New to forum and snakes (became owner of friends milksnake)

Ruckus43082 · 09-27-21, 09:59 AM

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to snakes and think what I have is a scarlet kingsnake. A friend went away for treatment and needed someone to care for it for about a month, however ended up moving out of state right after so now its mine. Never had a snake before. When I got him, he was in a 20 gallon tank with a few rocks and newspaper, heat pad under left side and ceramic dual light. I tore the inside garbage out, put down zoo med aspen bedding, some fake plants, hollowed logs/rocks and water bowl. He was fed a pinky 3x a month when I got him but thay didn't seem enough, he was looking to escape more quickly after eating so I figured that meant he was getting hungry quicker and needed more. So now it's a fuzzy once a week. Looking for advice on what type of snake I have, how big its going to be and anything I may have wrong. Thanks in advance. Attached pictures od the original tank setup and the others are of the snake in the current enclosure. The one of it climbing the wall had to turn sideways to get to upload.

ClockwerkBonnet · 09-28-21, 02:33 AM

I think it's a scarlet king. Until I saw how black its head is I thought it was a gray-banded king though.

chairman · 09-28-21, 12:21 PM

I think scarlet king snakes have red snouts. I think the scarlet kings are also lizard/frog eaters and do not usually take mice.
This is probably a milksnake.

**Aaron_S** · 09-28-21, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

I think scarlet king snakes have red snouts. I think the scarlet kings are also lizard/frog eaters and do not usually take mice.
This is probably a milksnake.

This is likely correct. Scarlet kings are notoriously non-rodent eaters and they do not switch, like ever so doubt it's a scarlet.

poison123 · 09-28-21, 01:48 PM

My first thought when seeing this was kingsnake. Not scarlet but mountain king snake. There are so many different localities and different sp finding the exact one will probably be impossible. One that looks similar is the Lampropeltis zonata multicincta. Recently saw someone offer some for sell locally in CA which is illegal in CA not sure how common they are out of state.

Ruckus43082 · 09-28-21, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poison123

My first thought when seeing this was kingsnake. Not scarlet but mountain king snake. There are so many different localities and different sp finding the exact one will probably be impossible. One that looks similar is the Lampropeltis zonata multicincta. Recently saw someone offer some for sell locally in CA which is illegal in CA not sure how common they are out of state.

Thanks for the responses. My buddy mentioned it was some odd kingsnake from San Diego area, but who knows what he was told and it if was true. He eats defrosted fuzzies super easy, never a fuss. He burrows all over the enclosure and spends most of the day under the rock on cool side or in the hollow tree log. Then at night if he's due to eat soon he's all over the enclosure climbing up the sides and all over the fake little trees.

chairman · 09-29-21, 09:44 AM

Could be one of the mountain kings, especially if it stays small into adulthood. I believe milks get to the point where they comfortably eat large adult mice, but the mountain kings seem to stay thinner (and shorter).