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North Carolina Eastern Kings starting to pip

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Shane@SSuperiorSSerpents.com
http://www.ssuperiorsserpents.com/

Here's the Rowan Co., NC, male I got from you last year, Shane. It's turned out to be the nicest of the trio, at least to my tastes: bold pattern, with the cream areas very sharply defined and clean. The half dozen wild kings i'd seen in coastal va/nc had very wide bands but they were neither crisp nor clean, with lots of black mixed into the white areas. The two females have narrower bands, a few "slanted" bands, and are not quite as clean. But they're still nice.
The male's 223 grams. One of the females is 211 grams, and the other has always been a slower feeder and is at 109 grams. I could've grown them faster but during the winter I spend most of my time at home in Florida so they were basement-cooled here in northern KY/greater Cincinnati most of the time. I tried FR's suggestion that colubrids will eat thru their winter cool down, and found he was right, at least with this small test group: On my infrequent time with them thru the winter I'd return them to still-cool house temps (68-70; the basement was probably 10-15 degrees cooler) for just a day or two and they'd readily feed. I'd sometimes return them to the basement only a couple days after they fed, and that didn't seem to bother them at all, whereas in the past i'd meticulously delay putting animals in brumation until at least two weeks after they'd last fed.
All are eating frozen. In the hottest part of a hot Midwest summer here they've surprised me by abruptly showing much less interest in feeding, almost mountain king-like. I haven't sorted out that behavior yet but i'm wondering if it's temp related. I've also followed FR's and Rainer's recommendations for temp gradations, so the snakes are in tanks with ambient temps ~72 at one end, and heated to ~86 at the other. I'm wondering if turning off the heat might return them to their previous aggressive feeding. Or it could turn them off completely.
Anyway, Shane, I'm delighted with the snakes and especially with this male.

I should add that although I had no problems feeding these kings and returning them to the cool basement conditions shortly after, I'd still recommend giving snakes as long as possible to digest before returning them to my cooler temps, especially if you're putting them in a "cooler" sort of brumation area with temps in the low 50s. Err on the side of caution, and all that.
I'll try to pay more attention this winter to the temps in my basement.

I am glad you like him. He turned out very well. I just got back form lunch to find this years versions starting to pip. Actually one started last night, but there are about 8 starting now. I always look forward to this clutch.
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Shane@SSuperiorSSerpents.com
http://www.ssuperiorsserpents.com/

>>I am glad you like him. He turned out very well. I just got back form lunch to find this years versions starting to pip. Actually one started last night, but there are about 8 starting now. I always look forward to this clutch.
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the first of those jasper county kings you have hatching (thread below) looks like an exceptional specimen too. I'd like to see pix of both the SC and NC clutches once they're all out, and I'd like to see periodic updates on their development. IMHO Lgg is one of the animals with the biggest difference in appearance between exceptional captive bred specimens and the average specimen in the wild.

That is a sweet looking animal!
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

Whoa, that is one nice looking EK bro. One of the nicest I have seen actually.

Joe

Thanks Joe, the rest aren't too bad looking either. This one was a 26 egg clutch too.
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Shane@SSuperiorSSerpents.com
http://www.ssuperiorsserpents.com/

...just like these NC babies.....

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Looking good...
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(Url)www.facebook.com/herpholics.houston(/url)
(Email)herpholics@yahoo.com(/email)

Nice looking critters....

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/