Gopher Snake...

[Kat_Dog]

So, my sister saved a gopher snake from being trampled today at school. She fell in love with him and brought him home. He's super calm, as calm as my corn, even after holding him and taking him into petsmart to get supplies, he never went into the s-shape or tried to bite.
He's currently upstairs, far away from my other snakes.

Now, I read that their care is pretty similar to a corn, but is there anything else I should know? Right now he's in in a 10 gallon tank with paper towel, 2 hides, and some wadded up paper for coverage, although he seems to prefer being in the open, he pushed his hide out of the way and is sitting in the corner of the tank.
The room is about 78F right now, heating won't be an issue with summer coming and our un-airconditioned house, but just in case, I found my sister's old uth, which I'll put on a dimmer until my sister decides to buy a thermostat. :3

He's about 1.5 feet long, so I'm assuming he's anywhere from 6mo-1yr old. We're expecting him to grow to about 5-7ft, so would a 20g tank be sufficient when he's an adult, or should I get a 40g?

I can't find it anywhere, but what humidity do they need? It's pretty dry around here in the desert region of so cal, around 20-30% normally. I was thinking they probably need it around 30% normally, 40% shed? Chances are I won't even need to monitor it.

Here's some(really bad) pictures.
I'm not going to bother him any more for pictures until he's comfy enough that we can hold him. :3









Edit: whoops, wrong forum! I could have sworn I was in the gopher snake section! Dx

[valhalha30]

I'm not completely sure what you have thier is a gopher snake.... somebody could chime in who knows better though...

I would guess that the hides in that tank are too small for him, and that's why he isn't using them.
If you're considering a cup with a hole cut into it a "hide" you're mistaken.... and that's waayyyy too small for an almost 2 foot long snake. If you have a bowl that is 8 inches in diameter, use that, just cut a 2 inch diameter hole in the side.. near the lip of the bowl.

I'm not sure the crumbled paper is doing him any favors either. Put in flat sheets of newspaper or local advertising magazine if that's the only substrate you have or can find...

From my knowledge, these snakes (if it is a gopher) can grow up to 10 feet long in captivity... so a 40 gallon is the minimum for it.

If you found him inside a school, he's probably a natural species of the area. Find the humidity of your state's region and apply that to your snake. ONLY if you cannot find the proper humidities for the snake's requirements,

Sorry if this sounds rough and rude... I'm just trying to be direct and as informative as I can be. No worries about being in the wrong forum... you wrote in the General Colubrids section, so it's not a big boo boo.

[Kat_Dog]

Gopher snakes are the only snakes you'll find around here, except the rare find of a cal king or rosie boa. ------- Humidity is horribly low around here, since we are in a desert, sometime so low it's miserable! So I'm not horribly concerned, just asked to see if I was thinking strait. :P -------- My house stays at around 35-40%I made the hide a while ago, it was originally for my corn about the same size as him, but I ended up not using it because I ran out of space in his viv, he did poop in it once though! ;D------- I figured I would need a 40gal, there's just so much conflicting info on the internet it's hard to know what's true, not to mention the lack of info on gophers! I'll probably buy him a 55gal during the next $1/gal sale at petco ;) --------- Most of them seem to grow to about 5-8ft around here... idk if being in captivity makes them grow larger? But we are very prepared for a very big snake. ^^ ----------- He seems to like the paper balls, he moves them around into one large pile, then hides under them. I have him in QT, so the paper towels are temporary, we're going to put him on aspen soon, then he can dig and make burrows. :) ---------No worries, you don't sound harsh at all. :) Thank you! ||| idk why I'm not able to keep my paragraphs? o.o

[Slitherous]

Looks like a gopher to me. If it's a local species you should be fine humidity-wise. Using a uth is advisable even if your place is warm, but put it on one end of the tank so the snake has both warm and cool zones. 85-90 is a good temp for gophers, but anything over 95 wouldn't be good without a place for it to get away from it if possible. Personally, I would use aspen shavings as substrate and use a hide large enough for him (her) to completely disappear into. As to food, gophers are mousers. It may take some time for the snake to settle in enough to eat though, (try frozen/thawed first, live only if it won't eat FT). Being wild-caught it will naturally want to find a way to escape, so make sure the cage is secure; if he (her) can get it's nose through a hole it will escape. Give it some time before trying to handle it much as that will stress it out even more, after it settles in you can begin to get it used to being handled. Gophers are hissers and tail-shakers, and sometimes biters, (especially wild-caught), so don't be alarmed if it reacts that way. If it doesn't settle down after a few weeks and won't eat please consider releasing it back into the wild, (away from busy roads of course). I've caught and kept dozens of gophers over the years, some make decent pets, others not....good luck!

S

[Kat_Dog]

Small update, he just shed. It was all complete and in one piece!
He hasn't eaten yet on the account of him being in shed for the last week.
The pet store won't have any live fuzzies until tuesday, so that's when I'll feed him. If he doesn't eat, I'll release him far away from the school, but still in the same general area

[Theweinz]

Not sure from photos if it is a Gopher snake.

[andrew68]

Hey which city are you near in SoCal? Just curious because you mentioned rosy boas. I'm in Palmdale and that looks like a San Diego gopher snake, out here we have intergrade gophers between the San Diego and Great Basin subspecies.

[Evildrdee]

Hey which city are you near in SoCal? Just curious because you mentioned rosy boas. I'm in Palmdale and that looks like a San Diego gopher snake, out here we have intergrade gophers between the San Diego and Great Basin subspecies.

Waaay off topic... Hi fellow Antelope Valley person! Glad to know there are more snake people up here!

[Anya]

He's a cutie. ^_^ 'Grats on the find.

[andrew68]

Waaay off topic... Hi fellow Antelope Valley person! Glad to know there are more snake people up here!

Wow cool, nice to meet you. yeah it seems like there's not too many of us up here.

Do you field herp at all and are you in Palmdale too?