My Nitida Hateling

Hello, I got some better pictures of my Nitida. She is so hard to take pictures of. Her tan/brown pattern usually wont show up in pictures. She is so dang shiny! She also hates everyone. It's so cute the way she strikes and rattles her tail. She has even taken up hissing! She does it less now but still flings musk all over the place when I pick her up and most of the time I hold her.

I can't really find too much about Nitidas. I read they used to be their own subspecies of kingsnake. But now they are just a regular cali kingnsnake. She looks like an MKB with a pattern lol. I'm not sure why no one seems to have these. I think they are pretty. Though mine doesn't have a nice stripe. It's all broken up.

Now for a few pictures:


Her pattern shows up well in this one and the correct color.


Don't let that sweet little face fool you!

Well, not really a "normal" Cal. king, they are a locality-specific hypermelanistic form of Cal. king originating from the southern Baja peninsula(Baja Sur). The banded form known as "conjuncta" originate from further north of the peninsula(Baja Norte). They can typically have many jagged edges and breaks to their dorsal stripe too, especially many of the wild specimens.

enjoy! ~Doug

Originally Posted by WingedSweetheart

Though mine doesn't have a nice stripe. It's all broken up.

I think that makes it even better because its more natural. From what I've heard, most of the original nitida brought here years ago didn't have strait complete stripes. You see a lot of that now because the San Diego striped kings were bred to them. Yeah, they were way off calling it a separate subspecies back then. It turns out their pattern and color is caused by a recessive trait.

I think they are not very popular because people think they are ugly compared to high whites, 50/50 black & whites, and other pretty morphs. I think they are just as cool.

I don't know why anyone could think they are ugly. I really love how shiny she is. Her belly always has a rainbow effect to it. Plus she has little gold flicks along the sides of her nose. Even in her eyes there are little gold flecks. But she is so very tiny at the moment it's hard to get clear eye shots. Then there is the fact that she doesn't like being held. It's funny when she plays limp noodle and then all of a sudden tries to slide out of your hand backwards lol!

Update pictures. She is getting bigger but still is pretty small. Very hard to take pictures of her because she is shiny.

I HAS LIPSTICK:



WITH FLASH:




WITHOUT FLASH:

I think she's very pretty indeed - I like the darker morphs and she sure is shiny! Looks like she's carved out of ebony.

great looking snakes. do you have any examples of what an adult of that "subspecies" looks like?

Originally Posted by stolenheron

great looking snakes. do you have any examples of what an adult of that "subspecies" looks like?

I don't as I only have the baby pictured above. But I figure they don't look much different besides being bigger.

Wow! she looks gorgeous love her black color very pretty indeed!.

A little update.

She has calmed down a lot but still musks a lot and tail rattles some. But she doesn't hiss and strike at me. That's reserved for her food.

She is now 70 grams and I haven't measured her but I estimate around 15 inches give or take. I don't think she will be a very big snake. But she isn't even a year old yet so only time will tell.