I won... What now?

[christinarmansky]

I went to a Reptile Expo yesterday and put my name in a raffle not expecting to win. Low and behold, not being there for an hour they call my lucky number 000 . ... Now I have a Mexican Black King Snake, I really like it, and now for the reason why I'm posting: How do I take care of it? I have a ten gallon tank. My roommate bought a California King Snake and they are now both housed in the 10g. Is this alright? What sort of heating/light do they need. I do own a Bearded Dragon, that is how I know of this site. Everyone here has always given me good advice, so this is why I'm asking here. I bought a new water bowl for Lynch (my snake) and both snakes have a peice of bark to hide under. Aspen bedding. Bought 6 1-2 day old frozen pinkies. Do they need veggies? Need to be sprayed? Baths?? I have no idea. My rmate has been looking up kingsnakes for a bit but I think I can benefit to ask and make sure everything is legit.


Thanks in Advance,
Christina

 

[Beardednoob]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Black_Kingsnake
Separate them. :wink:
Care guide
http://www.reptileallsorts.com/nagritacareguide.htm

 

[Floof]

Definitely separate them ASAP!!! King snakes are notorious snake eaters, so housing them together is just begging for cannibalism!

That said, their care is very similar to corn snakes. Because of this and my current inability to look up good resources to kings, I'm going to refer you to http://cornsnakes.com. It's a good forum where you can get a basic idea of how corns, a very similar species care-wise, are cared for, plus many of the members keep MBKs and cali kings and are very capable of giving you fantastic care advice if you just ask in the general chit chat section.

I'm sorry I couldn't make a longer post for you, but I hope this will help you out some. I'll post again tomorrow when I'm better able to whip up a good post with good resources. Good luck!

 

[Beardednoob]

Definitely separate them ASAP!!! King snakes are notorious snake eaters, so housing them together is just begging for cannibalism!

That said, their care is very similar to corn snakes. Because of this and my current inability to look up good resources to kings, I'm going to refer you to http://cornsnakes.com. It's a good forum where you can get a basic idea of how corns, a very similar species care-wise, are cared for, plus many of the members keep MBKs and cali kings and are very capable of giving you fantastic care advice if you just ask in the general chit chat section.

I'm sorry I couldn't make a longer post for you, but I hope this will help you out some. I'll post again tomorrow when I'm better able to whip up a good post with good resources. Good luck!

In case you ever need, I had posted a guide to that particular kingsnake.
I was actually looking at one of these the other day. Cool looking snake. I like the shiny black scales.

 

[Floof]

Sorry, beardednoob, I admit I skipped over your post a bit. The care guide you posted is fantastic. Not sure if the heat requirement (82F warm side) is quite the same for cali kings (think they need closer to 90F), but that caresheet should apply to OP's roommate's cali pretty well, too.

And, yes, MBKs really are very pretty! I've been tempted to snag one a couple of times myself... Black milk snakes stopped me from doing that, though; if I were to get a big black snake it'd have to be an indigo or a black milk. Lol!

 

[christinarmansky]

Thanks guys! Very helpful. I put a divider in for right now till I get another tank, which should be soon.