![]() ![]() The basking light should be housed in a good quality light dome like Exo Terra and Flukers that has a ceramic housing to tolerate high heat and an on/off switch. You want a heat pad that only covers half the tank (or less). Both of these are placed on the outside, underneath the enclosure. We recommend a Zoo Med heat mat or Exo Terra heat pad that stays on 24/7 to give them a little bit of supplemental heat during the night. The heat pads are usually placed on the hot side with a hide over it. It's a good idea to use a basking light and an under tank heat pad also. At night it can drop down to 72 ambient temperature. The cool side can be between 75-80 degrees. Put one hide there and another on the cooler side. ![]() The hot side basking spot should be at 88-90 degrees. This way your snake can move back and forth between the different temperatures depending on its needs. All the lighting and heat elements should be on one side and the other will then be the cooler side. This essentially means you need to provide both a hot and cool side to your enclosure. Like all reptiles, they are dependent on external thermoregulation to control their body temperature. and they like it fairly warm, though they need to be able to cool off if they want to. Zoo Meds wipe out or vinegar and water both work good for cage cleaning. Disinfect the enclosure and change the bedding at that time. You should only need to clean the whole thing out about once a month. Spot clean the bedding whenever they defecate. The ones that look and work the best are Zoo Med aspen, Zoo Med repti bark, Zilla jungle mix, Zoo Med eco earth, and Zoo Med forest floor. You can use many types of bedding for your kingsnake. It's extremely important that your top is clipped or locked to the tank to prevent them from getting out. If you use a glass tank, you'll want to provide a humid hide-that is, a hide that has some damp moss in it for extra humidity. Adults do well in a tank at least 36" x 18" ( Exo Terra Large, or Zilla 40 gal). For a yearling, you can step up to an enclosure that is at least 30" x 12" inches (like Zilla critter cage 20 Long) or go to the adult enclosure size. There are several kinds that work for kingsnakes, e.g., glass aquariums or any of the commercially available plastic-type reptile enclosures. At around a year old, you can increase the size. This care sheet is showing the way we found works best for us from our many years of experience of caring for this species.Ĭalifornia kingsnake babies can start out in enclosures as small as 10 gallons. You will find many ways on the internet on "how to" take care of this animal. Origin: The west coast of the U.S., throughout most of California and in parts of Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Baja California. Scientific Name: Lampropeltis getula californiae So I’m pretty happy with it so far.Reptile Rapture, 6308 Monona dr, Monona WI 53716 60, CALIFORNIA KINGSNAKE Caresheet Common Name: California Kingsnake If they get pooped on, I cut off that part and it grows back. The benefit to me is that plants are pretty, and the plants love it, and even though they get squashed sometimes they bounce right back. But in particular, my house gets really hot in the summer, and the burrows into the soil stay a bit cooler and offer a refuge from the heat (again, just like they would in the wild). The other is that I created some burrows in the substrate, which are another kind of hide and similar to a burrow the snake might use in the wild. ![]() The actual soil substrate does have a few real benefits for the snake though: One is that humidity is a lot more stable and stays higher without having to close off as much ventilation to the cage, so there can be more fresh air circulating without sacrificing humidity. Some people recommend using different things in different parts of the cage just for the enrichment and variety. Mostly, I don’t think it matters to the snake that much once he gets used to the new smells and texture of whatever you switch to. Mine’s still pretty new, so I’m not expecting that anytime soon. It still needs to be spot cleaned, although I’ve heard of setups like this that eventually get a sufficiently large and established population of cleaner bugs that they devour poop and shed skin almost before the owner has a chance to see it. I recently converted the cage to bio-active, meaning that now there’s several inches of actual soil with plants in it, and springtails and isopods to help process waste. I switched to coco chip/coir and used that for awhile. But what made me switch was when my snake got a mouthful of it with his dinner one night and couldn’t get rid of the bits, and I had to pick them out of his mouth with tweezers. The only good thing about it was that it made it very easy to spot pee and poop because of the color. I’d take clean clothes out of the dryer and find little bits of aspen still stuck in places. I used aspen for awhile, but it got EVERYWHERE. ![]()
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