Juvenile w/c scarlet kingsnake

i my name is Michelle and I am new to your forum. I find many snakes where I live. Usually I leave them be or relocate them if they are in harms way or if they are poisonous. I find some real beautiful pygmies which I move away from my house and the dogs. The pygmies in my area are remarkably passive. I have not had one strike at me yet.

Anyway I noticed that this forum is very active when it comes to discussing king/milk snakes.

I could use some advice.

I have not kept snakes for awhile now but I used to keep them. This was before going away to school and then having a busy career.

Last week I found a 7 1/2 inch scarlet kingsnake. It is so beautiful that I have decided to keep it. At first I was concerned that I would have a hard time feeding the little guy but he/she proved me wrong.

I created an environment for my little guy using an old rotten bay tree. I crushed up the bark for substrate. I left some larger pieces with lots of hiding places in tact for him to hide.

He is being housed in a plastic WalMart tupperware like tub. He is too small to be able to climb out of it. I am using a heat strip for a ten gallon terrarium. I am not sure if he needs it as it is pretty warm here in Florida.

I am a little concerned about the amount of moisture in the substrate. It is drying out with time. After all it is very hot, humid and wet where I live.

I provided him with mole cricket larvae and wax worms. He seems to be eating them but I am not positive.

The night before last I placed a thawed pinkie on a paper towel which I strategically place underneath one of the larger pieces of bark. I expected him to reject it but the next morning the pinkie was gone. I left "Ping" alone so as not to risk stressing him. I wouldn't want him to regurgitate. This morning I lifted one of the pieces of bark and found that he had shed his skin all in one piece. It measured a whopping 7 1/2 inches. I lifted another piece of bark and found him coiled. His coloring is really brilliant right now. Even though he is a baby his yellow bands are really yellow.

Ping is pretty timid but he is crespuscular and I am not. When I pick him up he struggles a little but then settles down which to me is amazing. He is really a pretty calm little guy for a scarlet.

My questions are how often should I feed him? How often should I handle him? I have tried to mimic the environment he had in nature. I think I have done well as he is eating and he shed. The bark I used for the substrate is from a bay tree which died 5 years ago so there are no aromatics. It seems to be perfect for hiding.

It looks like he will accept frozen pinkies which is good because I no longer have the heart to feed live food. Plus I am not going to try and catch ground skinks they are way too fast. Anoles are too cute as are tree frogs so eating the pinkie and the grubs worked out real well so far.

Please let me know your thoughts. I will upload a photo once I get him tame enough to be able to get a good photo.

Thanks in advance,
Michelle
6 dogs, 4 cats, 1 eastern mole, one opossum and many fish.

Michelle,
It looks like you haven't gotten any responses. Sounds like you are doing a great job already.
How is Ping doing now?
Dave

Are you SURE the snake actually ate the pinky?. Did it have a noticable bulge in it's belly when you lifted the hide bark?. These are all things you really need to check out and not just merely assume they are eaten because they are no longer seen. Sometimes in a very "busy" naturally cluttered-up cage substrate, tiny prey items can get lost within it instead, and not eaten. A tiny Scarlet that size with only a shed measuring 7-1/2 inches after being stretched out, means the snake is actually substantially less than that, and these tiny Scarlet kings usually cannot eat but the VERY TINIEST of "tic-tac" sized newborn pinkies.

Also, please don't underestimate the escaping abilities of that tiny dude, because when they get wet, they can scale right up the sides of glass or plastic because they only weigh a couple grams at this age, and worm out of the tiniest of cracks or extremely small gaps with some pushing and wiggling. And I say this with 43 years of in-depth snake experience..LOL!

If you can get it to actually feed once to twice a week, that is fine for it to thrive. But if you cannot get it to knowingly eat after a short time with tiny "tic-tac" pinks or pinky parts, or anole-scented things, it is really FAR better that you release it back where you found it. These little dude's can sometimes be very tricky and quirky in novice care, or even "well-seasoned" keeper's care for that matter.

Good luck with things, ~Doug