Baskden a warm den for reptile folk

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your California Kingsnake Vet-Prep Sheet

Reptile vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. This helps you prepare for a visit — it is not a way to treat at home. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Try the Is this normal? triage first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com
California Kingsnake — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one

  • Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My reptile vet
My california kingsnake
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Open-mouth breathing, wheezing, clicking, or mucus/bubbles (possible respiratory infection).
  • Regurgitating meals, or refusing food with real weight loss.
  • Repeated stuck sheds or retained eye caps.
  • Mites (tiny moving specks) or cheesy matter in the mouth (possible mouth rot).
  • Any tissue protruding from the vent (prolapse).

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
  • Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.

⛔ Don't

  • Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
  • Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
  • Don’t handle it more than you must.

🎒 What to bring

  • A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
Warm/basking surface 85–90°F (29–32°C) from an overhead heat source on a thermostat. Cool side 70–80°F (21–27°C), giving a full warm-to-cool gradient with hides on both ends. Night at room temperature (~70–75°F/21–24°C is fine); no coloured night bulbs.
UVB & lighting
UVB is recommended (not strictly required — they are diurnal and benefit from it): a T5 HO bulb (e.g. Arcadia Forest 6% or Zoo Med ReptiSun 5.0) spanning about ½ the enclosure, giving UVI ~2.0–3.0 at the basking spot (Ferguson Zone 2). Replace every 12 months.
Humidity
Semi-arid: ambient around 40–60%. Even so, provide a humid hide (moist sphagnum or substrate) on the cool side at all times so they stay hydrated and shed cleanly.
Enclosure
Adult minimum 4×2×2 ft (48×24×24 in, a 120-gallon footprint); larger is better for these active snakes. A tight, locking lid is essential — kingsnakes are strong, determined escape artists. House ONE per enclosure: they eat other snakes and will cannibalise a cagemate.
Substrate
A naturalistic, burrowable soil/coco mix (or aspen) around 4″ deep suits them and holds a little humidity. Never cedar or pine (toxic oils).
Diet
Obligate carnivore — appropriately-sized frozen/thawed rodents (about 10–15% of the snake’s body weight), thawed to 75–100°F and offered with tongs INSIDE the enclosure (feeding inside does not make snakes aggressive — that is a myth). Frequency by age: hatchlings every 5–7 days, juveniles every 7–10, adults every 10–14. Famous for eating other snakes, so keep hands smelling clean.
Supplements
None needed — a whole-prey rodent diet is nutritionally complete.

⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?