The speckled king as well as the Eastern Black Kings are my favorite kings. I have the following locale specific speckleds:

Lincoln Cty., Kansas, LaFourche Parish, Loisiana and Brazoria and Harris Cty., Texas.

I hatched out babies from the Lincoln Cty., Kansas and the LaFourche Parish speckleds (two unrelated clutches)this year. I agree with Matt, the speckleds that you have pictured look very similar to the LaFourche Parish speckleds that I just hatched out. I have approximately 16 LaFourche babies.

A while back, Matt Brock spoke about speckleds having an (undeserved) bad reputation. I have to agree with Matt based on my experiences. The majority of speckleds in my collection (11 total snakes from five different locales) are quite mellow. The only snakes that I would consider to be nervous are the two speckled king females that laid eggs for me this year. Both of these were wild caught adults. I have seen this type of behavior in many types of snakes, not just speckled kings.

I welcome any feedback from fellow speckled king enthusiasts. It seems as if the ranks of speckled king enthusiasts is growing (Matt Brock, John Lassiter, Todd (aka: Antelope) and Scott W).

I think that a lot of people are missing out on a great king with regard to the speckled kings. The speckled kings rival the Eastern Kings in variation of color and pattern (in my opinion). The babies in my collection have, for the most part started out on pinks more so than Eastern King babies that I have worked with from Maryland locale. Hopefully more people will take a chance with these underappreciated kings.

I am looking to add different locales to my collection in the near future. If anyone out there is working with Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma or Nebraska speckled kings, please contact me. I am only interested in speckled kings that are legally obtained.

Brad Bauserman

BLB1029@cs.com

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