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It was 9 inches when I bought the captive born at a Houston snake show. California King full bred male. It is 5 foot now . Never bit me once. Gentle as a lamb and not slippery sliding in your hands - just kinda enjoys being held and does not move a lot.

I have an Eastern Kingsnake thats 17 years old or maybe even older. He was caught in 1990 and was 3' then. I figured it takes at least 3-5 years top get up to 3' in the wild especially in NJ where they have an actual winter unlike the southern states. Ive only had him for a year and a half but he is still going strong and sired 8 babies this year.

Keith

www.kingsnake.com/easternkingsnake/nj/images/nj12.jpg
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Man, what are you doing with a gun in space? - Charles "Chick" Chapple

I remember that about him. Big beautiful brute that he is. His little boy seems to be a chip off the old block.
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Tim

Good to hear the Nj Eastern is doing well. Its just about time to put the big Eastern away for the winter.

Keith
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Man, what are you doing with a gun in space? - Charles "Chick" Chapple

Dude,

I love that snake! I feel very lucky to have a pair of his and that stunner Burlington's babies from this year. I just can't stop looking at them. Oh yeah, Keith you were right, with a little size, those yellow bands are fading to bone white already. I can't wait until they are adults.

On an interesting (well, to me anyway, lol) note, I am fascinated by the differences in behavior between my northern and southern getula. The northern animals are very deliberate in their actions, whereas the southern animal behave in a manner that is very instinct driven, they have very little self control when it comes to feeding reactions. It seems that the greater the natural geographic distance is between the animals in question, the greater the difference in behavior. For example, my GA easterns always rush the front of the cage and greet me with an open mouth. If I just want to say hi, I must give them a minute or two to disengage from their feeding response before they can be removed from the cage and handled. They are absolute angels once they are out, but at the point of introduction one must proceed with caution. My NJs, whether baby or sub-adult, always approach slowly with deliberate tongue flicking. If I'm offering a mouse, they taste it for several seconds before pouncing. I can safely offer thawed rodents from my fingers to my NJs. However, if I hand fed my GAs, and did not use hemos, I would spend more time unwrapping them from my hands than attending to the animals. Just part of the reason I like easterns so much! Has anyone else notice this phenomena? Thanks.

Will

None of my easterns are exceptionally old, however, my friend and neighbor Henry Cohen has a pair of pyro pyros, and a pair of pyro woodeni that are both in in their early twenties and are still consisantly breeding.

Will

I havent really noticed any difference in feeding rsponse. The big NJ comes out of his hide with a rush when its chow time and I always use tongs on him LOL. The only baby NJ I kept is a little more reserved but on the second pink he is insane with "Pinkie Fever" where anything that moves is a potential meal. I will mention some of the physical characteristics Ive noticed. The GA's from you are bigger and seem to grow long and lean then bulk up then go long and lean. This is especially noticeable with the male. He is 23" or so and grows very very fast. My male 03 NJ is 17" and is very stocky even having a more compressed look to it (the back of the snake seem flatter ?) Also the NJ's seem to have smaller body scales ? The other big thing I noticed is head shape. The Ga's have a longer tapering head while the NJ's seem to have a more blunt rounded head that seem a little wider as well. I sent Kenney Krysko some skins from my Monmouth Eastern so he could test it against the other Eastern DNA he has been looking at (all of his were from NC and below). I wanted to see if there were any differences especially that Monmouth Co. is the northern most range L.g.g. are found.

Regards,

Keith

p.s. Now we are way off topic LOL.
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Man, what are you doing with a gun in space? - Charles "Chick" Chapple

Yeah dude, I noticed the morphological differences as well. please let me know when Mr. Krysko gets back to you regarding the DNA of the easterns. I am really interested in hearing about that! I put the yearling female NJ down for brumation last week. She stopped eating in early Nov. So, I figured instead of burning fat I'd give her a short rest. I want to get her back up and feeding ASAP as I want to express those giant genetics. When do you put your northern easterns down? Later Bro.

Will

Usually right now so I need to get that done LOL.

Keith
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Man, what are you doing with a gun in space? - Charles "Chick" Chapple