher up in the rock outcrops to bask). I have found that the snake utilizes this alot. On some days, I turn off the heatpad and turn on a 50W bulb, and observe the snake going up to the higher levels of the cork levels to bask, then back to the bottom to thermoregulate.

Zonata like thier humid hides. I have a section of the tank that is devoted to moist sphagnum moss (true sphagnum, I hate "green moss", such garbage). I cover the section with a large piece of cork bark and will often find the snake underneath the bark, ontop of the moss. Usually there while inshed, as well as just to hang out.

Zonata are very interesting snakes, but they are snakes. As long as there are OPTIONS in their habitat/enclosure, like they would have in the wild, I am sure they will do fine for you. I have herped for Coast zonata in their natural habitat within the Bay Area (San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties)and can tell you that the temperatures and climtae varies greatly during the year and seasons. Keeping up with the diversity of temps, etc seems like a good bet.

kfisher29 Aug 10, 2012 10:05 AM

Thank You! That was great information! Sounds like I'm good then. Just need to aquire the snakes.

Thanks,
Kevin

johnnic Aug 11, 2012 12:09 PM

hey kev,

tom chiang here. zonatas are wonderful snakes. i've been breeding several ssp for a couple of years now successfully (see picts below). i keep mines in a plastic bin "rack" system. i keep them on aspen shaving but i give them a hide box filled with double milled cypress. temps gradient in enclosure vary a bit (high 82ish low 75ish) and i give them a good cooling in the winter (50 degrees for 3 1/2-4 months). as long as u get some good feeders, u should do fine. how are the ebn garters doing? i produced a [bleep] load of ebns this year. thank goodness i'm down to 1.3 babies.

kfisher29 Aug 11, 2012 12:33 PM

Thanks Tom!!! I'll check out your pics. I might buy some from you someday.

Thanks,
Kevin

vegasbilly Aug 12, 2012 12:22 AM

I live in Vegas and have converted the single car part of our 3 car garage into my Herp room. Hermetically sealed and has AC/ Heat. Even with that it can get in the mid-80s especially when it's 111F outside like today! My group of 17 routinely get to the mid-80s with no ill effects but each has access to a large damp hide. The room does get down to 80F at night.

I have animals from Kern and Ventura Counties as well as northern Sierra and the San Bernadinos and all handle the warmer temps just fine. I had a surplus of 2' square Barrs cages from when I bred Chondros so I built faux staggered rock piles/ledges and each cage has 3" of cypress mulch that gets a light spray twice a week to raise the ambient humidity in the e cage. The hide boxes are Rubbermaid shoeboxes blacked out for security and have a 4" mixture of vermiculite and sphagnum moss. These also serve double duty as laying boxes for the gravid females. As mentioned before, give them options and let them tell you what they prefer.

Bill

kfisher29 Aug 12, 2012 01:09 PM

Thanks for the reply! Sounds like you have nice setups for them.

Thanks,
Kevin

kfisher29 Aug 12, 2012 01:12 PM

Hey Tom...the ebn's are doing great!!! They are slamming f/t large fuzzies. They're all about 18 inches,but need another year till breeding. Beautifull animals!!!

Kevin

Site Tools