From: bpb9204@tamsun.tamu.edu (Brent)
Subject: Re: Kingsnake comments, anyone?
Organization: Texas A&M Univ., Inc.
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 03:05:31 GMT

A previous post mentioned the kingsnake opening its mouth and possibly
trying to throw up.  I've had a "Speckled CA Kingsnake" (quotes explained
below) since April of this year.  It's readily eaten live/thawed pinkies
and fuzzies the entire time, never regurgitating.  The only times my
snake has opened its mouth has either been to yawn/realign jaw or
to hiss.  (He's hissed at me once -- I had handled my corn snake and then
handled the king.  He must've been jealous, but he didn't strike.)

By the way, you can easily feed your snake a pinky every 4-5 days.  I
started feeding it 1/week, but then literally doubled it.  The snake has
a short digestion period of about 3 days (from ingestion to excretion).
Since this doubling, I have slacked back to 1/week.  The result of 
feeding a snake often like this is that it can grow extremely fast.  Mine
has an average growth rate of nearly 2"/month!  It has since slowed.
(From April to August my snake grew 8".)

srh3@Ra.MsState.Edu (Steven R. Hollis) writes:
|     I recently acquired a speckled kingsnake.  From what I have heard they
|are very shy when eating and having someone watch them eat can cause them to 
|toss cookies.  Mine ate a mouse the first night I got it, but the next mornig
|it was back (yuchh!)  Also temperature can also affect their digestion.

Shy?  If I feed "Bucky" a thawed fuzzy, he will not notice it unless it's
moving.  So, using a radio antenna, I poke the mouse and then Bucky gets
*really* interested.  He'll strike and constrict the corpse, and if I
poke or jiggle him with the antenna, he just thinks it's the mouse moving
and wraps more coils... I have only done this twice - I'm not into tormenting
the animal.  However, Bucky will eat under bright lights, in his cactus, on
the substrate, wherever the food is -- he's quite flexible. ;-)

Bucky's cage is averaging about 78 F; I've had no problems with him either
eating or regurgitating.

For you "Speckled CA Kingsnake" owners, I'd suggest you look into what 
your animal *really* is.  There are three types of speckled kingsnakes
and pet stores tend to lump two together under the CA King label.

Lampropeltis getulus holbrooki - "Speckled Kingsnake"  This snake has
   a bright yellow belly, with a very definite pattern on the back. The
   pattern is uniformly distributed small yellow spots on black.  The
   black starts midway up on the snake's sides. Size: 6' max, mostly ~2'-3'
   Found in eastern Texas, and northeast-ward.

L. g. californiae (sp?) -  This is the true California Kingsnake.  Most
   species are either ringed or banded.  The cross of these patterns is
   the common "speckled" morph.  Colors range from black w/yellow stripes
   to brown w/white features.  Size is about 2'-3' again.  Some books
   I have read have mentioned a speckled morph does not exist, while another
   book says it does.  Name is misnomer - appears throughout parts of CA,
   AZ, and Nevada.

L. g. splendida - This is the "desert kingsnake," found throughout parts of
   western Texas and westward.  This snake has a light belly, either 
   yellow or whitish, with a gradation of tiny yellow & black spots marking
   the sides, changing into a predominantly black dorsal side.  There are
   usually *thin* yellow strips across the dorsal side, joining to a ventral
   scale.  This snake is what is commonly sold as the "speckled CA kingsnake"
   but to be picky, it is an entirely different species than L. g. californiae.
   They look similar, but dorsal scale counts differ.  Size: ~3', max 5'.

Just wanted to pass this on,
-Brent
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brent P. Burton, N5VMG                          Department of Computer Science
bpb9204@tamsun.tamu.edu                                   Texas A&M University
      What are typical family values?      Good buys at WalMart.
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