Reptile & Amphibian Forums

These are the first results of our half-banded half-striped project. I would really like to produce an animal like the one in Brian Hubbs' photograph.

This is the father which we found at a show last December. He is stiped, banded, and then striped again:

The hope was that we would produce a half and half from him with a normal female. She laid 9 eggs, all of which hatched, but 8 looked normal like this one:

There was only one oddball in this clutch. Interestingly enough, he came out with spots on his neck, then bands, then spots again. Belly pattern is interesting and mostly black.

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"I'll be back at 6 if not 7. 8 the very latest but definatly no later than 9...ish...Moscow time."

Those are cool. I like that adult male you have. Good luck with the project.

BTW, where is your signoff quote from? I recognize it but can't put my finger on it and it's driving me crazy

Duckman. Great show, didn't last long.

Thanks for the compliments.
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"I'll be back at 6 if not 7. 8 the very latest but definatly no later than 9...ish...Moscow time."

Nice lookin' kings especially dad and his one oddball offspring? Have you sexed the oddball? Guess it'd be nice if it was female and bred back to the sire. Good luck & happy herping. BTW if you haven't already, check the "field forum". Went out w/ jasonmc and found a bunch of stuff @ the spot you're always talkin' about.

reako45

Haven't sexed them, don't know how. I need to learn because they are difficult to sell unsexed. The oddball is one of the few babies that has fed more than once. They don't seem very interested in eating.

I'd like to get a striped female to pair him with as well, maybe then we will get some more interesting results. We were really hoping for a lot more oddities.
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"I'll be back at 6 if not 7. 8 the very latest but definatly no later than 9...ish...Moscow time."

That adult is a nice heterozygous striped. You just got the short end of the luck of the draw this clutch. Breeding him to another heterozygous striped ought to produce more striped variants. Though as I understand it, heterozygous striped Cal kings are so variable that it may take a considerable amount of selective breeding to get reproducable results. Keep us posted on your progress, please.

Paul Hollander

Thanks for the advice Paul. How do I tell if they are heterozygous striped? I'll be looking for another female to cross him with at the next show.
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"I'll be back at 6 if not 7. 8 the very latest but definatly no later than 9...ish...Moscow time."

Both the half and half and his oddball baby (pictures 1 and 3 in the post starting this thread) are heterozygous striped. Any kings with the normal banded pattern are not striped of any type. Most of the Cal kings with more than 10 breaks in the stripe are heterozygous striped. For what it's worth, one of the best striped Cal kings I've seen came out of a normal x poorly striped mating.

My impression is that you want something like a 50:50 striped:banded pattern. This will probably require some selective breeding, and just about any Cal king with a reasonably good stripe would help bring in modifiers that will better the stripe. You don't have to go overboard for the best striped in the show.

Paul Hollander

I always get a couple just like that when I breed one of my dashed females (broken stripe) with a certain banded male. Based on three cluthches they make up a third of the pairs total offspring. The other 2/3 are striped or aberant banded. They are usually banded in front and striped in back. Some have had spots like yours. If youre interested in some new blood I have three available from this season. I'm also going to sell the adut female. I'll post pics later when I get home.
cheers

I might just prefer the female. I hate shipping though, do you happen to be in southern California? The only problem is feeding, I can't seem to get the babies feeding. If this keeps happening, I won't be breeding kings anymore.
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"I'll be back at 6 if not 7. 8 the very latest but definatly no later than 9...ish...Moscow time."