How Soon Can You Feed a California Kingsnake When You Bring the Baby Snake Home

The Care of California Kingsnakes / King Snakes

I bought my first California kingsnake back when I actually lived in California. Ever since then, I've been a fan of these snakes and have recommended them as pets to many snake keepers, including beginners.

In this article, I'll share everything I've learned about the keeping and care of California kingsnakes — feeding, housing, heating, cage cleaning and more!

Is it a King Snake or a Kingsnake?

Let's start by clearning up some terminology and spelling. Many people write the name of this species as California king snake, when the correct spelling actually combines the "king" and the "snake." The proper way to spell the common name of this species is California kingsnake. The scientific name is Lampropeltis getulus californiae, which when loosely translated means "shiny scales."

So, while you often see it written as California king snakes (three seperate words), I will use the proper term kingsnakes (one word) throughout this care sheet. Either way you see it written, people are referring to the same animal — Lampropeltis getulus californiae.

Geographical Range

As the name implies, the California kingsnake can be found in the Golden State. It can also be found as far north as the southern part of Oregon, and as far south as the tip of Baja. Its westward range extends into Nevada and Arizona.

There are two main color variations of this species — the so-called "coastal phase" and the "desert phase." Scientifically, they are both the same snake species ... just different color variations. The terms coastal phase and desert phase are mainly used by hobbyists to describe the color of a particular snake.

The coastal phase typically has brownish-red bands that alternate with white or yellow bands. The desert phase typically has black bands alternating with white. There are also some striped varieties of this snake available in the pet trade, but the banded varieties are much more common.

That's as far into the color variations as I plan to go, because the care for California kingsnakes is the same, regardless of what they look like . So let's get into the nuts and bolts of caring for these beautiful snakes.

Housing Your California Kingsnake

Before you bring your pet snake home, you need to carefully plan the snake's enclosure. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, snake enclosures cost money. So you want to try and get it right the first time. The last thing you want is to spend a bunch of money on a caging setup, only to find out that it's insufficient in some way.

In this section, I'll be using the terms cage, enclosure and habitat quite a bit. So let's clarify their meaning. Cage and enclosure mean the same thing — they simply refer to the glass or plastic "box" in which your kingsnake will live. The habitat is an all-encompassing word that refers to the cage, the furniture, the substrate, heating and lighting, etc.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the different types of cages / enclosures available for California kingsnakes and similar-sized snakes.

Glass cages — There are the aquarium-style cages sold in most pet stores. Technically, they are called "terrariums." An aquarium is waterproof for housing fish, amphibians, aquatic turtles, etc. A terrarium is not waterproof and is designed to house reptiles, hermit crabs, rodents, etc.
Plastic cages — Today, there are a wide variety of cages made from durable plastic materials. These cages are usually solid plastic (non-transparent) on all sides except the front. The front will usually be clear glass or acrylic for viewing. Some plastic cages have light and heating built in, while others have receptacles in the top where you can add heating and lighting devices. Vision cages are a popular type of cage in this category.
Rack systems — I won't talk much about rack systems in this book, because they are mostly used by snake breeders to house many snakes (in other words, they are used by advanced keepers). These people are highly experienced with California kingsnake care so they are not the intended audience of this book.
Homemade cages — Many keepers choose to build their own enclosures. This is certainly an option, but I don't recommend it for a first-time or novice snake keeper (for whom this book is intended). To build a proper snake enclosure, you need to know a lot about snakes, and that comes from years of snake-keeping experience.

I've tried a lot of cage types over the years, but the Vision cage is my favorite for housing medium-sized pet snakes such as the California king. These cages are actually designed by snake keepers, and you can tell because they've thought of everything. They are extremely durable, easy to clean, and stackable (in case you grow your snake collection in the future).

Pictured below is a four-foot Vision cage. This one is actually housing a seven-foot gopher snake (pictured), so you can see how it would be plenty big enough for even the largest of adult kingsnakes.

The round feature descending from the top of the cage on the left side is a receptacle for a heat lamp. There is also a receptacle for a fluorescent bulb in the middle. You'll also notice the placement of snake hides and other "furniture" items we will talk about later on.

The Substrate In Your Snake's Habitat

The term "substrate" refers to the material lining the bottom of your snake's cage. Substrate is an important consideration because it affects everything from snake health to ease of cleaning.

The three most popular substrates for snake cages are newspaper, aspen shavings, and a paper-based product called Carefresh bedding. There are many other types of substrate as well — these are just the most common types.

For a California kingsnake I recommend aspen shavings or Carefresh bedding, because both of these substrates allow the snake to burrow. In this context, burrowing refers to the inclination of some snakes to tunnel their way underneath their substrate. In my experience, California kingsnakes like to burrow through their cages. It can also be pretty entertaining to watch. That's why I recommend aspen shavings or Carefresh bedding ... it's good for the snake as well as the keeper.

Substrates to Avoid

There are also certain types of substrates you should avoid. Cedar shavings, pine shavings and aquarium gravel all fall into this category.

Cedar shavings should be avoided for health reasons. It is widely believed that the oils found within cedar shavings (and possibly pine shavings in general) have a harmful effect on pet snakes over time. That's reason enough to avoid them. Aspen shavings good ... cedar and pine shavings bad.

Aquarium gravel (or any type of gravel for that matter) is financially impractical for use with snakes. For obvious health reasons, you must replace all of the cage substrate at least once a month. To do that with decorative aquarium gravel would get really expensive really fast!

Heating Your Kingsnake's Habitat

Proper heating is a key component of your kingsnake's habitat. Reptiles are ectothermic, which means they heat their bodies from external sources like the sun. We humans, on the other hand, are able to heat our bodies from within. But snakes cannot heat themselves from within, so they must rely upon external heat sources. They depend on external heat for life functions such as digestion and circulation. So you need to factor heat into your cage setup plans.

You must provide a heat source and maintain proper cage temperatures to keep your California kingsnake healthy. You can provide heat and maintain temperatures in a number of ways, just so long as you do it.

If your snake's cage is too hot or too cold, it might seem that everything is okay at first. But in time, your snake's health will begin to deteriorate. It will likely stop eating. It may develop any number of illnesses, such as respiratory infections. This will continue until the snake perishes.

Of course, this is all very easy to prevent. Just maintain proper temperatures!

Read three different books or articles on California kingsnake care and you'll probably get three different temperature ranges recommended by the authors. With that being said, certain temperature ranges have been proven to keep these snakes healthy, and those are the temps I recommend for your cage.

Most experts agree that the temperature gradient in a California kingsnake cage should be 70 - 75° F on the cooler side, and 85 - 90° on the warmer / basking side.

You'll notice that I mentioned a cooler side and a warmer side. This brings in the concept of thermoregulation. In the wild, snakes will thermoregulate by seeking warmth when they need it, and moving to cooler areas when they are too warm. For example, a snake will bask on a rock to soak up warmth from the sun, and then retreat to a shady spot if it needs to cool off.

The point is, the natural world gives kingsnakes options for temperature selection, so you should do the same.

Here's the good news. Giving your pet snake a temperature range (or "gradient") is very easy to do. For example, if you have a room that's around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and you put a heating unit on one end of the snake's cage to elevate the temperature to around 88 degrees ... then you'll have a temperature range of approximately 72 on the cooler side and 88 on the warmer side.

Easy enough, right?

You can heat your snake's cage in several ways. The option you choose will be partly determined by the type of cage you have. We will talk more about this in a moment. For now, let's look at the different ways you can heat a snake cage.

Heat lamps — These are either incandescent (white light) or infrared (red light) lamps placed on top of the snake cage, and shining down into it. These lamps must be used with a partially clear top, such as a screen lid.
Ceramic elements — This approach is similar to the heat lamp approach. But instead of screwing a light bulb into a reflective hood, you would use a ceramic heating element. These elements put off heat, but no light.
Under-tank heat pads — These adhesive pads stick to the underside of the cage and then plug in to provide heat. With this option, the heat rises from the ground up, thus it is a form of "belly heat."
Under-tank heat tape — The same heating method as above, only it uses strips of tape instead of a pad. A product called Flexwatt is the most popular type of heat tape used in the reptile industry.

All of the heating options listed above have the following things in common:

They can all be applied to just one end of the cage, allowing for a temperature range like we discussed earlier. You can put a heat lamp or ceramic element at one end of the cage, the same as you could put a heat pad or tape on one end of the cage.
They can all be used with a rheostat (similar to a lamp dimmer) that allows you to control the amount of heat they produce.
They are all fairly easy to obtain, especially the bulbs and ceramic elements.
They all produce the same effect, though in slightly different ways. They all increase the temperature of your kingsnake's habitat in a controllable way.
They are all sufficient forms of heat to keep your pet snake healthy.

You may have to experiment with different heating options to see which one works best for you. Results will vary based on the type of cage you use, the type of substrate in the cage, your local climate and other factors.

For the most part, heating units are relatively inexpensive (as compared to the cage itself). So it won't "break the bank" to experiment with two or three heating methods. In fact, I recommend this kind of experimentation. Only by trying different methods can you can find the one that works best for your snake habitat.

Some cages and rack systems come with heat built in. In most cases, this means there will be a strip of Flexwatt heat tape (or a similar product) pre-installed under a panel in the cage floor.

I have used several cages like this over the years, but I will never buy another one. Here's why. Heating elements have a shelf life. At some point in the future, they will fail, break, burn out, or otherwise cease to function. So that means you'll have to remove the faulty heating unit, replace it with a new one, and put the enclosure back together again. No thanks.

So after decades of experimentation with reptile enclosures, I prefer to use external heating elements that are easier to replace. For example, if a lamp burns out on my Vision cage, I simply lift the lamp unit out of the receptacle on top of the cage, swap the bulb, and get on with life. It's a 60-second operation.

Nighttime Heat Drops for California Kingsnakes

In captivity, as in the wild, it's natural for the temperature to drop at night. I generally keep my heat lamps on most of the time, with a four-hour period of outage in the middle of the night. I do this simply to give the bulbs a break each day, to prolong their life.

The question many California kingsnake keepers ask is, "Do I need to drop the temperature at night?

Here's the answer to that question:

Most houses will generally cool down at night, simply because the sun has set. So even if you leave your heating device on around the clock (or nearly around the clock), the cage will experience a natural cooling at night simply because the entire house has cooled down with the setting of the sun. For the basic care of California kingsnakes this kind of natural drop in temperature is sufficient.

Of course, if you plan to breed your kingsnake in the future, then temperature drops will become more important. That's because they play a role in conditioning snakes for the breeding season. This is known as "cycling" snakes.

Cooling and Cycling Kingsnakes

As I've stated before, this is not a guide to California kingsnake breeding. My singular purpose is to make you an excellent snake keeper — not an excellent breeder.

But I want to briefly mention "cooling" and "cycling" because you are bound to encounter these terms in your continued research, and I don't want you to be confused by them.

Cooling and cycling are techniques used by snake breeders to make their snakes more inclined to breed, and more capable of doing so. Cooling is the act of lowering overall temperatures toward the breeding season, to duplicate what happens in the wild (seasonal change).

In addition to temperature cooling, this process often includes a reduction in the snake's photoperiod, or the amount of light it receives each day. Again, the goal here is to duplicate nature and the shorter days of autumn and winter, prior to the spring breeding season.

This overall annual process is referred to as "cycling" snakes for the breeding season, and it's often used in conjunction with a reduced feeding schedule as well.

Here's what you need to know as a California kingsnake keeper:

You can maintain a healthy kingsnake without cooling or cycling them. You can keep your pet snake at a constant temperature range year-round if you want, as I have done for many years. Even with constant temperatures in the snake's cage, the natural cooling of your house at night and in the winter will offer something of a "season" for the captive animal. However, if you plan to breed your snake some day, you will want to learn more about cooling and cycling.

Lighting Your Kingsnake Enclosure

This lesson will be shorter than the temperature and humidity lessons, because it's a simple one. Here's the gist of the lighting issue:

Use a full-spectrum fluorescent light (one that produces both UVA and UVB rays, like the sun) to give your California king snake about 10 hours of light each day. Do this, and you'll be covering your bases in the lighting department.

For a long time, snake keepers have been arguing about whether or not kingsnakes need UV lighting for their health and wellbeing. It's really a simple matter, though. Once again, I point to nature for the answer. In the wild, California kingsnakes are exposed to natural sunlight on a regular basis. So why not duplicate this in captivity as much as possible?

For me, it's a no-brainer.

Remember, the more closely you can duplicate the natural conditions in which kingsnakes exist in the wild, the healthier your pet snake will be in captivity. This includes giving your snake a regular cycle of light each day (a "photoperiod"), using a fluorescent light specially designed to produce UVA and UVB rays.

Using full-spectrum lighting will also increase your own enjoyment as a snake keeper, because these lights bring out the true color and beauty of California kingsnakes (similar to how the sum does in nature). Kingsnakes are among the most beautiful of the North American colubrids, so why not let their beauty shine by giving them some full-spectrum lighting?

You can also buy a lamp timer at any hardware store (and even some grocery stores). This will make things easier for you. Just set the timer so that the fluorescent light comes on for about ten hours a day, using the natural rise and set of the sun as your guide. After that, it's a convenient "hands-off" process — the timer turns the light on in the morning, and turns it off in the evening.

Snake Cage Furniture: Bowls, Hides and Climbs

So far, we have talked about choosing a type of cage for your kingsnake, choosing a substrate material, heating the cage and lighting it. But what about the other items that go into the cage? What kind of "furniture" does a pet snake need? That's what we will talk about in this next section of the care sheet — furniture items you can put into your California kingsnake's habitat to improve its health and wellbeing.

Most cage items fall into one of three categories, two of which are essential:

Water bowls -- a necessary item
Hides / houses -- a necessary item
Climbing furniture -- an optional item

So let's talk about each of these three items in more detail.

Water Bowls - It's important to provide clean drinking water to your snake at all times. You might not see your snake drinking very often, as they tend to be secretive animals. But you should make sure it has the option to drink anytime it wants.

Hides / Houses - A hide is exactly what it sounds like, a piece of cage furniture that gives the snake a place to hide and feel safe. Hides can be as simple or as elaborate as you want, just so long as they fulfill one basic purpose. They must give your California kingsnake a dark and secure place to go in order to feel safe, where even you cannot see them. A snake hide made of plastic, ceramic or stone can be washed as needed and will also last a long time. For years, I have used plastic drip trays for snake hides. These are the shallow dish-like trays that go under plant pots to catch water runoff. They come in a variety of sizes, and you can find them in most garden centers, such as Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.

Snake Climbs - California kingsnakes are not considered to be arboreal snakes. They spend most of their time on the ground. With that being said, I've had kings that loved to climb on things. It's good exercise for them too. A piece of climbing furniture is not necessary to the health of your captive kingsnake — not the way water bowls and hides are necessary — but it may enhance your snake's habitat. Offering your snake something to climb on will increase the amount of usable space in the cage, while also creating a form of exercise for your captive snake.

Feeding Your Snake

Perhaps no other topic interests the first-time snake keeper as much as feeding a snake. It's easy to understand why. In addition to being one of the keys to a healthy snake, feeding can be an interesting thing to observe as well. After all, no other creature eats its food in quite the same way as a snake.

Here's the good news for you as a snake keeper. Kingsnakes eat well in captivity and will live a long, healthy life on a simple diet of mice and rats — both of which are readily available.

Prey Items for Your Kingsnake

In the wild, California kingsnakes will eat a variety of rodents, birds, lizards, and even other snakes. In captivity, these snakes will do extremely well on a steady diet of rodents, primarily captive-bred mice and rats.

All of my pet snakes have subsisted entirely on mice and rats, and they are all healthy and active snakes. I know some breeders who offer lizards to baby snakes who are stubborn eaters, but in my experience with California kings this has never been necessary. I have never encountered a healthy kingsnake in a proper captive environment that refused to eat mice or rats (unless the snake was in shed).

So my advice to you is to offer your snake a diet of rodents (mice for smaller snakes, and small rats for larger snakes). If you create a healthy environment for your kingsnake by using the advice in this book, and you choose a healthy specimen to begin with, your snake will probably eat 95% of the meals you offer.

I have another helpful rule-of-thumb for you, this one related to prey items. You should offer your California kingsnake rodents that are about the size of the snake at the snake's widest section, or slightly larger than that. In other words, offer prey items that are 1 to 1 ^1/2 times the diameter of your snake's widest part.

Frequency of Feeding

Feed baby snakes about once every five to seven days (once a week is fine). This is an adequate feeding schedule until the snake is a year old. Snakes grow fastest during the first year of their lives.

Adult snakes can be fed less frequently, about once every ten days, or once every other week.

These are the general "rules" of feeding kingsnakes. Here's how to create a more specific feeding schedule that's more in tune with your individual snake. If you keep track of when your snake defecates / poops (which is hard to miss, really), you'll have a good idea of when the snake is ready to eat again. I usually feed my kingsnakes a couple of days after they defecate. This tells me they are finished digesting the bulk of their last meal.

So my feeding rhythm goes something like this:

Feed snake >> the snake defecates >> wait a day or two >> feed again >> and so on...

Frozen / Thawed Rodents vs. Freshly Killed

If you've been researching California kingsnake care online lately, you've probably encountered the acronyms F/T and F/K regarding rodents. These stand for frozen / thawed and freshly killed, respectively.

Specifically, these terms distinguish a frozen (pre-killed) mouse or rat that has thawed for snake feeding from one that has been killed just before feeding time.

The reptile industry has certainly come a long way over the years. This is evident in the number of professional reptile breeders, the technologically advanced cages and products, and the availability of quality reptile foods. For example, type the words "frozen rodents" into a major search engine like Google or Yahoo, and you'll encounter dozens of companies who will ship frozen rodents (in bulk) direct to your doorstep.

In terms of quality and convenience, you really can't beat frozen rodent companies. You can go online, place an order in ten minutes or so, and have a six-month supply of frozen rodents shipped to your door. What could be more convenient than that?

Frozen / thawed rodents are also safer than freshly killed rodents, because in the chance that a rodent had internal parasites at the rodent breeder's facility, you can be sure that the freezing process has killed those parasites. Thus, there is no way the parasites could be passed on to your snake (this is a possibility with freshly killed rodents).

And for the record, rodent companies kill the rodents before freezing them. They do not put live rodents in the freezer to die slowly. I thought it was important to clarify that matter!

So my first piece of advice is to feed your California kingsnake frozen / thawed rodents — exclusively, if possible. They are easy to acquire, easy to store, easy to prepare, and safer than the freshly killed alternative. I even have a separate freezer in my garage for this very purpose, since I have to store enough rodents to feed seven snakes on a regular basis. I usually order a large number of rodents, knowing it will last me for almost an entire year.

There are many other frozen rodent companies, such as Mice On Ice, The Gourmet Rodent, The Mouse Factory and more. Creative names, don't you think? Check them all out, compare their prices, and find something that works for you.

Everyone has their own opinions about the best way to thaw frozen rodents before serving them to a snake. In truth, it really doesn't matter how you thaw them, as long as the rodents are fully thawed before you serve them to the snake.

You could simply leave a frozen mouse or rat sitting out on a paper towel if you want. Put it out first thing in the morning, and it should be fully thawed by mid to late afternoon. You can also soak the frozen rodent in a tub of warm water for a couple of hours, if you prefer a quicker method. I have a small Rubbermaid tub reserved for this purpose. On feeding day, I'll put the necessary number of rats into the tub, fill it with hot water, and come back in an hour or two. Dinner is served!

Offering Live Rodents — The Alternative to Frozen

Most kingsnakes will readily accept frozen / thawed rodents as their food source. I've never encountered a California king that wouldn't eat F/T rodents. But occasionally a pet snake will refuse to eat thawed rodents, for whatever reason. In such cases, it may become necessary to offer live rodents to your snake.

Close observation is the key to offering live rodents. You never want to leave a live rodent in your snake's cage unless you are there to observe. The reason is that a live rodent can turn the tables on a snake and deliver a nasty bite (or several).

California kingsnakes are expert at constricting, killing and eating rodents (and other animals). It's how they survive in the wild. But in the wild, there are also plenty of snakes who suffer severe injuries — and even death — from the live animals they prey upon. This is especially true of adult rats, which have a strong bite and tend to be more "bold" than mice.

In most cases, the kingsnake will make short work of the live rodent, just like what takes place in nature. But when the snake is not interested in eating (which is usually what leads to the offering of live prey in the first place), the snake may become the hunted, rather than the hunter. I've seen veterinary books with photos of pet snakes that were attacked by rodents, such as rats. Trust me, you do not want that to happen to your pet kingsnake. So keep a close watch.

Topic: California king snake | kingsnake | care information | care sheet

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