Tell Us About Your Kings

Well I did it, I survived the first week and a half of school, just finished the 8th day of school, and finally I feel able to get back into my favorite websites. I've felt VERY neglectful of this site especially! Sorry I was AFK for so long! But I'm back!

I just felt like talking about ALL my kings. I'm also inviting all of you to tell everyone here about YOUR kings.

SO.... Open invitation, share about your kingsnake collection.

My Kings.

California Kingsnakes

1.0 '01 Bishop is a high white cal king. He's a proven breeder, he bred one female last year. He bred two this year, one clutch went bad completely. Next year I will probably breed him to my normal banded female and my aberrant striped banana cal king female.

1.0 '01 Jester is my aberrant banded cal king, desert phase. He wasn't up to breeding last year, and this year was still a bit behind. I did breed him once to a female after her first clutch this year, but nothing came of it. Next year I will breed him to my newport female, and my aberrant banana female.

0.1 '01 Queenie is a "dot-dash" newport california king, and she's MONSTROUS. She laid 8 eggs last year, all 8 hatched fine, and this year she laid 12 eggs, 2 died early in incubation, 1 at the end of incubation, and I got 9 beautiful hatchlings 4.5 ratio, one was 15 inches at hatching, and one was barely 7 inches at hatching.

0.1 Licorice is a normal banded california king, desert phase, age and history unknown. She was bred this year, had 15 eggs, but all 15 died pretty much simultaneiously a week or so into incubation. (the embryos were about the size of a kidney bean). I believe this was due to a heat spike and not due to problems with the female. I had my hopes up that her second clutch would prove to be much better off.... but alas, she escaped just before she was due to lay (6 days post shed) and returned looking like she'd just laid her eggs.... though they weren't to be found anywhere. *sigh* I plan on keeping my eyes open at around 52 days after she disappeared. Perhaps I'll find the garden crawling with little baby cal kings? Next year I'll breed her back to the same male, hoping for 15 VIABLE eggs!

0.1 '02 Tigris Aberrant Banded Banana King. I had hoped to breed her this year, but she appears to be of a slow-growing variety of cal king (my Newport cal king grew like a monster and was HUGE her second summer!). She's large enough to breed now, and I'm looking forward to her offspring next year. She'll be crossed to Jester.

0.1 '02 Euphrates Aberrant Striped Banana King (sibling to Tigris). She'll go next year to Bishop.

3.5 '04 cal king hatchlings. I plan on keeping one male and two females from this group, but it's hard to decide, because all the males are high white, and all the females are beautiful dark with small spots and dashes like their mother. (last year they were mostly high white).

Arizona Mountain Kingsnakes

0.1 '01 Lady is a CB Pyro from wild caught parents. She is very beautiful. She was bred this spring, but it didn't take. Hopefully next year I'll get 4 beautiful eggs from her. When I borrowed her mate this spring, (who is, incidentally, her sire), she was a couple of inches shorter than him. Now she is a couple of inches longer... all those mice that didn't turn into eggs, turned into inches instead.

1.0 The Tramp is a wild-caught Pyro, caught by Kerby Ross here in Arizona. Kerby lent me the pyro for the spring to breed to my female (also given to me by Kerby), but it was too late for her. He since then got a much nicer Pyro male, and in a very appreciated gesture, he told me I could just keep The Tramp. He has been captive for five or more years I believe.

Desert Kingsnake Lampropeltis Getula Splendida

0.0.1 '02 Augustus (or Augusta). I'm starting to this she's a she. She was sold to us by a local petstore (against state law, I might add), labeled as an Eastern Chain King, but in fact, she's a desert kingsnake. I am considering crossing her to one of my cal kings to produce some "yuma" kingsnakes. A natural integrade, unnaturally produced. I haven't made up my mind, and would only cross her if she's a she. If she's male, I'll just keep my eyes open for a female splendida.

Florida Kingsnake

1.0 '03 Tarzan he's a late hatch from '03, and is growing very fast! I don't plan on cooling him or the girls this year, they'll be fed through the winter, and '06 will be the first time I will consider breeding them.

0.1 '03 Xena same as Tarzan.

0.1 '03 Delilah same as Tarzan.

Apalachicola Kingsnake

0.1 '01 Pandora proven breeder. She was bred last year, had 8 beautiful eggs laid and hatched. This year she was bred, seemed gravid, then she got sick, shed early, and never laid any eggs. Her mate, sadly, died before I could reintroduce them. Like the AZ mountain king, she turned rats and mice into inches, and is truly our most monstrous colubrid. Licorice, our older WC cal king, is perhaps longest, but Pandora is the largest in girth, and close to the same length. She eats weaned rats. I'm hoping to find a mate for her at the Tucson Reptile show, but alas, fear there won't be any at the show. *sigh*

0.1 '03 Yertyl Pandora's daughter, growing like crazy. I might choose to breed her next year (if I get an Appalachicola king male)... depends on how large she gets between now and then. If I don't get a male of course, I'll jsut end up growing her up bigger!

......................that's it! ................................

I've added 2 more california kings to my collection.

Pegasus an '02 aberrant banded/striped albino and

Symphonia de chocolatte a milk chocolate and cream banded female who appears to be an '01 or and '00.

Next year will be a lot of fun! I now have 6 female cal kings. I will probably sell my two aberrant banana girls once they are proven breeders, but for next year at least, I'll hopefully have 6 clutches of beautiful cal king babies.

What an impressive collection of Kings!!

I have two kings

Gertrude is and '03 Female Desert Banded Cali. She is beautiful. Desert Cali Kings are my first love when it comes to snakes. She has perfect bands...very uniform...only three her whole length are aberrant. Great contrast...and I wouldn't call her High White or 50/50 but she has a good percentage of white compared to most bandeds I have seen.

Ember is an '04 Female Thayeri (Variable) King. She is leonis phase, resembling a greyband, but her saddles go from a deep red to a bright orange in the center...Lots of orange. Very pretty.
She is still jumpy, being a hatchling. She is handleable, but VERY slowly or she'll jump right out of your hand! She also urinates EVERY time I pick her up. She rattles, RIGHT IN MY HAND, it is so funny.

I am looking for a juvenile male to go along with her, but I am definitely being picky and price conscious (hard to do at the same time!) and Thayeri's are few and far between!! Don't know why...to me they are the most interesting Kingsnakes there are.

Thank you for sharing! Your snakes sound beautiful. I haven't gotten a good picture of my new chocolate or albino, but some time soon I'll have a photo shoot with the snakes, and post the pictures in the photo album. Probably during the fall break of school, since that is when I'll have a lot of free time.

It's going to be a good season next year (must be! Can't get much worse than this year).

hey sasha, can i see some pics of your FL.kings?

Hi, I usually post as Ace on other forums, but here you need at least 4 letters sooo.....LOL
Anyway, My Kings are,

1.0- '00 Bones- Banana Cali King. He's a bit of a runt,(4yrs old & 37.5") but will always be my baby. Very easy to handle, matter fact he's my neighbor's daughter's favorite to hold. LOL
I can tap on his tank, and he'll come out of his hide looking to be held (or more likely food!) LOL
He has more of a bone white color (hence the name) than a yellow, with his stripe complete to his vent.

0.1- '03 Bandit- Striped Desert Cali King. She's actually my son's snake, but I'll list her anyway She has a perfect white stripe from her neck to a littel past her vent. She also has a solid white belly from her chin to her vent.(my favorite trait)

0.1- '03 Satin- Albino Snow Cali King- Easy going little girl. She does have a faint, barely noticable stripe (about half a scale) complete to the tip of her tail, but very clean non the less.

0.1- '02 Raven- Mexican Black- An absolute beauty! I think Mexi Blacks have got to be my favorite of the getulas! Just something about that inky black sheen . She does have a few white specks on her chin, and 2 or 3 on her belly.

1.0- late '02 Champ- Hypomelanistic Florida King. Out of all my Kings, I'd have to say he has the most personality! He just seems wired 24/7. During feedings, he gets even MORE wired!!! LOL
He's a bit pale compared to some, but a very nice one IMHO.

0.1- '04 Sky- Axanthic Florida King. She's my newest little baby. Just 3 months old, and a spunky little one! From the day I brought her home, seems she's been in the strike position! LOL But, she's really a baby. She'll be all coiled up "ready to strike" and just watch me pick her up! Then she's like nothing ever happened. Gotta love those BIG BAD BABIES!! LOL

0.1- '02 Ruby- Chihuahua Mountain King. An absolute baby. She has NEVER given me problems. Well, except for the typical "early shut down". But, that's expected. Whenever I recommend a King species for anyone, I recommend a Pyro. Beautiful snakes, and great dispostions to boot! Can't beat that!

1.0- '03 Phoenix- Het/hypo Tangerine Honduran Milksnake. A little bit fussy when it comes to feeding time. He's now over 30", where I'd normally be offering small adults, and I JUST got him on hoppers! Nice color to him and pretty good temperment. Although he does try and "run" when being held.

Well, that's my crew!

I'll post some pics of my florida kings the next time I have a good photo shoot. Good pictures of these guys elude me! When I do have a good photo shoot (maybe this coming weekend) I'll post photos of my 1.2 Florida Kings, and my 1.1 Florida/EAstern kings.

I'm not sure. Do I start with the brooksi or the goini?.....or the cal kings? I'll start with brooksi since they are my favorites......right along with the goini. lol. And sorry folks, I don't have names for my snakes.

Brooksi:
1.2 Double het Ghosts '99
2.1 Axanthic '97-00
1.1 Axanthic poss het Ghost '04
1.1 New England Axanthic '00-04
1.1 Hypo poss. het Ghost '99-04
2.6 White Phase het Axanthic '94-04
2.1 Ghosts '04
1.1 Extreme Lavender Amel '02-04
1.1 Sulphur (EXTREME YELLOW) '02
1.1 Flame het hypo '98
1.3 High Orange het Hypo '04
1.1 High Orange het Axanthic '02

2.4 High RED/ORANGE Goini '01-04
0.1 Goini (unusual white sides, but not white sided) '00

1.1 Albino Banana Cals '99

Plus all the other babies available for sale. lol. I'm sure I missed something in there. Most of these are products of my breeders over the years, but I've been lucky to find some great aquisitions......wish I could post some pics.

Brandon Osborne

So why can't you post pictures? I've seen a lot of your photos in other forums, and you have some very beautiful animals. Wish I had a male goini to go with my two female goini. My female (an '01) bred in '03 and produced beautiful babies, but no babies this year, so she took all those rats I give her and turned them into size... last I measured her (and she's shed three times since) she was 49 inches long. I wouldn't be surprised if she's nearly 5 feet long now. Gotta find her a mate!

~Sasheena