SOP Care Sheet

Enclosure

Since Kingsnakes are snake eaters, California Kingsnakes are housed separately. For our three California Kingsnakes we use 36" neodesha cages with Repti Bark as a substrate, a large water bowl, a large branch, and a humidore box. A humidore box can be a large enough Tupperware container for the snake to fit into with a hole cut into the lid as an entrance. We fill our humidores with coconut husk which is a substrate that helps maintain humidity in the cage. We make sure to mist it daily to keep it moist.

Daily Care

Spot clean cage (look for feces) and provide fresh water. Strip the cage every 3 weeks.

Lighting and Temperature

California Kingsnakes are nocturnal.  Due to this fact, we do not use a UVB bulb for these animals.  We provide a 100 watt Zilla Heat bulb. We also provide a medium sized heat pad under the cage.  Make sure the heat pad is placed under the same side as the light, this provides a temperature gradient for the snakes so that they can cool off or warm up when they please.  We use Zoo Med ReptiTherm® Under Tank Heater, Large. We place the light on a timer.  The timer is set for a 12/12 light cycle.  

We use an infrared heat gun to check the temperature of our cage regularly.  We try to make the "heat" side of his cage around 90 degrees F.  The "cooler" side of the cage is kept around 75 degrees F. 

SOP Feed Schedule

We feed our California Kingsnakes 3 frozen thawed large sized mice off tongs once a week for 3 weeks. Then they receive 1 week of fasting.

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