Kingsnakes are primarily crepuscular and nocturnal ground snakes. They shed their skin starting in the mouth region. It first loosens around the mouth and then is rubbed against a rock or log and pushed back over the head. While the old skin is held back by these objects, the snake can slowly crawl out of it, leaving it behind as a complete inside-out replica showing every scale and often a trace of the color pattern. When snakes are about to molt, their eyes turn cloudy.
Kingsnakes eat rodents, lizards and frogs.
They also will eat other snakes. These meals seem more a matter of chance encounters than of specific predatory instincts. In the zoo, they are fed rodents. Several weeks after mating it will seek an appropriate place to lay the developing eggs. Most such snakes merely clear out a cavity in a secluded place, lay their eggs, cover them and leave.