kings and temps

kings and temps

Postby Unforgiven » Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:23 am

There are so many different answers out there on carehseets that I don't know what to believe and after talking to a more experienced breeder I am even more confused.

I currently house all my baby snakes in tubs in a rack sort of system, heated from behind with a heat mat and heat cable. Previously I was told kings need higher temps than corns. And naturally heat rises so the top of the rack is slightly warmer than the bottom. As such I had the corns at the bottom of the rack (27 C) and the kings towards the top (30 C)

I recently got some new kings and a few milks. I would assume that since kings and milks come mainly from desserts they can tolerate higher temps and from my experience they seem to enjoy the higher temps. But then a guy with a lot more experience then me said that kings require lower temps than corns. According to the mutliple caresheets I have read, 27 is good for a corn and 31 is the highest for a king (if my conversion skills are right)

What is the correct answer? In terms of corns kings and milks what is the order for temp requirements?
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Re: kings and temps

Postby Jlassiter » Sat Oct 27, 2012 9:09 pm

Here's the correct answer for ALL colubrids.....I keep corns, rats, king and milks the same....
The larger the gradient the better.
I keep my snake room cool at about 23C and provide them a hot spot of around 32C in each enclosure.
With this set up the snake will choose what temps it wants to be at, at any given time.

With a constant temperature the snake has no options.
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Re: kings and temps

Postby Unforgiven » Sun Oct 28, 2012 8:51 am

Thanks for the information

I changed my racking system around a little and now have a hotspot of 29 to 31 with the temp in the room never dropping below 21. All the babies moved from 2 litre tubs to 5 litre long tubs as well so there's an even better thermal gradient now.

Which brings me to another question. They are all between 6 months and 10 months old. The 2 litre tubs they were in did not allow light (normal ice cream tub) the 5 litre tubs however are see through. All the babies have hides, but they would see each other during the day time if they were exploring. Now the corns are calm and relaxed along with the grey banded king. The other 2 cali kings are a little jumpy but still very handable. The new kings and milks I got are extremely jumpy and seem to stress out very quickly. So my worry is that they may stress out from seeing each other, or be too nervous to come out and just remain in their hides or burrow under the substrate. Should I be worried or will they be fine? They don't receive much direct sunlight, but there is still light
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Re: kings and temps

Postby Jlassiter » Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:34 am

It will not harm them in any way if they see each other.
At least not in my experience.
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Re: kings and temps

Postby Unforgiven » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:03 am

Cool thanks, from what I saw yesterday they did not even seem to notice each other. The milks are staying hidden, but the kings are already settled in searching for food. I'm going to give them a few more days and get some pics up
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