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I've spent several years now selectively breeding Long Beach Grease kings 'trying' to cook up a really dark one........
A good friend of mine - and local here, paired up his locality matched Grease kings and this is what he got.....

100% Grease king clutch!! I've paired up animals that are pretty damn dark and I dont get these results - and I always have one or two very normal (coastal) looking babies.

For the most part, the males turn out darker....... Three of these are females and one is a male. There are two others that I didnt photograph but look like these.

Maybe I should start incubating my eggs in tar...

What do you think Ross.....?

byron.d

I'm telling you, tar is the trick. Either that or vermiculite moistened with motor oil. lol The really dark male looks about as dark as a male found there in 2006 by another herper. For the most part, they don't come out that dark but we know this look is possible in that field. I can't tell which is darker because the photos of the Grease king from 2006 were taken in poor lighting. You need good lighting to see true detail in this morph. What amazed me is how dark the females were. Its going to take some years to get a better idea of how that hypermelanistic gene works. Here's some additional pictures of your male.

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I thought that first photo was black and white.
That male is really amazing - the whole clutch amazes me.

Also. The three hets you hooked me up....... Just rockin!!! Feeding like champs!

Take care bro.

byron.d

Glad you liked them. It will be interesting to see how that male turns out.
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I have to admit that I was not attracted to these at first but there is something about them that is infectious. That head shot is very cool! It will be interesting to see how these develope for sure guys.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Thanks. What makes them very special to me is the locale these are from. Its an oil field in Long Beach that has come very close to being developed into a park in the past. The fate of this field is still unknown but I suspect one day soon it will be lost forever. They are also found outside that field but very hard to come by these days in the limited habitat we have left in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

wow... those are very cool looking kings --- i have never found a king my whole life in l.a.

Wow! Awesome! The snake in the first pic is would be what I look for in a "grease King".

reako45