Reptile & Amphibian Forums

New holbrooki female I received today from Ben Siegel Reptiles. Don't have any locality data on her, but she comes from a clutch of screaming, high speckled babies. Man, I love holbrooki.

You really need to see a Dr. I think you may have an addiction to snakes

It takes one to know one

Nice salt-n-peppa

A funny story about the king snake you posted. Back in the 70's when my dad was a Master Chief in the Navy, he ran a program outside of New Orleans at the NASA bio lab and they tested G force. He had about 25 young Sailors that worked for him...actually they were assigned to a "test" program. In their down time he would send them out to cleanup around the test facility and my father, having first hand knowledge that there was an abundance of salt-n-peppa kings snakes in the area, paid a buck ($1) for every king snake they brought to him.

Needless to say I was a 7-8 year old with a quite impressive collection of salt-n-peppa kings (that's what they called them back then). I used to keep four to six adults averaging 4' in a cage and all my friends had a few I gave them ( we lived in Slidell). Those were the days. My Dad is long gone from this earth but I will always have those memories and what fond memories they are.

Russ

That was one of the coolest stories. It brought back memories on how my dad would take me snake hunting. He didn't care for snakes at all. Matter of fact, I remember when I was about three and we were out picnicking one weekend my dad killed a coupulating pair of adult gophers snakes.

Later on he found out about my interest in snakes when one day I suddenly chased down some garter snake up in Yosemite Park. I litterally did a diving leap on top of it to catch it.My parents freaked thinking it was poisoness.

Finally one day on my 10th birthday he bought home a pet snake for me. A bronze back treesnake from Thailand (don't know the latin spp name). After that birthday it was accepted into my parents minds that this fascination with snakes would not go away. So on weekends my dad would always take me to some canyon or park where i could catch reptiles. Oh the memories....

Thanks for sharing.

My cousin MarySue lived in Slidel. My mother is from Na' Orleans. I love those Southern snakes. I remember my Dad who was not a snake person, asking me as I dove out of our canoe on Goose Creek in Virginia how I knew it was not copperhead and why I was so sure it was a Northern Water Snake; I replied "because".

Posters on this forum can, or will be able to distinguish species at a glance in the wild. Great stuff.

Thanks Rainer and I appreciate you sharing your story. I've got many more. It's great to know there are guys/gals out there that still have good memories of snake adventures with their Dads.

My Dad wasn't really crazy for snakes but he knew I loved them and to that end he was determined to bring whatever he could find home for me to keep as pets. Just to frame up the story, Slidell, LA in the 70s had snakes galore. I had beautiful eastern hogs living right at my back door. I remember one time finding over 50 ringneck snakes under cardboard behind a newly constructed house. All of those snakes were within 10-20 feet of each other.

Anyways my Dad brings home a snake one evening in a box. I greet him in the driveway and he has the big cheesy smile on his face.....I knew he had a snake. He hands me the box and says "we need to open this one together....this snake isn't very nice". So we proceed to the back porch and in route through the garage he grabs his tennis racket w/ leather cover. As he sets the box down in our screened patio he arms himself w/ the racket and tells me to stand back. Qucikly he pops the top of the box and out springs about a 5-6 foot shiny black/blue snake w/ a silvery head (I assume it was some kind of racer). At its thickest point it was at least an inch in diameter. IT was hell on wheels!! That snake proceeded to bite the crap out of my Dad and the tennis racket he was attempting to control him with. That snake struck and hit the racket w/ such force that it left very distinguishable teeth marks in the racket cover. Upon examining the bite marks, we both determined this snake should be set free. The screen door was propped open and we went inside and the next morning it was long gone. If in fact that snake was a racer, it had to have been the largest racer I've ever seen.

Russ

HA HA HA! Cool story. I have one similar to that where my dad and I were wearing gloves for such a devil snake. I'll never forget the sight of that snake flying out the window after it nailed my dad on the forarm.

The next day an experienced herper came over and showed us the proper handling technique. I could'nt beleive my eyes when that same snake was gently gliding through his fingers and arm without biting. That was when I learned that snakes have their nerve endings on top of their bodies. Touching "or petting" a snake there is definetly irritating (or stressful) to a snake weather they are tame or not.

Russ, thanks for sharing that story. How awesome it must have been to have a Dad like that. No such luck on my side. My Dad was out of the picture when I was around eight, so I could't even tell you if he hated snakes ,liked them, or didn't care one way or the other, LOL. OH well, having a wife & daughter that are both herp friendly more then makes up for what I didn't have with my Dad. They both love to go herping, and enjoy the outdoors.

Steve

Great Speck Steve and cool story Russ. My first pet shop King was a Speck, I was so young I named him Mr Chips. I should have named him Mr Musk. My Mom was the one who bought it, but she probably figured it would be my only snake. My parents were seperated...and though they got along my Dad knew my Mom didn't want me to have a lot of them. So yeah, I got at least 1 snake a month for years on end HAHAHA!Back then in the shop it would just say Kingsnake..Gophersnake..or whatever on the cage with the price. No specific names. Flips me out to see the hobby as is today, I love it Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

She's gonna be gorgeous, Steve! Man, how many kings does this make for you? What subs are left on your list, haha!
Todd Hughes

Thanks Todd. Let's see, as far as getula kings, I don't have any Cal. kings or splendida. Also don't have a Mexican Black. Sold my adult male MBK to a friend that had an adult female to pair him with. I don't keep any type of Mountain kings. No milksnakes in my collection with the exception of my annulata. I'd say the next king on my list for next year would either be a splendida, prairie or mole king. But I've had a good year in 06 as far as buying snakes, so I'm good to go for a while, LOL
Steve

>>She's gonna be gorgeous, Steve! Man, how many kings does this make for you? What subs are left on your list, haha!

Great looking Speckled! Seeing your '06 makes me remember exactly how small they are as hatchlings. I absolutely love holbrookis and desperately need a couple more. I got mine ('05 female eating machine) from Isis Reptiles in Ventura, CA. I believe the ones they have there are from Lloyd Lemke stock.

reako45

Nice! I got a pair from Ben last week, makes 6 S&P's that I have, not to mention all the other Kings and Milks I have. Do love those S&P's