California Kingsnake — Fact Sheet

Lampropeltis californiae · California Kingsnake

Full care guide and sources

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

Plan at least 120 x 60 x 60 cm for an adult, with more space for large, active, or breeding females. The enclosure needs tight-fitting doors or lid clips, blocked cable holes, at least two snug hides, clutter, clean water, and a substrate that permits light burrowing.

🪨 Substrate and furnishings

Escape prevention is core husbandry. Check lid clips, sliding-door gaps, cable ports, thermostat-probe holes, vent edges, and decor that can lift a lid. A lid that feels heavy is not a lock.

Pacing, nose rubbing, repeated soaking, refusal to use hides, or frantic climbing usually means heat, cover, humidity, security, or feeding routine needs review.

💡 Lighting

Use a predictable 10-12 hour day length. Low-output UVB is recommended but not mandatory when the diet is whole vertebrate prey. Provide shade and hides so the snake can avoid exposure.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 30-32 °C
• Daytime air: 24-28 °C
• Cool zone: 21-24 °C
• Night: 18-22 °C

💧 Humidity and water

Aim for 35-55% humidity. During shed, provide a humid hide or temporary local increase around 60-70%. The rest of the enclosure should remain dry enough to prevent mold and scale irritation.

Keep water available at all times and clean the bowl often. Repeated soaking can mean overheating, mites, dehydration, poor shed support, or stress.

Dysecdysis is retained shed. Fix it by improving the humid hide, water access, and ventilation; do not make repeated forced soaking the routine.

🪳 Feeding

Feed with tongs and remove uneaten prey. Do not switch the whole setup after one missed meal; check shed stage, temperatures, disturbance, season, prey size, and enclosure security first.

Keep records of meal date, prey size, weight, shed, defecation, and refusals. This makes seasonal fasting, obesity, and real illness easier to separate.

🩺 Health — warning signs

Common problems include escape, obesity, retained shed, mites, mouth inflammation, respiratory signs from damp or dirty housing, regurgitation after overlarge meals or poor heat, and feeding bites.

Quarantine new arrivals for 60-90 days. Watch for mites, abnormal feces, repeated refusal, mouth redness, wheezing, and weight loss. Use separate tools until the animal is cleared.