Not acting nocturnal?

[Scarey2243]

So I got my Flordia King just over a month ago and for the first month he would come out during the night (between about 9pm-1am) and sleep during the day. However the last couple days he has been sleeping through the night and is active around 6am-12pm, and I was just wondering if its normal for a nocturnal snake to be active during the day?

P.S. the change in schedule happened when I got the flu and haven’t been handling him.

[craigafrechette]

The handling shouldn't have anything to do with it. It sounds to me like he's hungry.

How much does the snake weigh? What size prey are you feeding? How often? When did he eat last?

[MDT]

Aren't kingsnakes primarily diurnal?? I'm thinking daytime activity is pretty normal for a KS?

[Bandit]

It's not really that unusual. Many of the bigger king snakes will be active during daylight hours. I'm looking at this from a couple different angles. First, my Florida King is active during both day and night. Second, in my herping experiences, the larger kings are active either day or night, depending on weather conditions. I've witnessed this in Speckled Kings and Eastern Black Kings, but I have friends in Florida King range who say that their activity patterns are similar (in that they can be found any time, but it seems to depend on weather/time of year).

Given that, I don't think you have anything to worry about. However, as Craig said, your snake might be just be hungry. I know mine is active almost constantly once she starts getting hungry.


EDIT: For clarification, when I say "bigger kings" I'm referring to species (speckled, eastern, florida, etc.) rather than individual snakes.

[craigafrechette]

Good points made above. Kings are diurnal, so daytime activity isn't uncommon. Especially once they've got some size on them and have a bit more confidence. My adult Cal King is out and about during daylight hours fairly regularly. Once he's hungry he cruises day and night.

[Scarey2243]

The handling shouldn't have anything to do with it. It sounds to me like he's hungry.

How much does the snake weigh? What size prey are you feeding? How often? When did he eat last?

Not sure how much he weighs but he is about 20inches and as thin as a pencil and I feed him a pinkie every 6-7 days. Good to know he probably just hungry, it totally slipped my mind that today is his feeding day when I made this post.

[craigafrechette]

Not sure how much he weighs but he is about 20inches and as thin as a pencil and I feed him a pinkie every 6-7 days. Good to know he probably just hungry, it totally slipped my mind that today is his feeding day when I made this post.

Do the pinkies leave a noticeable lump in the snakes stomach after it is eaten?

[Scarey2243]

Do the pinkies leave a noticeable lump in the snakes stomach after it is eaten?

There is a lump but it doesn't stand out very much.

[Bandit]

It could probably take bigger prey. If not, you could always feed it multiple pinkies. Florida Kings grow fast and since it's young, it would probably benefit from more food.

[craigafrechette]

Yeah, I think you can go up to 2 pinkies every 7 days til he's ready to move up to fuzzies. It probably won't be too long.

[Andy_G]

Nothing sounds abnormal. Also betting that it's definitely big enough for fuzzies from what has been described.