Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's an updated pic I took of my 06 speckled king last night. From what I understand about holbrooki, hatchlings start off very small. I was curious on those that have worked with various getula, which ones start off as the tiniest hatchlings, coming out of the egg, and on the flip side, which ones hatch out the largest? Of course this is would be on average, considering some bloodlines/localities may be larger or smaller then others. Nokturnel Tom's Mexican Black kings don't count. They hatch out of the egg larger then some bullsnakes. I'm curious on how the different getula kings rank on average. Thanks

Steve

You should look up Keeping and Breeding Snakes by Chris Mattison has that sort of info in it. Its an older book '89 I think and I don't really remember whether it has specifics on getula sub species though. Nice pic, sorry I could'nt specifically answer that question though, just thought I could point you in the hopefully right direction.
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-J.Hill

Thanks J.Hill. I have a good collection of kingsnake books, but don't have the one you mentioned. I'll have to look that one up to add to the collection. Thanks for your imput.
Steve

No problem, its at my local library, I think they should just give it to me cause I think I'm just about the only one that ever checks it out. I remember talking to Tom about his specks, and I remember him mentioning them being small, requiring small pinks, he said once they hit 20 inches they start pounding fuzzies like no tommorow.
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-J.Hill

For me my black kings (nigra) hatched out small, about the same size as my holbrooki from Louisiana, but they grow fast. Seems like the Eastern kings, and Florida kings hatch out bigger.

Scott

Thanks Scott on your observation with the size of your hatchlings. So it looks like nigra & holbrooki compare closely when it comes to hatchling size. I have one 04 nigra, but did not receive him as a hatchling so I can't share any experience with black kings and their size as hatchlings.

Steve

Glad to help Steve. Both my niga and holbrook1 hatched out small. but man they were bottemless pits when feeding. They had no problem taking down pinkies right from the start.

Scott

of my snakes, specks are smallest with splendida not far behind, although the goini and hyper brooksi were as small as the splendida, the calis are largest and that is weird but that is the way it has panned out, except for Tom's mbk's, which rival the calis. The splendies and calis are largest of the middle/westrn snakes but I KNOW I am in for brutes with the eastern getulas. On that note, my Greenville, N.C. easterns were surprisingly small for the snake that will eventually beat them all, probably.
Todd Hughes

Thanks Todd for the information on the various sizes of your kings. My thinking on this topic is that there are certain species of snakes that produce very large hatchlings, but that doesn't necessarly reflect on their overall adult size. Take Emoryi ratsnakes for example. Much larger, more robust hatchlings then corns. But when they are fully grown, they are about the same size on average as corns. Maybe a touch more stout then a corn of simular length. Same with bairdi ratsnakes. Huge, huge babies out of the egg, but end up simular in size to corns as adults. Anyway, thanks for your imput on the topic, and your greenville easterns are looking great. I just fed my Greenville female two fuzzies Friday.
Steve

heheh, me too with the double fuzzies! My male is behind her and had a few regurges last year but he is back on track now. He is a shy eater, not like her at all, I have to feed him last and leave the room, any suddon moves startle him and he stops the process.
Todd Hughes

I can't answer you question directly because I don't have any eastern species. But I can say that hatchling size is really variable within a species. I have some cal kings that give me clutches of 12 eggs and the hatchlings weigh 7-10 grams out of the egg. I have another female whose largest clutch was 7, the eggs were enormous, and the hatchlings weighed over 18g out of the egg!

Thanks Zach. Now that is very interesting. One clutch has 7-10 gram hatchlings, and then you have another that gives you 18 grams. Now another question for you. Does your 7-10 gram babie cal. kings end up on average smaller, larger, or the same size as your 18gram hatchlings, once they reach adulthood? Thanks
Steve