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My new grey-banded King

Phaedra

Phaedra

Witty phrase
Well I was at a pet shop buying pinkies for my corn and overheard the guys talking about a snake they'd had for a while who hadn't sold. They were going to "get rid of him" if you know what I mean, and I couldn't let that happen, so I said I'd take him. I can't think why he didn't sell - he's healthy, a proven breeder and he's absolutely beautiful:

king3.jpg


kingsnake2.jpg


Kingsnake1.jpg


The 50% thing is a box of washing machine tablets, I cut a hole in it - it spans the cool and warm sides of the viv so it's two hides for the price of one (and actually cost nothing at all). The hide the pet shop gave me, as you can see, is ridiculously small for his size. They also sold me a vivarium without plugs on the lamp/heat mat leads (wtf?) and I can't get the heat mat to work. The lamp has warmed the warm side to just under 90F which I'm told is ok for Kings.
IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/gwalter2004/Pets/King/setup.jpg[/IMG]

I think he's about 2 1/2 - 3 feet, and since they said they bred him last year he must be about 2 years old? No name for him yet, waiting to see what his personality is like. Anyway, isn't he gorgeous? :D
 
Phaedra said:
The lamp has warmed the warm side to just under 90F which I'm told is ok for Kings.
Click to expand...
You were told wrong, try to keep the warm side around 81-83F.
Congrats on getting a grey band! :cheers:
 
Hmm I don't know how to lower it then. :-/ With the heat pad not working, the lamp is the only source of heat I can give him. Any suggestions?
 
Can you move the lamp further away?
Overly high temps can sometimes make a male king "sterile".
90F is just to dang warm, IMO anyting above 85F is too warm.
Hope you can get it under control.
 
Nice king. I wish a store near me had a grey banded king. They are really spectacular animals. I finally got my MBK, though, so I can't complain...

Of course, there is a yearling Florida king at a store nearby **/me<<rubs his hands with evil grin**
 
mbdorfer said:
Can you move the lamp further away?
Overly high temps can sometimes make a male king "sterile".
90F is just to dang warm, IMO anyting above 85F is too warm.
Hope you can get it under control.
Click to expand...

Nope, the light fixture is only in one place in the viv.

I'll be able to sort out the heat pad tomorrow, I'm assuming he won't go sterile overnight. If that is the case, I have no plans to breed him so as long as it doesn't affect his overall health he should be ok. Basically for tonight I have two options:

1. Leave the lamp on and keep it at 90F.
2. Turn it off and have it near room temp for most of the night.

Which is the lesser of two evils? There's no thermometer on the cool side of his cage (will also pick one of those up tomorrow) but that's where he's been sleeping.
 
How cold is it in the room where you're keeping him? If the room doesn't get much below 70*F, I would think that would be the way to go. Getting a little cool won't kill him, as long as you aren't freezing him. Getting much over 85* can.

Of course, I'm sure mbdorfer will correct if I am wrong...actually I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong...
 
Okay I've turned the light off. I'll check the temp in about an hour or whenever I go to sleep if it's later than that, and if it's dropped too low I suppose I'll wake up at hour intervals and turn it on or off to maintain the heat as best I can.

Thanks guys, I feel stupid now. *learns not to trust caresheets but ask those with experience instead*
 
Yeah, you're better off keeping him a bit cool as opposed to "cooking" him.
Especially if he hasn't fed recently.
 
I can't believe they have grey bands in pet stores in the UK, and my local, American pet stores never have crap! Congrats on the acquisition. If you couldn't already tell, I'm jealous. ;)
 
Phaedra said:
He has just eaten. It's cooling down now, about 88F. What is the lower temp range for a King?
Click to expand...
According to my most recent research regarding kings, 82*F is supposed the be the "perfect" temperature, with a low of around 70* in ideal conditions.

There are alot of caresheets available for perusal on the internet. That's what I did in the weeks leading up to my recent MBK purchase...
 
and what petshop is this that has snakes they need to move on quickly? Do tell, I'll be there in a flash!
 
tyflier said:
According to my most recent research regarding kings, 82*F is supposed the be the "perfect" temperature, with a low of around 70* in ideal conditions.

There are alot of caresheets available for perusal on the internet. That's what I did in the weeks leading up to my recent MBK purchase...
Click to expand...

That feels like a bit of an accusation, and I understand because I get annoyed when people buy pets they don't know how to care for. As the original post says I bought him in a bit of a rush because he wasn't going to be around much longer. They obviously didn't want to say in front of customers but I got a strong feeling they were going to have him put down (or whatever the term is for snakes). I had no time to research kings because I went to the pet shop just before they closed and had to rush around getting everything ready. When I got back I set up the viv (or tried to, damn that heat mat - and that's another thing, I didn't check the viv over thoroughly because they were closing the shop up around me and I needed to get out of there) and then looked at several care sheets.

Each one said something different about temps. I'll show you the first four that I read:

1. Temperature--- It is very important to make sure that your reptile has the required heat to survive. It is best to keep one end of the cage between 80-90 and the other 70-80

2. California Kingsnakes and all Kingsnakes in general are very hardy animals, so you don’t have to be EXTREMELY fussy about Temps. just make sure you have a good gradient going between 73 and 87 degrees. (23-30 degrees Celsius)

3. Temperature is VERY important. During the day, I tend to keep the warm side of the cage between 85 -90 degrees. The cooler side between 75 - 80 degrees. Humidity should be lower for king snakes as these are desert dwelling snakes. Between 45 -50 is best.

4. Temperature is very important. i keep my cage 80-90 on the hot end and 70-80 on the cool end.

So I really am sorry if it seems like I'm just a braindead idiot n00b, it would irritate me too, but you can imagine why I thought 90 was the top-end of okay. I was only going to keep it at 90 until today - it's 8am right now but I'll be ringing the pet shop up as soon as they open to ask about the heat mat.
 
diamondlil said:
and what petshop is this that has snakes they need to move on quickly? Do tell, I'll be there in a flash!
Click to expand...

Hehe I'm still trying to work out why they wanted rid of him. On a King snake forum I went to the others said he's probably 3+ years and one person said probably a lot older, since his colours are dull. I really don't have a clue how to estimate snakes' ages and since I have no breeding plans it doesn't really matter to me, but I think he was becoming a bit of a liability to the pet shop - taking a mouse a week and not selling. Of course there could be something hideously wrong with him that they didn't tell me about, but I go to that pet shop every week and I don't think they'd do that to me, though I am a bit annoyed about being sold a viv with a faulty heat mat and no plugs on the leads.

Anyway Roy, it's a pet shop in London, England so the round trip would be worth a hell of a lot more than the snake. ;) Lil - it's in Lewisham, SE London, called Supreme Animal Foods. They have a nice reptile room - lots of hatchling corns, a few varieties of python (including some Jungle Carpets that are lovely), BRBs, boas, a few milks and kings... also a huggggggge Burmese and two albino something-or-other pythons that have to be about 6 foot long already. Yesterday they were sleeping curled up with each other, it was very sweet. They're not usually so keen to shift their snakes though, I was lucky. :)
 
Congrats on being in the right place at the right time! I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of the critter out from behind the glass so we can get up close and personal with his colors! lol! I love kings as much as I do corns and a nice grey band is nice to look at!

Jenn
 
Phaedra-

It was absolutely NOT intended to be accusatory, and I truly apologize that it sounded that way to you. It was NOT my intention. It was merely an effort to let you know where my information was coming from. Again, I am honestly and truly sorry you took it that way.

I wish I could be as lucky as you and run into that situation at a local pet shop. I would have done the same thing. Sometimes you have no choice but to leap before looking.
 
Thanks Jenn, I'll get some pictures when I start handling him. Those colours are pretty true to life, they're dull for a GBK but I honestly think they make him prettier (though I am slightly biased).
 
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