new florida kingsnake

Hey guys,
i've been lurking the past few weeks, up until making my deicision on buying a kingsnake. so on saturday i took home my baby. he's an axantic florida kingsnake. but i have a few question for any of you kingsnake owners.

1) when it come to handling a new snake, are kingsnakes as stressed by it as bp's are? is handling my little guy once a day too much on him?

2) also, i noticed that his eyes have gone blue. I think he's ready to shed. I put misted spaghnum moss in a small coffee can with a hole cut in the top, will this suffice?

3) my temps read 90 hot side and 80 on the cold side. is this suitable? my ceramic heating element is on a dimmer, should i dim it for night?

thanks for any advice, and i can't wait to post pics...will get those soon def. after shed at least

(1) Still stressful - snakes don't look forward to a handling session - some are just more tolerant of it than others. You picked him up on the 17th of March - right? I would leave him alone for a week to 10 days - let him get used to his new digs.

(2) As you've noted it sounds like he's ready to shed - all the more reason to cease handling him. As to the shed hide - if he uses it - great - I usually introduce one only if they appear to be having a difficult shed.

(3) I have not kept a L. Getula for a number of years, but if I remember correctly I kept her between 78 and 85 degrees. Our ruthveni and knoblochi are kept in this range with a night drop down to about 74 degrees.

i think i just got an opportunity to get a FL kingsnake from a friend of a friend... looking forward to seeing some pics.

I love my Florida King, he is a big boy, with a HUGE appetite! Out of my 18 he is def one of my favorites. Always out , and gentle, ( I'm just cautious at feeding) ,easy but active when handling. My 7 year old loves holding him. I keep my house on the warm side, 76-79, so I turn off the heat at night, he seems great on this. But if your house is cooler, you could keep it on. I don't drop the temps with my ball pythons, but my kings seem to be fine with it. Again, it depends on your house temps at night. I live in Florida. Your moist hide sounds fine, they need higher humidity at shed time. Here is a pic of mine with my little girl.


http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...a/DSC00535.jpg