My First Snake!

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Young snakes eating baby rodents tend to digest them easily, meaning they digest quickly. Not living with your snake but if it really seems excessive defecation, you
might also have her stool checked for parasites. Captive-bred snakes shouldn't have any, but they can get them from unclean prey sources if & when fed live, & if that's
the case, it's easily taken care of & should be, so her growth isn't adversely affected. All may be completely normal, just suggesting another possibility to keep in mind.

I've actually seen a w/c adult snake that was so encumbered with 'worms' that he digested a large adult mouse in roughly one day, because he had so much 'help'. :rolleyes: But hopefully that's not the case here, just sharing where my perspective comes from. It's not likely to be the issue with yours.

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Thanks for the info! It’s always a good idea to consider all the possibilities. I agree that parasites are likely not present, but I’ll keep an eye on her anyway :)

We had our first short handling session today! She's been getting a lot more confident in her enclosure (coming out for food vs fleeing to her hide when the lid is opened, I also saw her using her branches for the first time today) so I decided to handle her for a little while after cleaning her tank. She did really well, not flighty at all just curious about the hairless giant that was holding her :D The one thing I noticed was actually about myself. I was weirdly nervous handling her, not like I was afraid of her but more like I was afraid I was going to mess up somehow. Maybe it's because she's so small. I'm sure the feeling will pass once I get more hands on experience, and I did actually feel myself relax as the handling session went on.
She's peeking at me from one of her hides right now looking adorable, I love this little snake so much :)

Cool! :gj: And yeah, I'm sure it's 'cause she's so tiny. ;)

I saw her cruising around the lip of her tank this morning and I noticed her belly is quite pink. I’m pretty sure this means she is going into shed, but the paranoid first time snake parent in me is wondering if it might be a sign of something rubbing or irritating her belly scales?
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At lot of snakes bellies go pink when going into shed, my lighter coloured boas do

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Cruising the lip of a glass tank is almost like a rite of passage for many young colubrids, LOL! :D Sorta like the "monkey bars" in children's playgrounds...

Often times you can tell if it's pink belly leading to shed if it consistently covers the majority of the belly. If it's a scraping injury, burn, rot,etc...it'll be much more localized to a specific section of the body.

So if you see pretty consistent pink along the entire belly it's almost definitely an upcoming shed. :gj:

Congrats on your first snake

After about a week of her staying completely hidden I found a shed in her tank this morning :D It looks perfect besides a tear behind the head.

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Originally Posted by aurum

... It looks perfect besides a tear behind the head.

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It happens...I wouldn't take points off for that. :)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

It happens...I wouldn't take points off for that. :)

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Yeah, she has a lot of rocks in her enclosure to squeeze under and between so I’m assuming it tore on one of those. At least it’s all off :)

I took a few nicer pictures of her in some sunlight today. This snake is so gorgeous to me. I also think I got very lucky with her disposition, especially considering I didn’t handle her at the expo. So far she has never struck, musked, or tried to “run” away from me. Handling her is such a nice experience and I’m glad I have a snake as docile as she is for my first :)
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Very nice kingsnake!

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Originally Posted by aurum

I took a few nicer pictures of her in some sunlight today. This snake is so gorgeous to me. I also think I got very lucky with her disposition, especially considering I didn’t handle her at the expo. So far she has never struck, musked, or tried to “run” away from me. Handling her is such a nice experience and I’m glad I have a snake as docile as she is for my first :)
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Desert King snake or Florida ??


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Desert King snake or Florida ??


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Speckled kingsnake, actually :D

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Originally Posted by aurum

Speckled kingsnake, actually :D

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Ahhhh , nice . I don’t think I’ve seen one of those for absolutely ages !


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Ahhhh , nice . I don’t think I’ve seen one of those for absolutely ages !


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Yeah, I saw a couple vendors with them at the expo and they’re definitely available online if you look around a little, but they aren’t nearly as popular as, say, California or brooks kingsnakes. I think it probably has to do with the lack of morphs available.

She just had her third shed with me and I think she's starting to get some more yellow to her! However unfortunately, because my house gets dry in the winter, she retained an eye cap and small piece on the back of her neck. It was resolved pretty easily though with a bath and letting her run through a towel, so no worries there, but for the future I think I'm going to go pick up some cypress mulch to exchange with the aspen I'm using. I'm a bit confused though because I offered her a humid hide for this shed cycle, but from the stuck shed it looks like she didn't use it even though she needed the extra humidity :confusd:

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Originally Posted by aurum

She just had her third shed with me and I think she's starting to get some more yellow to her! However unfortunately, because my house gets dry in the winter, she retained an eye cap and small piece on the back of her neck. It was resolved pretty easily though with a bath and letting her run through a towel, so no worries there, but for the future I think I'm going to go pick up some cypress mulch to exchange with the aspen I'm using. I'm a bit confused though because I offered her a humid hide for this shed cycle, but from the stuck shed it looks like she didn't use it even though she needed the extra humidity :confusd:

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Don't know how I missed the previous photo (back in Nov- oops!) She's lookin' SO lovely. :gj:

About the shed, was her humid hide on the warm or cool side? Maybe she wanted the opposite? (most snakes in shed like to be cool, unless they ate recently)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Don't know how I missed the previous photo (back in Nov- oops!) She's lookin' SO lovely. :gj:

About the shed, was her humid hide on the warm or cool side? Maybe she wanted the opposite? (most snakes in shed like to be cool, unless they ate recently)

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Thank you! I think she looks especially good in the sun :)
Her humid hide is on the warm end because I noticed in shed she basically doesn’t move from her warm hide (maybe she’s a bit of an oddball with temp preference?). I was actually thinking if the humid hide might not be as warm as she likes it because it puts an extra layer between her an the heat. Either way I hopefully won’t have to worry about this with cypress, plus I think it looks better than aspen anyway :P

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Originally Posted by aurum

Thank you! I think she looks especially good in the sun :)
Her humid hide is on the warm end because I noticed in shed she basically doesn’t move from her warm hide (maybe she’s a bit of an oddball with temp preference?). I was actually thinking if the humid hide might not be as warm as she likes it because it puts an extra layer between her an the heat. Either way I hopefully won’t have to worry about this with cypress, plus I think it looks better than aspen anyway :P

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You picked a great snake. They are everywhere in Louisana. I stepped on one in my back yard last year walking to my chicken coop and about had a heart attack lol i saw 4 last summer not evenherring to find snakes. They are beautiful for sure.

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Originally Posted by NewmanLovesSnakes

You picked a great snake. They are everywhere in Louisana. I stepped on one in my back yard last year walking to my chicken coop and about had a heart attack lol i saw 4 last summer not evenherring to find snakes. They are beautiful for sure.

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Thanks! I’m so happy I ended up with her, not just because she’s a great species but also because she’s a great individual. She’s healthy, with a great personality and even her speckle distribution is exactly how I’d like it to be haha. I‘d love to stumble across a speckled king in the wild, but unfortunately I don’t live in their native range.

It’s been almost a year since I got this girl so I think it’s time for an update. She has a name now, I’m calling her Gertrude. It started as a bit of a joke with my friends and ended up sticking. Looking back on pictures, she’s a lot bigger than when I first got her. I’m not super conscientious with weighing but I did so recently and she’s 85g now compared to I think about 10g at the beginning.

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I also upgraded her tank a couple weeks ago, she was living in a 15 gallon aquarium and now she’s in a 36x18 exo terra that will probably be her adult enclosure. I’m also trying out a small UVB tube for her new tank and making sure she has plenty of places to get away from the light. So far I’ve observed her both taking shelter from the light and purposefully basking under it.

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Besides that things have been pretty uneventful in the good, problem-free way. She makes such a great pet and I’m really glad I get have her :)


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She's really gorgeous! Speckled kings remind me of the night sky full of stars... You've done a great job with Gertrude...nice to have an update. :gj:

Thought it was time for some new sunny pictures after her recent shed. I actually got to watch her shed this time since she started it in her temporary tub while I was cleaning her tank.
She’s really grown as well. I weighed her today and she’s 195g now!

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Wow, she is looking so gorgeous now! :bow: She looks really healthy too. :sweeet:

That’s one gorgeous kingsnake!!

Absolutely stunning! I’ve always loved speckled kings. We have them locally where I live, but I’ve yet to find a live specimen. That’s a summer goal of mine


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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Wow, she is looking so gorgeous now! :bow: She looks really healthy too. :sweeet:

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Thank you! That means a lot, I really try to stay on top of her care :)

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

Absolutely stunning! I’ve always loved speckled kings. We have them locally where I live, but I’ve yet to find a live specimen. That’s a summer goal of mine


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I hope you're able to find one! I love them as well and I'm biased of course, but I think they're quite underrated.

She's looking great! That's a real beauty of a kingsnake you've got there.

Speckled kings are one of my favorite kingsnakes, alongside Eastern chain kings. Finding the latter in the wild is on my herping wishlist this year.

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