At the NY show this weekend I saw a rather nice looking temporalis adult. What turned me off from the snake were two things. 1. The guy said it had gotten to be 28" in its second year. The snake was thin, and I don't see how that was possible.
2. I feared it may have been a hybrid. It had a lot of dingey yellow coloration in the bands and the belly looked odd. All my temporalis have a nice neat checkerboard belly. This snake had more of a mottled belly with the black parts blending with one another. Instead of being the minority, black made up the majority of the snake's stomach pattern (maybe 66-75 %). This sound right???
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coastal plains milk belly pattern???
A.C.
Nov 03, 2003 03:57 PM
Replies (2)
Jeff Schofield
Nov 03, 2003 04:12 PM
Like most anything else with coastals, variation is the call of the day making "hybrids"very difficult to distinguish. From south to north, the belly pattern starts like that of a scarlet king(which I believe intergrades with the COASTAL not the E.milk)with banding. In NC it is usually predominantly white with some black or red;In MD there are MANY different variations as I have seen all black bellies(mostly Calvert co),all white bellies and a hodge-podge of checkerboards as variation takes hold;in NJ the checkerboard takes over along with band depth but for some reason COLOR isnt lost and alot look more like real red/orange(note
range not as common anywhere but NJ) eastern milks than typical coastals(head shape especially).I think I know what animal you were talking about, in fact I think I may have bought it--from King of kings?? Jeff
Tony D
Nov 05, 2003 01:08 PM
All my het Calverts have black bellies and they come form trusted locality guys so I'd say its possible.
As for the animal being 28" in two years and thin....just my opinion but it sounds fishy. Best I've gotten is 24" by the end of their second summer and they are generally pretty rubust at this point because of the feeding schedule. To my view it would take time for an animal to reach 28" and get thin. However if the one in question was at the end of its third summer!!! (2 complete years plus a few months) and laid eggs this year you might have that look. Also it depends on what you mean by thin. Temps generally run on the thin side and in my view don't do well if kept fat or power fed after the initial rush of growth the first couple of seasons.
