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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Speckled King Snake

General Care Guide for the Speckled King Snake, Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
Robert D. Gilbert
Sylvic Serpents
P. O. Box 1433
Seneca, SC 29679
(864) 885-9831

Introduction:
The speckled king snake (a.k.a. Salt and Pepper Snake), Lampropeltis getula holbrooki, is a beautiful snake that ranges from Southern Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico and West into Eastern Texas. This is a dark brown to black snake with a light yellowish or whitish spot on each scale. This speckling tends to give the snake an overall greenish hue. Some adults tend to show some indistinct banding across the back, while immature holbrooki have distinct banding. Speckled kings naturally interbreed with the desert king snake, Lampropeltis getula splendida through a large area from Nebraska to Texas. Many of these intergrades have reduced speckling and a more distinct patterning inherited from their splendida ancestry. The original albino holbrooki originated in this region, and most albinos show an intermediate patterning between these two subspecies. Holbrooki average 36" to 48" long and are very robust for a king snake. They also tend to make docile captives if captive born. Wild caught speckled kings are still common in the hobby and tend to be aggressive captives. This aggressiveness has given holbrooki a bad reputation among pet owners and herpetoculturalists, but for captive born snakes this is undeserved. If handled frequently, holbrooki make beautiful, tame pets.


Cage Setup:
Minimum cage size for an adult holbrooki should be at least a 30 gallon long tank (36" long X 12" wide X 18" high), but preferably larger. The lid should fit on snugly and be made specifically for reptiles as snakes are notorious escape artists. The cage requires a temperature gradient in order to allow the snake to regulate its body temperature by moving to either the warm or cool end of the enclosure. There are different ways to achieve a good temperature gradient. One way is to use an under tank heat pad available from pet stores, or you can use a drug store heating pad. Place the heat pad under one side of the tank, and measure the temperature. This area should be approximately 82F. Now, measure the temperature at the cool end of the enclosure. This area should be in the high 70's. Other heating methods include heat tapes or cables that are likewise placed under one side of the tank to heat it. Hot rocks are not recommended as they get too hot and could burn your snake. Regardless of how you heat the cage, I would recommend a rheostat or dimmer switch to regulate the amount of heat given off by these devices. A cheap dimmer switch purchased from a hardware store or home improvement center will work fine. A dimmer switch will allow you to fine-tune the temperature in the cage. The expense of a dimmer switch is well worth it if it can prevent the death of your snake. Proportional thermostats, such as those made by Helix Controls, are probably the best way to control heating devises. They measure the temperature inside the cage and automatically adjust the heat output of the heating devise to maintain the correct temperature. Although expensive, I use Helix controls due to their accuracy. No specific light requirements are needed as these snakes are mostly nocturnal. However, a fluorescent light will allow you to better see your new pet.
Cage furnishings can be kept simple. For substrate one can use newspaper, indoor/outdoor carpeting, aspen wood shavings, or cypress mulch. Pine or cedar wood shavings should NEVER be used as they contain TOXIC chemicals that could kill your snake. The cage will also need a sturdy water bowl large enough for your snake to completely submerse itself in. Snakes will often soak prior to shedding their skin or after eating. A rock large enough to be difficult for the snake to move should also be provided to allow the snake to rub against in starting a shed. Lastly, two hide boxes need to be placed in the cage: One on the warm side and one on the cool side to allow the snake to feel comfortable when inactive. A good hide box or container has just enough room for the snake to squeeze into after a meal. The tighter it is the more secure the snake will feel. A hide with a top entrance hole seems to be better than a side entrance. A third hide box is sometimes used which contains moist sphagnum moss. This humidity box will help in sheds and prevent over-soaking in the water dish.
Baby or neonate snakes should be kept in smaller enclosures as it will let you monitor the snake better and will make the snake feel less vulnerable. A ten gallon tank or a rubbermaid container make good enclosures for the first year. These cages are set up the same as the adult's cage above except the rubbermaid container has no light and will need many small holes drilled into all four sides (1/8" is a good size). Remember, the heat pad or cable should be under only one end of these small enclosures and not the entire cage. Use a thermometer to check the temperatures! Guessing is not good enough.


Feeding:
All king snakes will do very well on a diet consisting solely of domestic rodents. Baby holbrooki will sometimes start out eating a new born mouse pink without any trouble, but often they will insist on lizard scented mice or exposed brain pink mice for their first meal. However, they should be easy to switch to either live or dead pinks after having eaten once or twice. Baby holbrooki should be fed every 4 to 6 days while adults will do well on adult mice or rat fuzzies fed every 7 to 10 days. Neonate speckled kings tend to be very small compared with other getula subspecies so starting them off on day old mice will be necessary. As the snake grows, you can feed increasingly larger mice. The size of the prey item should be no larger than the maximum diameter of the snake. I like to feed my snakes until satiated.
Small prey items like mouse pinks, fuzzies, and hoppers as well as rat pinks and fuzzies can be fed alive or dead depending on what the snake will accept and what is most convenient for the owner. Larger prey items should be fed dead to eliminate the chances of the rodent injuring the snake. Some owners prefer to buy rodents frozen in bulk to save money, and this can be a very convenient supply of food items. Other keepers prefer to buy live rodents at the pet store. Rodents can be bred at home, but unless you have a number of snakes to feed this is probably more trouble than it is worth.
Several things can be tried to induce a troublesome hatchling to eat its first meal. First, place a newborn mouse pink inside the snake's enclosure overnight. If the snake does not eat it, then take the snake and the pink and place them both in a much smaller container like a deli cup overnight. If this still does not work, give the snake a couple days of rest then try a split brain pink. This involves taking a DEAD pink and cutting into the head to expose the brain. Place the split brain pink and the snake into a deli cup overnight. This will often work. If not, then try again with a lizard scented pink. Anoles and house geckos work well. Cut open the abdominal cavity of a frozen lizard and rub a thawed pink into this cut and place this scented pink and the snake into a deli cup overnight. This can also be tried using a small piece of lizard skin dried onto the head of the pinky. If a humidity box is used, then try placing a live pink on the outside lid of the humidity box. If this doesn't work, try a dead pink. These techniques and a lot of patience should get a troublesome hatchling to eat. However, it is the breeder's responsibility to make sure that any snake that they sell is eating unscented mice before selling it.
Another thing that will sometimes work to get a troublesome baby to eat is to try a different food item. If available, a pink deer mouse will often elicit a very strong feeding response in most North American snakes of the genera Lampropeltis, Elaphe, and Pituophis. Although the information above is a bit frightening and at times gruesome, do not be discouraged as most pet owners will never have to deal with these problems. However, if you intend to breed your snakes then you will need to be familiar with these techniques.


Breeding:
Prebreeding Conditioning: Before beginning to breed or brumate your snakes, inspect them closely. They should be in optimal health and have good weight. They should have a minimum size of 36 inches. If your snakes are smaller than this or are thin or otherwise not in optimal health, then wait until the following year to breed them. Otherwise, you may end up with a dead snake or experience problems like egg binding. The generally accepted method of breeding king snakes involves a period of cooling called brumation which is similar to hibernation but the snakes still remain active to some extent. For holbrooki, this involves first stopping feeding two weeks before the cooling period is to begin. This is to eliminate any remaining food still inside the snake, which could rot inside the snake during cooling and potentially kill it. After the two weeks are over, slowly decrease the temperature over several days until a temperature of about 50 to 55F is reached. Keep the snakes at this temperature for two to three months usually from December through February. Check on the snake's health frequently, and change their water weekly. If any signs of respiratory infections are seen then warm the snake up and treat the infection. Do not feed the snakes during this time. At the end of the cooling period, slowly warm the snakes up to the normal maintenance temperatures and begin feeding. Feed the females as much as they will eat in order to fatten them up before breeding.

Breeding: Unlike most snakes, holbrooki will often mate soon after brumation has ended and before the female's first shed. Feed both snakes until satiated and then wait two days longer to reduce any possible rodent scent on the snakes. This is important as holbrooki have a very strong ophiophagous (snake eating) habit, and you do not want one BIG snake instead of a pair. After the two days have passed, place the female into the males cage and watch them from a distance. Breeding should take place within an hour or so. The male will start to chase the female and rub his "chin" along her back. He will usually bite the female in the neck and try to hold her still while he breeds with her. If there is no interest in breeding, then take the female out and put her back into her own cage. Try introducing the pair every other day or so until they have bred at least three times. Multiple copulations may improve fertility. Breeding response will be stronger after her first shed if it is soon after emergence from brumation, but breeding generally takes place before this time. After the female has been bred, again start an accelerated feeding schedule. Feed the female smaller, easily digested food items every few days. She will need these nutrient reserves to produce the eggs. About six weeks after breeding, the female will undergo a shed cycle. At this time you will need to give her a nest box to lay her eggs in. This box should contain moist but not wet sphagnum moss in a closed dark container. I use a plastic storage box (shoebox) with a hole cut in the lid. Remember to cut the hole larger than normal, as she will be swollen with eggs. About 10 days after shedding, the female will become very active as she searches for the best place to lay her eggs. She will usually settle down inside the nest box and lay her eggs, between 6 and 22, sometime over the next couple of days. If she settles into the water dish, you may want to replace it with one that is too small for her to enter and without a lid. This will encourage her to look for another place to lay her eggs. After she lays her eggs, feed her a smaller than normal prey item for the next couple of feedings. She will be weak from her pregnancy and small prey items will be easier for her to eat and digest. Usually, holbrooki will not double clutch unless the female is very large. After her next shed, you can try for a second clutch by starting to reintroduce the male as before. Watch them very closely as she will probably not be receptive and thus could end up as a meal for the male. If a second clutch is laid, it will be even more important for the female to regain her lost weight. Feed her as much as she will eat until she has regained good weight.

Care for the eggs and babies: The eggs should be placed inside a container (plastic food containers without the lid work well) of coarse, damp vermiculite. The vermiculite should be mixed with water 1:1 by weight. This should make the vermiculite damp enough to just clump when squeezed together. The container should then be placed inside an incubator of some kind that will maintain a temperature of around 82F. Watch the eggs closely, if they begin to dimple or cave in, then add a little more water. The eggs should hatch in 6 to 8 weeks. Various incubators exist, but a good, small incubator is the Hova-bator incubator sold through pet supply dealers or at feed stores where they sell them for incubating chicken eggs. These incubators cost around $30 to $40, and are well worth the money.
When the eggs start to hatch, the baby (neonate) snake will slit open the leathery egg by means of a temporary egg tooth located on the tip of their snouts. They will often remain inside the slit egg for a day or two with just their heads sticking out of the slit. Do NOT try to force the baby out of its egg before it is ready, as it will be attached to an umbilicus and yolk sac. Forcing it out of its protective egg may result in killing the snake due to dehydration as water will be quickly lost through the yolk sac and umbilicus. Also, do not cut the umbilicus as it will cause the snake to bleed to death. The umbilicus will fall off on its own in a day or two so wait until the snake leaves its egg on its own. Set up each neonate into its own separate enclosure. I use plastic shoeboxes with many very small holes drilled into all the sides. Use paper towels as substrate and keep careful records of sheds and feedings. If you plan to sell or give these animals to other people than provide them with these records.


References:
Conant, R. 1975. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern/Central North America, The Peterson Field Guide Series. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. 429pp.

Kaplan, M. 1994. Kingsnakes and Milksnakes. [Online] Available Here

Markel, RG 1995. Kingsnakes, Care & Breeding in Captivity. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, N.J. 64pp.

Perlowin, D. 1992. The General Care and Maintenance of Common kingsnakes. Advanced Vivarium Systems, Lakeside C.A. 71pp.



***Copyright 1998 by Sylvic Serpents. All rights reserved***

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