California Kingsnake Baby

External Since: Sep 22, 2007 Posts: 2

An interesting thing happened after the cold snap last Wednesday
night. A baby California Kingsnake, not moving, appeared to have found
its way into a friend's yard near the automatic sprinklers. It was
curled up by an old wooden fence and had a bump in its stomach.

To keep the dog from possibly chewing on this grey-banded reptile, I
put him on a paper towel, also covered by a paper towel, into a
fishbowl with a small water dish. He was definitely awake, as shown by
the darting tongue that stopped after tasting a fingernail.

This snake was almost motionless until the next day. It had worked his/
her way under the handle of the water bowl. This time, when I lifted
the 11'' serpent in my palm, it had a bit more life in the upper body
-- looking about inquisitively. After heating up the fishbowl a bit, I
noticed a lot more seeking behavior.

This kingsnake wanted out of the bowl. So, after giving it a measure,
we released it on a nearby hillside.

Where it remained in the same general area, when we checked up on it a
few hours later. So here is the question:

Should this baby snake be recaptured and force-fed? Perhaps kisnake
food (baby lizards, etc) is scarce this year, like the water. Was this
reptilian guy/gal looking for a way out of likely starvation?

kk

External Since: Jul 19, 2003 Posts: 81

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:01:09 -0700, heremon
wrote:

>An interesting thing happened after the cold snap last Wednesday
>night. A baby California Kingsnake, not moving, appeared to have found
>its way into a friend's yard near the automatic sprinklers. It was
>curled up by an old wooden fence and had a bump in its stomach.
>
>To keep the dog from possibly chewing on this grey-banded reptile, I
>put him on a paper towel, also covered by a paper towel, into a
>fishbowl with a small water dish. He was definitely awake, as shown by
>the darting tongue that stopped after tasting a fingernail.
>
>This snake was almost motionless until the next day. It had worked his/
>her way under the handle of the water bowl. This time, when I lifted
>the 11'' serpent in my palm, it had a bit more life in the upper body
>-- looking about inquisitively. After heating up the fishbowl a bit, I
>noticed a lot more seeking behavior.
>
>This kingsnake wanted out of the bowl. So, after giving it a measure,
>we released it on a nearby hillside.
>
>Where it remained in the same general area, when we checked up on it a
>few hours later. So here is the question:
>
>Should this baby snake be recaptured and force-fed? Perhaps kisnake
>food (baby lizards, etc) is scarce this year, like the water. Was this
>reptilian guy/gal looking for a way out of likely starvation?

I think you did the correct thing, and the best course of action is
likely to leave the little guy alone. You said he had a bump -
probably a meal, and it was cold - he probably got caught out and
really needs somewhere to digest and hide. If you released him in an
environment where he can do that - particularly the hiding part, I'd
leave him to do what he'd normally be doing.

If it's legal to wild-catch and keep kingsnakes where you are, and you
really want a snake, that's a different matter entirely. If you do
decide to go get him, commit to keeping him forever, do your homework
about care, set up an appropriate habitat and make sure he gets
checked for parasites. I wouldn't force feed him under any
circumstances unless it was specifically recommended by an experienced
herp vet. Snakes don't have to eat very much, it's very easy to apply
mammalian standards of care to them and get overly anxious about this
aspect.

I have the same impulse as you had when I come across little snakes in
my yard, but I try to maintain as much of a non-intervention policy as
possible.

nj"good luck"m

--
I do not remember any fights or fits,
just a shaky morning after calling it quits.