California Kingsnakes
(lampropeltis getula californiae)
written by bry of theherpvenue
CHARACTERISTICS
California kings are generally good-natured snakes.
They can be somewhat nervous, and jumpy, particularly when young.
However, they will rarely strike unless cornered. Cal kings are medium-sized non-venomous snakes that subdue and kill their prey by constriction.
They are mainly nocturnal snakes, preferring to be most active at dusk and early evening. Many think that they're more diurnal since they remain fairly active throughout the day. I would agree with this since my male is quite active in the daytime, and quiets down at night but remains fairly active.
California kings make great first snakes, yet they come with one small "black mark" on their record. They're very food-oriented, and may strike out at the keeper in anticipation of food.
Don't let this phase you from getting one, they're great snakes and I've been bitten by much bigger snakes twice the length and about 30 pounds heavier and paper cuts are more painful.
DESCRIPTION & LIFE SPAN
Normal Cal kings come in different phases based on locality. Desert phases have a black background with thin white banding. Coastal phases are chocolate-colored with banana-colored bands.
Even among normal phases, there are variations in in their patterning and amount of color. Due to large breeding volumes in captivity.
California kingsnakes come in many sorts of colors and patterns. They're a slender-bodied snakes which average 4-5' in length, with males often reaching the higher end of the spectrum than females. 6' male Cal kings have been seen in the wild and in collections.
Under optimal conditions, Cal kings can live at least 15-20 years in captivity
DIFFICULTY
California kings are easy-to-keep snakes that are forgiving in keeper mistakes. Many agree that Cal kings are one of the best choices for beginning reptile/snake keepers. However, Cal kings are escape artists, as are most snakes.
So, be sure to have a cage w/ securely-locking doors or lid. Other than heat, California kingsnakes, as the name implies are from California and surrounding states.
So they can live almost anywhere in the U.S. without drastic changes in the climate in their cage.
RANGE & STATUS IN THE WILD
Cal kings range in the western and southwestern U.S.
The range spans as far south as northern Mexico, as far north as central California, and as far east as southwestern Colorado.
Large numbers still exist in the wild, however, wild populations are dwindling due to destruction of habitat.
Housing
California Kingsnakes, or Lampropeltis Getula Californiae, are a mid-sized species of colubrids.
Cal Kings reach lengths of 4'-5' on average. Keep this size in consideration when choosing a cage.
A cage's width should be 1/2 the length of your Cal king and the cage's depth should be 2/3 their length.
For example, an adult 4' California kingsnake would require a minimum cage size of 2' wide by 18"-2' deep.
California kingsnakes are terrestrial, preferring to spend time on the ground rather than climbing.
However, they will climb if given the opportunity.
An enclosure approx. 12" in height would suffice.
However, California kingsnakes are active snakes, so you may want to opt for larger enclosures, a 30 gal. long tank is bare minimum for an adult.
Baby Cal kings can be kept in 10 gal. glass aquariums. It is up to you to purchase a larger enclosure every time your California kingsnake outgrows the older one. It would be more economical to buy an enclosure that will suit an adult size Cal king for a hatchling and allow them to grow up in such an enclosure. However, snakes love small spaces, large spaces, especially those w/ no cover stress out small snakes and may cause them to refuse food.
Keep in mind when considering the entry to the cage. Overhead entryways, such as in glass tanks work well, but they may mistake you for a predator coming from above.
This is why moving slowly and deliberately, as well as hide boxes for the snake are important.
Furniture
California kingsnakes are secretive animals, for this reason, you will need to provide at least two hide boxes in their cage for their security.
You can either get half-log hide boxes from the pet store, or make it from boxes such as Kleenex boxes or cereal boxes (with the bag removed).
Just be creative when providing a place to hide. You don’t want to provide a hide box too large, or the snake will still not feel secure in the box. They should be able to coil up and touch at least two sides of the hide box. This makes them feel comfortable when they can feel their surroundings. If you make hides from boxes around the home, remember that they like small entrances so that they don’t feel like they can be seen when they’re trying to hide.
You’ll need to provide a heat gradient to allow the Cal king to thermo regulate. I’ll explain that in the heating section below. But, you’ll want at least one hide box on the warm side and the cool side of the cage.
This way, the Cal king can warm up or cool off and remain hidden. Don’t force them to choose between hiding and changing their body temperature.
You should also provide a hide box that can be made from an old plastic butter container with a hole cut in the bottom or sides and turned upside-down.
Again, the hide box should be small enough for the Cal king to curl up in and feel secure, but large enough for it to fit its entire body in. Add about ½ inch of moss into the cup. Use a sprayer to spray water regularly to make sure the moss is moist, but not damp. The purpose of this box is to allow the kingsnake a humid retreat, and the humidity inside the will help the Cal king with its shed. One is usually needed (I usually put them in the center of the cage), but it always helps to put at least one humid hide on both sides of the cage as well.
Obviously, a water bowl is a necessity since all living things need water. The bowl should be heavy like crock bowls or ceramic bowls found in pet stores used as food or water bowls for dogs, cats, etc. Make sure the bowl is small enough for the California king to curl up in completely, but not so large that it’ll drown in the bowl. For a baby Cal king, a bowl about 3-4 inches in diameter 2 inches deep will suffice. You will want to upgrade the bowls as the snake outgrows each one. The bowl should be filled about halfway, if the bowl is kept full, displacement from the snake coiling inside the bowl will cause the water to overflow. Don’t be surprised if the snake defecates into the water bowl. If this happens, clean out the water bowl immediately and replace it with fresh clean water.
You might also want to add climbing branches to the cage to allow the Cal king a chance to get some exercise. Make sure it is NOT cedar, redwood, or pine, since these are fatal to reptiles. If you get wild-caught wood, you will want to treat it for mites and other parasites that could hurt your California kingsnake, or destroy your house, i.e. termites.
First, strip off loose bark and all leaves and undesired twigs.
Second, soak in bleach/water solution (1/2 cup bleach per gal of water) for 24 hours.
Next, rinse the wood thoroughly and soak in frequently refreshed fresh water for 24 hours to remove the bleach from the wood.
Dry the wood in the sun for 2-3 days, keeping it away from direct contact with the ground to reduce the chance of it being re-infested.
Or, strip the smaller pieces of wood as stated above, then 'bake' it in an oven for 2-3 hours at 200-250°F (93-121°C).
Substrate
The debate on what substrate to use for reptiles is always an ongoing debate. The general consensus for these substrates are as follows:
Newspaper - pros: allows for easy cleaning, cheap, safe and practical, your snake can hide under these cons:doesn’t look natural and appealing, not a good absorbent of waste fluids, when wet, fluids cause the ink to be come wet, and possibly stick to your Cal king giving it a dirty look, color ink has been suspected to be toxic when wet
Old cotton bed sheets - pros: allows for easy cleaning, cheap, safe and practical, your snake can hide under these, good absorbent of waste fluids, can be thrown into the washer and re-used cons:looks appealing, but not natural
Aspen shavings - pros: spot cleaning of wastes is easy, fairly cheap, safe, Cal kings love to burrow, and aspen is fairly dense, which allows the Cal king to form tunnels under the substrate, provides much security for your Cal king, looks natural and appealing, absorbs waste fluids, and seems to help cover up the smell of wastes cons: can cause mouth rot if ingested during feeding, feeding outside of the enclosure easily prevents this.
AVOID cedar, redwood, or pine at all costs because they are toxic to reptiles. The fumes from cedar and redwood cause respiratory infections that will kill them. Pine is toxic when ingested.
Feeding
California kingsnakes can be fed primarily rodents in captivity.
However, in the wild, their main diet is other snakes.
One thing that elicits a "cooool" from somebody learning about Cal kings is that they like eating rattlesnakes and are immune to their venom. This is why California kings should NEVER be kept with other snakes. California kingsnakes subdue and kill their prey by means of constriction.
They grab the prey with their mouths, then coil them with their bodies, and use their muscles to squeeze the prey.
The more the prey struggles, the more the snake squeezes. This is done until the prey dies, then the snake proceeds to swallow the prey.
Constriction is a fairly quick process; it usually doesn’t need to take more than 5 minutes to kill the prey.
Snakes sometimes will not bother to constrict live pinky/fuzzy mice, or pre-killed mice because they are not seen as a danger.
When selecting prey, they should be equals to, or slightly thicker than the Cal king at its widest girth. As the snake grows, you’ll need to upgrade the size of the prey item. Young Cal kings eat pinky mice; adults will be eating several large adult mice, or even young, just-weaned rats.
After eating just one item, if the snake appears hungry and still in hunt mode, give it an additional similarly sized item. You’ll recognize hunt mode by constantly moving after completely swallowing the prey item and flicking its tongue indicate it’s searching for another one. Do the same if the snake still seems hungry after 2 prey items.
If the snake can easily eat 3 prey items of similar size, and still seems hungry, give it a larger size prey item at the next feeding.
The thrill of watching the snake strike, coil, kill, and swallow its prey is quite fascinating to watch, I’ll admit that much. But, it’s not too thrilling to watch your snake get bitten by the rodent.
Vet bills to treat the bites are even less thrilling. What I’m getting at here is, you should NEVER feed your snake live. Feeding pinky or fuzzy mice/rats live is fine because they present no danger to the snake. But, if it’s old enough to open its eyes, it’s old enough to have teeth and do some damage with a bite.
Heating
California kingsnakes are cold-blooded animals.
This means the temperature surrounding them directly affects their body temperature unlike humans, whose warm blood keeps their body temperatures at an even 98.6°F.
Thus, they need to thermo regulate by moving from place to place to adjust their body temperature. For example, if they feel they need to warm up, they’ll move into the sunlight where it’s warmer and bask. When they need to cool off, they’ll just move into the shade where the temperatures are cooler or head for the water.
The range of the California kingsnakes spans from California and northern Mexico and as far east as southwestern Colorado.
This part of the country stays quite warm throughout the year, becoming hot in summertime.
Since this is range is somewhat desert, Cal kings can stand low humidity. It’s best to imitate that environment as closely as possible for your Cali kingsnake.
They need the heat to help digest their food. The daytime basking spot directly under the light or on top of the pad should be around 84-88°F, the warm side of the cage around the basking spot should be around 80-85°F.
The heat source should be at one end of the cage to provide a gradient so the snake can move to both sides of the cage to thermo regulate.
The cool side of the cage should be around 75-80°F. They are used to the cold desert nights, so they can stand 10-15 degree drops at night. (the cool side temps should never fall below 70f)
The best way to provide the basking spot is with a heat lamp, a regular incandescent household bulb will do. You can also use an under-tank heating pad from the pet store, or a human heating pad from Wal-Mart or other large discount stores. The heating pad should take up only 1/3 of the width of the cage to allow the snake to move on and off the area above the heating pad. To allow the temperature changes, what you can do is have both the heating pad and bulb on during the daytime, then at night, turn off the bulb but leave the heating pad on. It’s important to make sure the bulb and pad are on the same side of the cage, or the snake will never have a gradient to benefit from.
At night, you can use the black incandescent bulbs for heat and your visibility. Also, don’t use fluorescent black lights because these can hurt your Cal king’s eyes. Try staring at one for a few seconds then blinking, there’s an annoying shadow where the light was that doesn’t go away for a few seconds.
Now imagine what it’s like if you can’t blink. Also, don’t use any bright lights in the cage at night because this will throw off your snake, and they won’t know when to sleep.
In turn, this will cause stress from not being able to sleep under bright light.
Make sure there is a screen barrier so that the kings cannot touch the bulbs or the pads and burn themselves. As for humidity, it should be kept around 20-50%.
My suggestion is feed the snake frozen/thawed or pre-killed mice. There are several methods to pre-kill mice. It may be hard, emotionally, for you to kill a mouse, but done quickly and humanely, it’s much more humane to the prey than to have it endure constriction. It’s also much more humane to the snake to prevent it from getting bitten. How do you pre-kill a mouse?
There are several methods to get it over with quickly. One way is to drop the mouse in an old pillowcase you never intend to use again and whack the mouse hard on a table or hard surface. One good whack usually kills the mouse on impact. Sometimes this can get a little bit bloody (nose), but not very often. Rats that are too large for California kingsnakes but can take more whacks (2-3), but Cal kings can’t eat these, so we won’t discuss them further. There is the method of using carbon dioxide or CO2 to asphyxiate the mice/rats. Some consider this the most humane method, but probably the most expensive. I’m not sure exactly how it’s done, as I’ve never seen this method used. These may seem gruesome and inhumane, but they're much less painful to both the Cal king and the mouse in the long run.
You can also buy frozen/thawed mice or rats either from a pet/reptile store or mail-order in bulk. You won't have to kill these, and they're fairly easy to store in the freezer, and take them out when it's time for the snakes to eat. Sometimes they may try to sneak a sick mouse by you, so check for tumors and pass these up. To thaw the mice out, get a container full of very warm (not hot) water. Hot water will cook the mice and burn the snake. Drop the mice in for 2-5 minutes then take them out. Hold them for a few seconds, if the mice stay warm, dry them off and feed them. If not, put them back in the water to warm up some more. If a snake refuses it, try giving it to another snake that is large enough. If both refuse, maybe the mouse is freezer burnt and has no appeal to the snakes. If the mouse has been thawed but has been refused by your snakes, don't re-freeze it, just throw it out.
DO NOT throw a live animal into the freezer. The cold crystallizes the cells in the body, and bursts them while the animal is still alive. As you can imagine, this is long and painful death. Just because you don’t watch it happening doesn’t mean it’s humane. To get an idea of what this is like, get a bucket and fill it halfway with ice, then fill the bucket with water. Put your arm in there, I guarantee you will not be able to stand the pain much longer than a few seconds. Your cells won’t burst, but this gives you an idea of what they would be forced to endure until their death. I cannot think of a more inhumane way to kill an animal.
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