Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....is watching yet anoter z baby take a hearty meal.......no doubt a labor of love...........Happy Thanksgiving to all.....

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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

Jerry-

That second one taking down the pink is just awesome-almost enough to tempt me back into mntn kings!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

"Some things are flat impossible-until they're done."
Robert A. Heinlein

Ohhhhh yeah, the addiction is there for sure.......that lil' guy is growing nicely (currently 28 inches) and may very well stud a female or two in 2010. Regardless of how they look, despite that male being exceptional, I love 'em any way I can get 'em with SO many variations.......almost like montane thayeri.........

here he is again about 5 months ago......

and a couple females (about 32 inches now) that he will be introduced to with a little combative incentive via another male....... (photos taken last fall).....

and again, SO much variation.......

Cascade mtn king (zonata zonata x zonata multicincta)

southern range Baja mtn king (Sierra de San Pedro Martir, zonata agalma) ..... not for the faint of heart either .....

Coastal mtn king (zonata multifasciata)

"Anerythristic" Sierra mtn king (zonata multifasciata)

and it goes on and on.......awesome......but boy the babies can be tiring.......especially when looking at the obnoxious bunch in group form, LOL......

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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

where do you get your fence lizards? Do you just catch 'em yourself?

Jerr buys those from a local dope dealer for $10.00 a piece!,...but he doesn't mind a bit,.......he loves those zonata THAT much..LOL!

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

LMAO......Hey wait,I am not a dope dealer.

L8r

.....your oldest client disagrees with you.......tell 'em like it is Tyrone............

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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

WOW!,........a great example of "meth-mouth" if I EVER saw it!

That smile would gag a maggot!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Doug how did you know?!?!?

Nice pic of Allan Bartlett doing the same thing though.....LMAO......
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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

I have them shipped by a damn dirty drug dealer who lives in Bishop, California........all names will be concealed pending his court case........LOL........
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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

Very nice Mr. Kruse! Both of those are stunning. I doubt it will be long until that first one is slamming pinks. Seems to have a good strangle hold on that fence lizard!

....they are NOTHING like their northern cousins, the Sierra Juarez agalma....(actually, did you know that the Martir agalma are more closely related to the Todos Santos Island mtn kings, zonata herrerae)?

Yeah, well I'm STILL WORKING with that lil' bugger.....Martir agalma are EXTREMELY tough by and large, and as I'd mentioned in the above post to Brad they arent for the faint of heart. Man they are tough, AND they grow slowly.

This female is by far THE toughest snake I've dealt with in all my 17 years of captive breeding. She'd take a baby lizard or two, and then stop. I used several varieties, and she'd keep changing her mind, back and forth. Then comes the notorious zonata shut-down late summer/early fall.

She JUST started taking scented consistently these past couple months Joe, and she was worth all the hard work for sure. That amazing head display is enough to keep me endeavoring to save her. Out of the 10 Martir snakes I had, I only lost one earlier this year as she was just as stubborn as this female pictured. The difference is that I started to administer to this girl 5cc's of mashed pinkys with Nutribac and gatorade on a regimen of every three days. After several months of this and a good brumation, she started to come around this past late summer. I shouldve been more diligent with that other female, but down the drain went 1K. And that's another killer....Martir agalma are at least in the 750 range but usually more. I'd advise NEVER to get any, if and when they are rarely available, unless they are guaranteed voluntarily feeding. Again, just THE toughest babies to get going...BUT, once they do (as Emeril would say...) BAMMMMMM!!! They become very strong feeders. When I swing down to Maryland I'll bring a couple with me on the 3 hour drive. Archery anyone?

Here she is photographed this past late August several inches bigger and more robust.....

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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

She is a beauty and with all that hard work comes the great satisfaction when you get them going. But yeah, not to be enjoyed when you want to go to sleep and you are prying a tiny mouth open over and over again!! I shall have the arrows fletched and ready to fly!!

>>....is watching yet anoter z baby take a hearty meal.......no doubt a labor of love...........Happy Thanksgiving to all.....

Those are two AWESOME Zonata Jerry.....
I like the whitefaced ones.....Reminds me of Skeletor....
And....If a hatchling takes a lizard meal it usually means it will take a lizard scented pinky meal then eventually an unscented pinky....At least that is my experience with Mexicana....

Happy Thanksgiving to you too....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

"And....If a hatchling takes a lizard meal it usually means it will take a lizard scented pinky meal then eventually an unscented pinky....At least that is my experience with Mexicana...."

....John, peruse my reply to joecop and you'll see just why I say "not exactly".........it's a general rule of thumb, but there are certainly exceptions especially with zonata...and more specifically the Martir zonata agalmas........oh the agony.....LOL.
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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

....what is your take on this animal?

I'm not sure "generic" should be applied to any agalma but I have little to go on with him.
Any insight would be interesting...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

my take is it is beautiful!
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Todd Hughes

a nice clean looking Juarez agalma......do you have any history on the snake? That's important, and I've been telling a number of people to research their Juarez agalma as they may not be pure Juarez due to the crossing of a Martir specimen into a few Juarez females back in the mid-90's.......again, history is important here. Let me know if you can get that kind of background either via post or e-mail and I'd be happy to follow-up with you. I just assisted someone whose agalma who were thought to be pure Juarez were actually not....it was a bittersweet discovery nonetheless.

There are several indicators to differentiate Martir and Juarez agalma, as they are truly very different snakes. To the untrained eye they appear very similar, however once knowing the indicators they suddenly appear to look very much different. I'd be happy to elaborate if you'd care to listen.
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Jerry Kruse

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."