Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have the identical snake that is used on the Kingsnake.com logo
I just wondered exactly what type of snake it is.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's a California Mountain Kingsnake, probably "Lampropeltis zonata parvirubra" the San Bernardino Mountain King.

How are you so sure it's the exact same type,.....the reason I say this is,...there are MANY different types of species/subspecies of Milksnake and Kingsnake that look VERY similar to the un-trained eye.

Did you buy it from an individual,or store?,.. or is it wild-caught?,...they can many times be VERY fussy feeders if it's not a long-time captive animal, and unless you are VERY experienced, it might not do well and would best be released.

In any case, it's DEFINITELY a California Mountain King as I mentioned. I'm not absolutely sure about this, but there are protection laws regarding many types of snakes in California as well, so you might want to check into that too.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Could also possibly be a San Diego Mountain King(Lampropeltis zonata pulchra) too.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks for the info
I live in the UK and was given it by my cousin, who was scared of it because of it's colouring.(red,white,black)
I think it is same as the logo, because the colouring, head shape etc, all look identical. Of course i cannot 100% say for certain, but it is without doubt the closest match i have seen.
I have had it for about 2 years or so, we call him Crusher.He is approx 5 1/2 feet long now
He eats once a month, 3 small/medium mice and 4 rat pups.
He is very friendly and we get him out for some fresh air most days.
I will get a pic, and try and post it sometime this weekend.

> "He is approx 5 1/2 feet long now"
> "He eats once a month, 3 small/medium mice and 4 rat pups".

*** Okay,...this is as I first suspected,....it CANNOT be a California Mountain Kingsnake and be 5 1/2 ft. long. A 40" long zonata would be considered extremely large, so forget about it being the species on the Kingsnake.com logo. For it to be that big, it can only be one of several forms from Latin/South America. If your size estimation is off quite a bit, it could also be one or two native to Mexico. But in any case, some good pics is all that's needed.

It would be great if you could post some good quality pics this weekend as you mentioned. I'm assuming now you have a milksnake(triangulum) of some kind. If you can post some decent photos, I can tell you exactly what subspecies it is, as I've raised and bred many different types of milksnake and kingsnake over the years.

One other major thing I would suggest, and that is that kingsnakes and milksnakes do best if they eat more frequently, one or two small rats once a week for a 5 1/2 footer would be much healthier for the snake. They do best in temps ranging from 79 to 83 degrees F.

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Doug is absolutely right. At that length, what you have is one of the Mexican/Central American milk snakes, probably the Honduran.

~~Greg~~

OK, probably closer to 5 feet. His home is 4 1/2 feet long.
I have some pics, if i can figure out getting them on the site.

In todays hobby, that is considered a Sinaloan Milksnake(Lampropeltis triangulum sinaloae), although I see it also has a good percentage gene-flow from the very closely related Nelson's Milksnake(Lampropeltis nelsoni) as well, and depending who was selling it, could have literally been sold as either one. It's fairly difficult to see really exceptional textbook examples of the two anymore, but I do see some from time to time. I actually specialize in milksnakes, and have raised and bred many of these and others over the years, so there's no question at all as to exactly what the snake is.

The fact is, most of either that have been for sale in the hobby for many years are a genetic combination of both sinaloae, AND nelsoni. I could go on in great depth about the meristical differences, and shapes of the triads, RBR(red body ring) count, spacing legth between the triads(rings of three), etc..., but the bottom line is for all practical "hobby" purposes, you basically have a Sinaloan,......so go ahead and enjoy it!,...milksnakes are some great animals, no doubt!

Some of the very best representatives of the Sinaloan Milksnake, are of the Cosala, Mexico stock!,..."google" them up on a search, and You will see some incredible examples of these that some friends of mine work with.
If you go to the "milksnake" forum, Dave Niles has some real killer examples of the Cosala bloodline.

best regards, ~Doug

Here is one of the very best examples of nelsoni from many years ago that I or anyone specializing in milks has ever seen to date.

here is a nice Sinaloan that could possibly have a certain amount of nelsoni in it's lineage, tough to say with absolute certainty though, but is still far better than many in today's hobby.

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"