Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogue628
If there's something I can be doing better, please let me know and I'll fix it.
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Maybe this will help.....It is part of of a caresheet I wrote and is on my website...
Providing Choices:
Kingsnakes are constantly seeking out the correct humidity and temperature to perform and thrive. There is a difference in thriving and just living in captivity. Kingsnakes need a true temperature gradient. I cool my snake room to around 70F. Each of my snake enclosures have a hot spot of 90F. Your snake will tell you what it wants. You just need to be able to identify what the snake is trying to tell you. When you as a snake keeper provides all the necessary options you can learn from the snakes. The snakes themselves have been around longer than us humans and have adapted to live in many diverse conditions. Providing humid, dry, hot, cool, light, dark and combination of each is the correct way to keep a kingsnake thriving. Placing a piece of Newspaper or a plastic plate or lid on top of the substrate serves two different purposes. Placing prey items on top of the newspaper, plate or plastic lid allows the snake to feed without swallowing substrate. It also allows for thermal regulation from the bottom to the top of the enclosure, not just from the back to the front of the enclosure.
Many people ask me how I let my snakes tell me what they need.......
Here are some examples:
If your snake is hiding under the water bowl or in very tight places it is protecting itself. It is not protecting itself from would be predators or from you. It is protecting itself from the air itself. A kingsnake can dehydrate very fast. When they are doing this they are telling us that it is too dry in their enclosure or that there is not a suitable moist area for them. Soaking in the water bowl all the time is a sure sign of a very low humidity level as well. A box of damp sphagnum moss set lengthwise in the enclosure will fix this. The snake will have a warm/wet area and a cool/wet area....See pictures above.....
If your snake is pressed up against the glass on the cool side (the front) of its enclosure it is seeking cooler temps. It is seeking these cooler temps to conserve energy. This is when they are telling us they want food. This brings us to the next topic "Feeding" below.
Feeding:
You may hear me complain about folks that have a schedule they feed their snakes on. Once a week or once every 4 days or 10 days. I am not going to tell you that a this is wrong but I will say that this is YOUR schedule and not the snake's. If you learn to let your snakes tell you when they are hungry you will find yourself having to feed growing snakes two and three times a week. You will also see an adult snake only wanting to eat once or twice a week....sometimes less.
With all that being said prey size should be about the diameter of the snake's girth. Many think offering many smaller prey items is better than offering one large prey item. I offer my snakes multiple prey items usually around 2 or 3 when they are hungry. These prey items are the same size or larger than the girth of the snake. If they eat all of them and the husbandry is correct they will not regurge.....When a kingsnake regurges there is something wrong with your husbandry or the snake is ill.
There are times you will see your snakes wanting to eat more than usual.
Females out of brumation will need to be fed multiple prey items very often......High caloric intake yields egg follicles. After a female has laid eggs many meals as soon as possible will result in a second clutch....Some female will even triple clutch with this feeding regimen.
Prior to brumation the males should be fed enough so that they can go an entire 3 months of brumation plus two months of breeding season without eating. Many males will go off feed when they are in breeding "mode." Don't let this alarm you. If the male snake has good weight prior to brumation he will be fine. After breeding you will see him want to eat lots and often to gear up for another cold season. Remember all this can be achieved successfully if husbandry is correct.
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