Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got two new California Kingsnakes, and I was a bit surprised by the male. He's a pretty regular looking banana king, but he has a black belly. Is that common? I haven't seen anything like this before, but I haven't really been into Cali Kings until recently.

Not too unusual. It is a result of combining striped and banded phases to get bananas. The striped phase often naturally has solid colored bellies, sometimes solid black/brown and sometimes solid yellow/cream.

This is not to be confused with the hypermelanistic phase which is a true genetic morph and is sometimes called Black Belly Kings because they do have solid black bellies. The difference is they also have an over abundance of dark pigment in the yellow/cream dorsal pattern as well. This gene has been combined with the bannana phase. They call these Chocolate Banannas but that isn't what yours is because all the yellow/cream parts would have heavy black tipping along with the black belly.

Thanks for explaining that for me. I've heard people talk about black belly kings, but I didn't realize that was an actual morph name. Too bad I can't retitle this thread now that I feel silly. lol