Mexican Black Kingsnake Questions

So I have an opportunity to locally get a Mexican Black Kingsnake from a local pet store. It looks cool and I think it's a female. It's currently overpriced, but the pet store owner since I go there often for crickets and to sell my normal babies, etc promised me a discount.

But I also own ball pythons and lizards and Mexican Black Kingsnakes are known escape artists. I'm planning to upgrade my ball python female to a 4' enclosure, which will leave the 3' enclosure open. (She's about 5-6' long so I feel bad keeping her in a small caging.)

So... umm... how much of a worry is it that your Mexican black kingsnake will escape and eat the rest of your snake collection if you've been feeding it frozen/thawed rodents? Or is that a stupid worry to have?

MBKs are very nice pet king snakes. I used to have a couple, along with a house-full of various kinds of snakes. My MBKs were always voracious feeders on f/t or fresh-killed* mice (*I've always raised my own rodents so I often feed fresh rather than f/t).

Escapes by king snakes or other colubrids are more common when they're hatchlings because ppl underestimate the tiny spaces they can fit thru, along with their determination to do so. The security of your snake enclosures is always up to you though- I only had one hatchling king snake EVER escape, & that was from a store-bought vivarium with a locking sliding screen- the peg to lock it left a little too much "wiggle room" & the snake found it, but I found her later that day, in a boot in my closet. It helped that she was an albino Cal-king. :D From that day forward, I've built my own cage tops.

Prevent escapes for the sake of any snake that escapes. It's unlikely for a rodent-fed king to get loose & then manage to break into another enclosure to eat the snake (or lizard!) within, but it's nonetheless your job to prevent that from ever happening.

Just make sure this snake is healthy- is it c/b? was it used for breeding? how old is it? Check the mouth, listen to the breathing, look for mites, or signs of funky stools. These things are mostly fixable but with any new snake, you want to know what you're getting into. MBKs are very nice pet snakes, generally speaking, & personally they're one of my favorite kings- generally easy pets.

MBKs are great feeders. They are always hungry, and eat anything they can overpower. They do well exclusively on a rodent diet, and are the most docile common Kingsnake species in my experience. Babies musk and occasionally strike, but are better behaved than Cal Kings. You should ensure the MBK is housed properly in an escape proof enclosure. I had a baby escape. They are great escape artists. If there’s a gap, they will find it. If it does escape, it won’t do much to an adult ball python. Smaller snakes and lizards may be prey if it finds a way into their enclosure. This isn’t something to worry about. I have corn snakes in the same room as kingsnakes. Keep the MBK in an escape proof enclosure.