Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read from multiple sources that Mexican Black Kingsnakes should have a hotspot in the mid to high 80's and cool side in mid 70's to low 80's. It wasn't until I got my thermometers that the ambient temperature in my room is usually mid 80's. With the heatpad off both sides of the cage are reading roughly 84 degrees, would that be fine for an MBK or would I have to find some source of cooling for the cool side and just not use the heatpad?

In general, getula in the wild spend a great deal of time underground at quite cool temps. In captivity, that is automatically provided during Winter and Spring, but tougher to provide in the warmer months. In any case, you never need to provide temps over 84 for any kingsnake. Turn the heat pad off.

I know a few breeders that have bred all manner of kingsnakes with a room temp of 80-82 deg. Higher temps just means more food needed to maintain weight. I am talking about Cal kings, MBKs, speckled kings, desert kings and black kings. I would not feed them giant meals if you keep them at 80 deg.

(Just for clarity, in the wild, kings will move from warm temps well above 82 deg to underground cool temps. What they are shooting for is an internal body temperature of probably 82-84-ish deg, maybe higher temps when digesting a big meal, and much lower when they do not have food so as to not burn calories.)