Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey as I've mentioned before I'm looking for a male striped albino cal king to breed for my female. This is my first time ever trying to breed anything, so I'm not really experienced with "good" and "bad" prices for the various morphs. I've been looking at the classifieds and I saw albino cal kings for $80! Is that a reasonable price for a sub-adult albino king? If not, what are generally the prices for albino cals? Thanks for any help.

If you have found exactly what you wanted, then whether you pay $50 or $60 or $80 is really not a concern.

You can find Cal kings from anywhere from $20 to $100 . The $20 ones you find when you don't want any, and the $100 ones you find when you need one. $80 won't break you if the snake is what you want. Heck, shipping costs 50% that anyway.

Well my female cal king was $20 when I was looking for a cal king lol.
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1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Is she also striped albino?
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Yup - I've been looking for a very specific specimen.
Pink eyed banded albino female.

But not just any - she has to be a large adult, she's to be paired with my large WC banded male, so a young one or sub adult is out of the question, bigger the better.

A few days ago I saw one - it was exactly what I was looking for, but the cost was more than I wanted to pay. I bit anyway - after a day of thinking. That day of thinking cost me the snake, someone else beat me to her.

Saw another one today, she's a higher price but clutched this year, and last year, and supposedly for the keeper who had her before the seller I'm getting her from. Proven breeders deserve a higher price if breeding is what you want to do. I bit right away, and got her. Turns out this seller is closer to me, so the extra 20 he wanted for the snake is a wash when it comes to shipping.

But I got what I want, and next year - I should get some HET babies.

She's $200 - which actually is about what I've seen adult albinos go for in pet stores, so it isn't a bad deal. I also noticed she has some of the zipper pattern I want to eventually breed for (I want to try and produce a snake that is unbroken zipper from head to tail - just to see if I can)

Anyway - she'll hopefully allow me to produce the first clutch of kingsnake eggs I'll have had in about twenty years.

Funny - the first clutch of eggs I ever had was alligator lizard (one WC laid 10 eggs, a second laid 5 eggs). The next year is the first year I produced Kingsnake eggs from mating of WC kings.

Now I've got ten alligator lizards incubating, and it looks like next year I'll get a kingsnake clutch from mating.

Dejavu
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

About the first question....no she isnt albino. Just a regular black and white banded female. I know I'll only wind up with hets...but cool looking hets with the unusual patterns. Then I plan on breeding some of the young back to the male and get the same thing....only albino(I know i'll wind up with more regular colored hets too). I'm 18 and haven't bred anythin: how sad is that? lol
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1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon (Irwin, R.I.P.)

I'm producing HETs as well.
My male is a WC banded. Hopefully the young will all be banded like the parents, banded are my favorite.

I'm not going to breed any of the young with the mother, I'm planning on holding back two females - and then either buy them albino mates, or possibly produce unrelated HET males (if the girl I find for my lone male is albino) in 2008.

My males are most likely not HET for anything since they are WC, but if your male is CB there is a possibility it is HET and it just wasn't documented as such when sold.
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

CB is the way to go for me....just cuz I know i dont have to worry about the parasites and what not.
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1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon (Irwin, R.I.P.)

While there always is a possibility of parasites in WC specimens - I've gotten a fair share of parasites in CB stock.

I had a Baja Gopher snake (I think the same thing as cape gopher) that was CB and had a bad infestation of something, I bought him as an adult - and he couldn't even hold down a fuzzy. The vet tried to cure him, but it failed.

CB babies are probably the safest, as they will have had the least amount of exposure to other herptiles.

As I build my collection though, I'm going to primarily use CB or CH simply because captive breeders are plentiful and the young are not super expensive.

Unless I find a rubber boa or a zonata or a particularly unusual getula, my herping is now pretty much going to limited to catch and release. California law only allows 4 WC cal kings anyway.
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata