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I'm on a quest to build the Biggest King in captivity. I have for years raised up Eastern and Florida Kings from known large stock but haven't really hit on anything with "Monster" size potential. I got this Hernando co. King from a wc gravid female from Daniel Parker(Sunshine Serpents) last summer. He is a 2012 hatch and is 8 months old. Here are his stats over the last 6 months or so. I think he is going to be huge, he eats 2-3 small mice weekly sometimes 4 total. My Pinellas Co., fl Sand King who is growing nicely as well. He is a month younger and his latest measurements are in parentheses below.

9/24/12 56g 22"
12/18 93g 27"
1/3/13 115g 30"
1/14 122g 30"
1/24 156g 32"
2/1 176g 32"
2/11 183g 33"
2/20 205g 33"+ ( Pinellas King 2/20 94g. 25" )

Hernando King

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2012 Pinellas Co. Sand King Nick Mesa stock.

I recently saw a Pinellas king in captivity that I want to measure to make sure I have it right.....guesses put him at close to 6'.....
Of the ones "in my area" the dark, intergrade Pinellas kings were the ones I remember as being the largest....

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

If you can snap a pic of it. I hope my Pinellas gets big. It's got some Krysko Pinellas stock in it and those got pretty large I hear.

Keith

Biggest I have seen to date (in person) is my buddy Mark Hardies eastern king from Pender County. He no longer has his web site but had pics of "buck" on his site. He had a stubby tail but was REAL close to six feet. I have held him several times and he was/is heavy too. I have caught a five foot specimen in MD many years ago when I was a teenager. We put him in the same pillow case with several other snakes (young and dumb) and when we got home and dumped the snakes out there was only one big fat happy king. Not proud of that incident
But I was just a kid in those days and did not know any better.

Joe

Back in the 80's I acquired a wc Eastern King from my local pet store and it was over 6' of pure friggin evil. He was ringed like a Georgia King and that's likely his origin. He would only eat snakes as well and it was a nightmare keeping him fed. I gave him to a friend and he promptly escaped never to be seen again.

Keith

I think more than a few of us have made that mistake. I was trying to breed a pair of speckled kings I caught in Louisiana. I check the cage a few hours later to find one big fat male. I was not a kid, I should have known better.

I saw Nicks adult Pinellas in person and they were crazy big. I think his wc levy male was pretty close, too. I miss having that snake!
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Gerard

"How awesome would it be to deny the prophecy?"

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

That is some impressive growth. Several years ago at an expo in Houston, someone had an eastern that was about 6'. The thing felt like a boa constrictor. Don't know its lineage. Pretty typical looking. A friend had another one about the same length, that was a lot lankier. It was more brownish.

If you really want to see him grow, get him switched over to rats....

I don't believe that to be true. I've fed hundreds of Kingsnakes rats and mice and noticed zero difference in growth. I think the key is getting them onto anything with hair, fur, strong bone and muscle the other part is genetics. All Getula don't get too 6' or even 5' for that matter.

Keith

On BlackKingsnake.com they caught a king that was 60 1/8th'' in lenght. That's a big king, but I doubt it's the norm for kings.

>>I don't believe that to be true. I've fed hundreds of Kingsnakes rats and mice and noticed zero difference in growth. I think the key is getting them onto anything with hair, fur, strong bone and muscle the other part is genetics. All Getula don't get too 6' or even 5' for that matter.
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>>Keith