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Well for several years i have been intrigued by grey banded kingsnakes. But have never understood why they have such high prices. I'm looking into breeding something different and i'm drawn to these. What are there morphs? Any morphs? And can you guys reccommend any breeders. And whats a good price if i come across one at a local show?

Gray bands are a very enjoyable and rewarding species to get into. I don't know that I can answer all your questions, but I'll tell you what I do know. Of course, as far as morphs go with gray bands, there are alterna phase and blairs phase as your basic "morphs". However, over the years there has been several line bred animals that have given off other things like hypo and such. This type of thing I'm not all that familiar with.

Regarding price? Well, there's a lot to that. There for a while the prices really dropped, but are now seeing a pretty good rebound. For starters, some people have a fairly high mortality prior to hatch. Myself and others have experienced full term babies completely dead inside the eggs. Then, once you have healthy little babies, it can be a pain getting them started on pinks. The loss and effort involved in producing alterna are probably partly to blame for higher prices. I had to go out and collect lizards for my baby alterna today. That time and effort translates to me not wanting to let go of them for a lower price. Unfortunately, even in this market, sometimes the effort to get these animals on pinks is not equivalent to the price you get for them. Some people, myself included, are willing to sell snakes not on pinks yet. I am very sure to disclose this to any prospective buyer and a lower price reflects this fact. I also make it clear that after I put a bunch of lizards into them and effort in getting them switched over to pinks, the price is going up.

Alterna are like any other reptiles. Price is based on Market.
Color and locality all come into consideration in relation to price.

The alterna page has plenty of information on locality and color morphs.

Best Wishes,

Steven Owens

I wanted to make sure my answer is more complete. Localities are based on where the animals founding stock is from. Example (black gap, xmas mts, davis mts). The localities that are more difficult generally cost more. Example Someone here found their first Black Gap after 55 nights of hunting. So if you average $30 bucks a night on gas alone, that animal is worth approx $1650 just in gas. This is why most folks do not sell WC alterna and just the offspring. The real value of that type of animal is priceless, figuring in hotel costs, personal time (how much is my time worth), etc...

Hit the Alterna page and post with follow-up questions. Hope you find what you are looking for.

Best Wishes,

Steven Owens