I just bought a Black Pine, about 4' long the other day in a local pet shop. They got it in about 6 months ago. When it came in, it looked muddy brown and dirty black. I thought it was as ugly as a big Nerodia. I told the shop owner that was the ugliest snake I ever saw and I doubted anybody would ever buy it.
Six months later I went back and it was still there, but it had gotten larger and its color had changed to an almot entire glossy black except for a white chin and a few spots around the lips and a faint brown wash on the psoterior. He looked beautiful. They had dropped his proce from $100 to $70. I pulled him out myself - the store staff seemed intimidated by him. He semed pretty gentle to me, and looked even better closer up.
I bought him, took him home and put him in a thirty gallon with a hide box and a water bowl. He feeds regularly, and although he hisses a bit when picked up, is still a perfect animal to handle.
I think I have been bitten by the Pituophis bug. Maybe someday I can breed him.
Have a white corn (snowflake) about 3 1/2 feet long, a banded Honduran milk and a Spectacled Kingsnake also, all good feeders and beautiful animals - but that Black Pine is the light of my eye.
