Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what races of pines / bulls / gophers grow the largest? does anyone breed specifically for the larger animals? thanks all you pit gurus.. lol
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Jay (big J)

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That is somewhat of an opinion question. Northern Pines are one of the longest in my experience on average, but the bulkiest (and one of the longest) pines I've ever seen was a Louisiana pinesnake, but they are usually one of the SMALLER of the pinesnakes. Black pines really aren't that large, but look like the largest one. Most are under 6', but people will swear they are 7.5' until you run a tape down them. So, be careful on that front. I've raised up well over a dozen black pines from all types of bloodlines (including "giant" ones) and never had any get neat 7' in length. Maybe someone else's feeding regime will induce different results, though. I haven't ever held a 7' black pine in my life, though.

Bullsnakes are very wide ranging, and some go from under 4' to over 8' in maximum size. Many of the southern Texas localities get very large, but the most "famous" are the west Texas bullsnakes (277 locality) bullsnakes that commonly exceed 7' in the wild. If you wanted a LONG one, I'd recommend a northern pinesnake (which tends to be really docile even by Pituophis standards), but if you wanta girthy one, I'd recommend a southern Texas bullsnake (although some of the northern ones get decent sizes, too). If you want a chance to raise up an exceptioonally large one, go for a 277 bullsnake like the ones Shannon Brown produces.

Good Luck.
KJ

A close friend, who started me with my intergrade black pine pair, has an intergrade male that is 8'4". This is legit! These are the naturally occurring intergrades of lodingi and mugitus and the founder animals for this line came from Escambia County, Florida in 1983.