Grey Banded Kingsnake Care
Grey Banded Kingsnake Care Sheet
By Reptitrader
NEW!! Scroll down for a video of grey banded kingsnakes
(Care sheets are a quick guide to setting up your snakes habitat, we suggest for a more comprehensive guide look in our book store for the relevant book)
General: Grey-banded king snakes are found throughout Texas and parts of Mexico. There are two forms of grey-banded king snakes, the alterna phase and the blairs phase. The alterna phase can be found in the western part of its range and the blairs phase in the east. The alterna phase has 15-23 saddles and has very little red or orange within those saddles. The blairs phase has less than 15 saddles and has wide reddish bands. The typical habitat of this snake is dry rocky areas, where it feeds on lizards and small rodents. These king snakes reach adulthood within 3-4 years and seldom exceed 40 inches in length. Grey-banded king snakes are secretive snakes and will do best if provided with some type of hiding place. With proper care you can expect your king snake to live 10-20 years or more.
Temperature: Grey-banded king snakes need to be maintained between 84-90 degrees during the day. Nighttime temperatures should range between 68-75 degrees.It is vital that the daytime temperatures are correctly maintained.
Substrate: Substrates include carpet, bark, pine shavings, or aspen shavings or even newspaper. Never use cedar
Housing: King snakes can be housed comfortably in a 40 gallon terrarium as adults. Ideally, the larger the snake the more room you want to provide. Make sure lids are tight fitting as snakes are excellent escape artists.
Feeding: King snakes feed on pinky and fuzzy mice as babies and juveniles. As your snake grows it will soon move up to adult mice. We recommend that you feed baby and juvenile king snakes one time per week. Adult king snakes can be fed once every 7-10 days to maintain proper body weight. Young grey-banded king snakes may refuse to eat rodents at first. Never leave live prey with a snake unattended.
Cleaning: The Enclosure should be cleaned and disinfected at least once a month. Any fecal matter should be cleaned out as soon as it appears. The substrate should be completely changed once a month and fresh clean water should be provided at all times.
Breeding: A Three month cooling off period with temperatures being maintained at between 55 – 65 degrees F is required to get the best from your breeding Grey Banded Kingsnakes
