Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got into a discussion with someone over a picture we saw in the classifieds. Someone is advertising the snake below as an adult brooks. Now here is what shocked me. My friend said that was an acceptable size for an adult. He was even able to pull out a field guide that said as such.

Is it really true? I was always under the impression that these guys were among the largest kings.

Here is an '04 girl that I raised, not with the intention of breeding her asap, but just to get her big. It didn't even cross my mind that she was ready to breed this year until someone pointed it out to me. I'm still trying to get her bigger too.

That's a 12 qt. Sterilite tub lid in the background.
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www.BugChick.com

chickabowwow

That snake may be sexually mature, especially if male. But I do know what you mean about the size of these kingsnakes.

Kingsnakes have been bred for decades, and rack systems of some form or another have been around that long too. For some reason, and it could be a skewed view on my part, it seems that breeder snakes have gotten smaller on average. It could be the rapid turnaround of people's collections (people get rid of one ssp or morph to get another so that many adults never get old enough to get big) or it could be something else.

There is a pet store in So Cal that has a 4-year-old pair of anery brooks kings that have produced babies. Then, in a cage nearby, they have a decade-old-plus brooksi that is so much larger it makes the anerys look like yearlings. Big kingsnake like you imagine when you think of a So Florida kingsnake.

Nice whiteside. Pretty morph.

Just my experience (and i breed floridana pretty small) but that florida king next to the dollar bill is not large enough to be sexually mature. There is a possibility if it is a male and you pumped him up for the next two months . But then there is also the chance of low fertilty using a small male.

Try and see what happens. In two months you should be able to put considerable size on that snake and viola'. You might get lucky.

Oh and I have a male approx the same size as your Xelda and I will not try and breed him. (1) Not worth the risk of him getting eaten and (2)fertilty will probably waste a viable female.

np
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www.BugChick.com

chickabowwow

It's not that good of a pic, but here's one of my '04 Female Hypomelanistic "Brooksi." Enjoy.

She's about 40-41 inches long. I can't believe she's big enough to breed. I'm a little scared to try, not to mention the male I'm going to breed her with is still too small.
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1.0 Goini
0.1 Hypo. Floridana
0.1 Sumatran Blood Python