Where is the California kingsnake legal?

Serpentes (all species)

Hawaii's snake ban reaches every species in the suborder, kingsnakes included, with no pet-keeping permit available.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

The take or possession of any native West Virginia reptile or amphibian species not listed hereafter is prohibited pursuant to W. Va. Code 20-2-4.

West Virginia bars its own reptiles rather than exotic ones, which is the opposite of how most states are built and the reason this reads as banned while a bearded dragon here is legal. 58-73-1.1 prohibits taking or possessing any native species not listed later in the rule, and section 4 lists ten salamanders for bait, two frogs, and two turtles, the snapping turtle and the eastern spiny softshell. No snake and no lizard is anywhere in it. The DNR summary of the rule opens by saying West Virginia herp regulations prohibit the possession of 80 species of reptiles and amphibians. The DNR checklist names both the Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis nigra) and the Eastern Black Kingsnake (Lampropeltis g. niger).

How this rule works: A closed list for natives. Section 4 names ten salamanders for bait, two frogs, and exactly two turtles. No lizard and no snake appears anywhere in it, and 58-73-1.1 says possession of any native species not listed is prohibited. The DNR summary of this rule opens by saying West Virginia herp regulations prohibit the possession of 80 species of reptiles and amphibians.

A live reptile not native to or generally found in Delaware needs a permit from the Department of Agriculture before it may be brought into the state, possessed, sold, or exhibited. The California kingsnake, a Pacific coast species, is exotic to Delaware.

How this rule works: §7201 requires a permit before bringing in, possessing, selling, or exhibiting any live wild mammal or reptile not native to Delaware; the California kingsnake, a Pacific coast species, falls under this permit requirement.

Reptiles: ... iv. King Snakes - Lampropeltis spp.;

This entry previously read legal, cited to 4.8(a), on the reasoning that an ordinary colubrid is not a potentially dangerous species. That is true and it is not the question. New Jersey does not work by a dangerous list with everything else free; 4.2(a) bars possession of any exotic or nongame species without a permit and 4.4 is a short closed list of exemptions that does not include kingsnakes. Worse, the kingsnake is not even left to the 4.5 catch-all, because 4.3(a)3.iv names the genus outright as "King Snakes - Lampropeltis spp.". Lampropeltis californiae is squarely inside it.

How this rule works: The Division's handout of the 4.3 permit list. It is open-ended, 'include, but are not limited to', and works by family as often as by species, so Pythonidae, Boidae, Lampropeltis, Varanus, Scincidae and Gekkonidae each answer several pet species at once.

Any captive-bred species from the genus Lampropeltis (kingsnakes and milksnakes) except the Western milksnakes (Lampropeltis gentilis/Lampropeltis triangulum gentilis) and Speckled kingsnake (Lampropeltis holbrooki/Lampropeltis getula holbrooki)

The California kingsnake is neither of the two excluded natives, so it is on Appendix B and needs no licence, but it does now need two things it did not need before 1 May 2026: it must be captive-bred, and § 703(B) requires documentation identifying the animal, a receipt or bill of sale, a donation certificate, an importation health certificate or proof of lawful parentage. CPW files Lampropeltis californiae against this line. Anyone holding one on 1 May 2026 could file a CPW Legacy Report under § 703(C) instead. CPW tells keepers to check their city or county as well, so a local ordinance can still be the binding rule.

How this rule works: Secretary of State's official text of the new herpetofauna chapter, effective 1 May 2026. A closed-list scheme: #701 makes possession of any live reptile or amphibian unlawful unless the chapter allows it, Appendix A is free possession, Appendix B is free possession with documentation, Appendix C is wild collection under a resident licence, and anything on none of them is regulated wildlife.

The commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue permits to breed, propagate, and sell snakes, lizards, and salamanders. A snake, lizard, or salamander that is obtained from a permitted breeder or that was possessed before August 1, 2021, may be possessed as a pet.

Minnesota gets here in three steps, and the surprise is that none of them turns on the species being native. Section 97A.015, subd. 55 defines wild animals as creatures wild by nature and includes reptiles, with no geographic limit. Subd. 39 makes snakes, lizards and salamanders protected wild animals as whole categories. Section 97A.501, subd. 1 then bars possessing a protected wild animal unless the game and fish laws allow it, and this subdivision is the allowance. A California kingsnake is a snake, so it needs to have come from a permitted breeder or to have been held before 1 August 2021. Two things to know about how firm this is. The statute says the commissioner "must" prescribe conditions, but there is no snake, lizard or salamander breeder permit on the DNR's permits page, Minnesota Rules chapter 6256 covers only frogs and turtles, and no rule chapter implements the subdivision. And the DNR's own pet-trade page describes the change as reaching "wild collected Minnesota snakes, lizards, and/or salamanders", which is narrower than the statute's words and does not mention the breeder permit at all. So the condition is real on paper and its machinery is not visibly in place.

How this rule works: Subd. 8, added in 2021, is the pet reptile rule: the commissioner must prescribe conditions and may issue breeder permits, and a snake, lizard or salamander is possessable as a pet if it came from a permitted breeder or was held before 1 August 2021. Subd. 3 is the older, broader route, allowing special permits without a fee to possess wild animals as pets.

Kingsnakes and gopher (bull) snakes -- Colubridae -- Individuals of Lampropeltis getula, L. zonata and Pituophis catenifer that are morphologically distinct from native species.

Oregon clears these snakes individual by individual rather than by species, and the test is appearance: an animal must be morphologically distinct from the native species, which in practice means a recognisable colour or pattern morph rather than a wild-type-looking snake. Wild-caught, native-looking kingsnakes and their offspring are not covered. The entry is also written under the older taxonomy in which the California kingsnake was Lampropeltis getula californiae; it has since been raised to L. californiae, which Oregon does not name, so the animal depends on being read as part of L. getula. Two layers of imprecision on one line. Oregon cities and counties may prohibit exotic animals by ordinance on top of state law, so check the municipality as well.

How this rule works: The allow-list. Wildlife on it may be imported, possessed, sold, purchased, exchanged or transported without an ODFW permit. It is long and written to genus or family with named exceptions, and it uses the taxonomy current when each entry was added rather than the current one.

Limited possession (2 daily and yearly/4 total, per species) ... California kingsnake Lampropeltis californiae

This entry read legal before, and Lampropeltis californiae is in fact on Utah's Limited possession table, which is the tightest controlled tier the rule has: two a day, two a year, and four in total, on a herpetology collection permit obtained after an orientation course. The Arizona mountain kingsnake and the western milk snake are on the same table. What the earlier reading got right is the other half: R657-53-8(1)(a) and (c) take captive-bred animals and animals legally obtained outside Utah out of the possession limits altogether, and the only possession certificate of registration in the rule is R657-53-12 for native venomous reptiles. So a captive-bred kingsnake from a breeder is unrestricted and a Utah-caught one is capped at four.

How this rule works: The division's classification tables under R657-53. Every table on the page is about animals taken from the wild in Utah: six prohibited natives, six naturalized non-natives at unlimited, four native lizards at Expanded, and the Standard and Limited controlled lists. The page says outright that 'the DWR does not maintain a full list of non-native species', so it answers a pet species only when that species also lives wild in Utah.