Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well. Looks like my little eastern is almost done with her color morphing. Not counting the post hatching shed, she's shed 6 times over the last 2 years. There's still a few faint pattern specks here and there on her body, but otherwise, she's a solid glossy black. Photos depict the color changes after each shed. She will be two years old next month.

June 2006

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February 2006

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September 2005

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July 2005

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May 2005
a shed occured, but I totally missed photo oportunity..she actually increased yellow coloring with this shed before doing a turn around on the next shed and going dark.

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February 2005

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PHWyvern

Having no real experience with easterns (except catch & release) I had no idea they could go through that kind of color change! I'd assumed melanistic one's were born that way. Is this color change the norm? Of all they easterns I've ever found, all were black except one that was a solid olive in color. It seems you learn something new every day!
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1.0 Malagasy Giant Hognose
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Black Milk
1.0 Black Pine
1.0 White Lipped Python
0.1 Guyana Red Tail Boa
1.0 Yellowtail Cribo
0.0.1 Blacktail Cribo
coming soon: 1.0 Unicolor Cribo

>>Having no real experience with easterns (except catch & release) I had no idea they could go through that kind of color change! I'd assumed melanistic one's were born that way. Is this color change the norm? Of all they easterns I've ever found, all were black except one that was a solid olive in color. It seems you learn something new every day!

I have never seen an eastern baby that looked anything but normal colored. I did come across a 'red' eastern last year but it was a yearling so have no idea if it was born colored or colored up as it got older. I've always understood it to be that melanistic hognoses darken with age much in the same manner that occurs with black rat snakes or black racers.... light colored babies with patterns that gradually fade over the next couple years as they grow. Now, how much a melanistic darkens varies. I lucked out and wound up with one that is solid. I believe the mother was dark but maybe not solid black..have to try and remember to ask the person I bought it from next time I see them at a herp show.
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PHWyvern

Thanks for sharing, I love any black snake and the documenting of the color change is simply outrageous.
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Frank Roberts
R&R Herpetological Frank Roberts & John Rodriguez
Roberts'Realm of Reptile Research

Nice sequence pictures. I havent been on in awhile but was pleased to see these pics.

thank you

Fred Albury

>>Nice sequence pictures. I havent been on in awhile but was pleased to see these pics.
>>
>>thank you
>>
>>Fred Albury

It's amazing how much color change occurred in so few sheds. Never ceases to amaze me that hognoses only shed a fraction of what other colubrids do. I'm so used to corns / black rats / etc shedding nearly every month - not 3-4 times a year lol.
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PHWyvern