Reptile & Amphibian Forums

You have all already answered one of the questions I was thinking about asking (patterns and genetics) but I have another one regarding patterns in cal kings.

Does the pattern change much from babies to adults. I know that some babies with a lot of black can turn brown and whites can dirty up a bit, but with respect to say the amount of black and white, does this change much. If I get high white babies can I expect them to stay high white? could stiped babies become broken striped? things of that nature. Or is what I see as a baby pretty much what I can expect as an adult with regard to the pattern. I will be pulling my first pair of high whites out of cool down in a few weeks and I have never worked with cal kings before.

Thanks

Steve Schindler

That in cal kings the striping on a baby will be the same as an adult. I have never had any fade or change colors. I have had some baby cal kings fade/color bleed as they got older, but have had that happen in just about every specie of snake that I have owned. There have been some that retained their sharpness even when they got to be old snakes. Although in cal kings the color may go from white to cream in some instances, I have never had the pattern change like in corn snakes. I have had some High Whites get dark in between the scales as they get older and then some that retained the awesome whiteness, just like in Pueblan milksnakes. Some adults will have the white get dirtier looking than when they were babies and some look just as sharp as when they were babies. Wish we could predict which ones lol............

Kerby...