Yet Another MBK Thread

I know there’s lots of threads for MBKs already, but I just got one this weekend so I’ll add to the list! I’ve been planning to get a couple snakes at NARBC in September, but it’s been well over a year since I got my first snakes so I picked up this girl early to make sure I could get someone settled in and eating happily in my new quarantine setup beforehand.

She’s about 4mo and 15g. I got my other snakes as adults so this is the first little baby I’m raising, and I’m nervous about graduating prey size properly. But I know she’s been voraciously eating a pinkie twice a week for her breeder, so at least I have that to start with.

Here’s some pictures from my kitchen when I was weighing her and wiping her down with reptile spray before putting her in quarantine. She was perfectly well-behaved but I’m sure I’ll get snapped at and musked on when I start handling her regularly! She also has a tiny bit of nose rub but it should go away.

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Oh, what a cute little MBK! :love: The biggest concern with these tiny snakes is preventing escapes. They sure make great pets...easy to feed & beautiful! :snake:
DO keep us updated? :gj:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Oh, what a cute little MBK! :love: The biggest concern with these tiny snakes is preventing escapes. They sure make great pets...easy to feed & beautiful! :snake:
DO keep us updated? :gj:

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Oh yeah, I sat there and watched her explore her tub to make sure she couldn't squeeze out of the air holes! Thankfully the edges of the lid are watertight and have latches, so she should be secure (knocks on wood). I'll try to feed her for the first time on the weekend and let y'all know how it goes!

I've kept these before (years ago)...they're my favorite king snakes (tied with CA desert kings, anyway).

I was thinking about getting a mbk. They're definitely one of the best looking snakes imo.

Kings are awesome snakes. I've always favored Cali Kings, but MBKs sure are gorgeous!

Best of luck!

I definitely love Cali Kings too, they're gorgeous! I'll actually be looking for a Cali King at NARBC, if I can find an adult female I like... I know there will be some cute babies but I'd rather pick one up who's already grown, since as I said this MBK is my first tiny one and I'm still learning about raising them.

(I'm the kind of person who usually prefers getting their pets as adults, but reptiles are much different than a puppy or kitten so I can tolerate their immaturity much more easily and I'd like to get the hands-on experience!)

Great looking MBK. They're such beautiful snakes. I wouldn't buy too many pinkies. She'll be on fuzzys and hoppers in not time.

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Originally Posted by Werewolves

I definitely love Cali Kings too, they're gorgeous! I'll actually be looking for a Cali King at NARBC, if I can find an adult female I like... I know there will be some cute babies but I'd rather pick one up who's already grown, since as I said this MBK is my first tiny one and I'm still learning about raising them.

(I'm the kind of person who usually prefers getting their pets as adults, but reptiles are much different than a puppy or kitten so I can tolerate their immaturity much more easily and I'd like to get the hands-on experience!)

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It's funny you say that. If I ever add another King it'll be an adult. But my reasons are different. I've had juvenile Kings and corns in the past. And it's fun watching them grow up. But I just don't enjoy the constant hand over hand handling. As juveniles they're just too flighty and I don't enjoy handling sessions. Been there, done it, loved it. But moving forward I'll stick to adults who've mellowed out with size and confidence.
But they are SO dang cute as juveniles!!! Hahaha.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Great looking MBK. They're such beautiful snakes. I wouldn't buy too many pinkies. She'll be on fuzzys and hoppers in not time.

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This is so true.

Disappointingly, she wasn’t interested in taking a meal last night. It might be my fault because I spooked her - I lifted up her hide to check whether she was under it and she wasn’t happy about being exposed. I offered the pinkie on tongs but she seemed too preoccupied with staring up at me. I left the pinkie under the hide with her in the dark, checked back in a few hours later and she had left the hide without eating. So, I’ll leave her alone for another week and try again without scaring her this time.

Here’s her husbandry info so y’all can let me know if I’m doing anything else wrong: she’s in the below 9x15x7 bin with a UTH regulated by a HerpStat. I was using an AcuRite to measure ambient/humidity while dialing it in; it was showing the same data as the Inkbird that’s in there now. I added fake leaves to give her some cover outside the hides. Cool side is 79, warm side 88-89 under the paper towels but she seems to stay on top where the temp gun reads 86, overall ambient around 80, and humidity 53-55%.

The best place for temporary quarantine is in a closet that runs a bit warm so I already rigged up a small fan to improve air circulation and lower that cool side temp. I can’t get it any lower without moving the setup out of the closet - which I can do if needed! She seems to be hanging out on the warm side anyway every time I’ve glanced in (without disturbing her), either in the hide or under the leaves. I’ve been flicking the light switch to give her a day/night cycle.

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Baby kings are very small & squirmy...there's nothing wrong with starting off with a larger snake if you can find a healthy one that maybe a breeder held back &
changed their minds about keeping/breeding. Tiny colubrids are pretty much all escape-artists...nothing worse than trying to find one that got loose. ;)

Unfortunately, this girl passed away. I know that this just unpredictably happens sometimes and is part of the risk of baby snakes, but I'd like some insight into a more specific cause if possible just in case it is something I did wrong that could be prevented in the future. See my previous post for a description of the husbandry.

Also as mentioned in my previous post, she didn't show interest in eating last Saturday so I swapped out her paper towels for new ones and left her to settle in for longer. Her body condition seemed normal at the time, and occasionally throughout the week I would spot her out in the bin and things seemed normal, though I didn't disturb her to inspect more closely. Today I went to offer her a pinkie again, and she barely responded. I nudged the leaves aside and noticed that the back half of her body looked oddly flat. I thought she had somehow gotten herself injured though I wasn't sure how that would happen in her bin, and went to pick her up. She started thrashing as soon as she was moved, so I placed her back down and she did the typical snake death convulsions before twisting to bite herself and going still in that position.

I'll post a picture of this since it's hard to describe, but upon closer inspection, the front half of her body seemed to be normal condition while the latter half that appeared "flat" was due to two ridges along each side that were flared upwards. Those ridges then stopped and her body briefly seemed to be narrowed with her spine raised, before finally flaring horizontally at the vent. She had white excrement/urate material around her vent, smeared along her face, and I found what seemed to be an unusual amount dotting her paper towels that was more than I'd expect her to pass in the course of a few days. I'm unsure as to whether that strange body flaring is a symptom of some sort of illness relating to her bowel movement or just something like muscle contractions that happen right before death. Has anyone else seen this before?

I immediately disinfected the bin and supplies she had been using with F10, and cleaned the nearby quarantine tubs I had been dialing in for adult snakes with chlorhexidine just in case. I can send all of this info to the breeder to let him know what happened and see if he has any feedback, but I thought I'd run the case by the forum first. I'm guessing that it was an internal issue, whether parasites or illness, rather than environmental? She had water available, and as far as I'm aware, two weeks isn't long enough for her to have starved. Her bin was still all the same temperatures as described previously. My only other external suspicion might be toxic offgassing from the plastic, but I had rinsed the bin and let it air out for weeks prior to putting a snake in it and I know other people use those bins without issue. It doesn't seem worth it to have a necropsy done like I might for one of my established adult snakes if they suddenly died, but if that's recommended then I can have that done.

Here’s the pics of what I was trying to describe with the latter half of her body - first where it goes from normal to what I thought had been “flat,” and then the final portion leading up to her vent.

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