Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This my 03 male NJ I received from Keith. The father is that old fella from Monmouth Co. and the mother is that classic black and white jem from Burlington Co. I have high hopes for this boy and his sis! Thanks for looking.

Will

Seeing that they are brothers, that's understandable. Pretty nice little guys, aren't they?
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Tim

I agree, they are great snakes, among my absolute favorites! I think they have the potential to be tremendous showpiece adults someday.

My goal is to raise a black and white eastern to the proportions that I once saw in the summer of 1991. I was chief reptile caregiver "aka cricket boy" at a pretty good exotics pet chop in Buffalo. I had a routine customer for a while that frequently claimed to feed her enormous S. Carolina eastern king small rabbits. I know the king is from SC stock, because we have the pleasure of having a local gentleman, a high school biology teacher, who owned land in SC and personally collected his breeding stock from his land. He frequently sold excess offspring to our shop and it was confirmed at the time, that this lady had purchased the baby from us several years previous. I asked (begged) her to bring the snake in, thinking that she was probably waaay over estimating it's size.

Well, she brought the thing in, in a snake bag, and it looked like a boa through the bag. It was unbelievable, she unreeled this sucker from the bag and it seemed as if she was never gonna reach the end. I am 5'10" and this boy was being held at eye level and was still dragging on the floor. It was a mammoth blue/black and white snake Truly striking. I remember thinking "well, this is very big, but the book says they get seven feet" so, I really didn't fully appreciate the size of the animal for several years, fully expecting that many adult easterns got to that size and they would be fairly common....not. I've never seen any king the girth of a grown man's wrist since. I wish I had taken the event more seriously by accurately recording the length and weight of the animal, and ...duh, by getting a photo, but you know what they say about hindsight. S#i*! Anyway, sorry for rambling, but I think that these NJs have similar potential. Nice work Hillson, make some more.

Will

OK I will make some more if the old male can get it done. Thats a great story. I wonder where in SC those kings came from ?

Regards,

Keith
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If Clemson University is in SC, then many of those easterns came from right on the campus. It was so long ago, Tony (the breeder) told me his land was near a C**** University. I thought it was Clemson, maybe not. Actually, I've been trying to track this gentleman down for a few years now. He is retired and no longer breeds easterns, but still allegedly maintains several specimens, by those who claim to be in contact with him.

Will

I appreciated the ramble. I haven't seen anything like that yet myself.
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Tim

These two are eating thawed fuzzies every 5-7 days and they shed monthly. They are about 18" each. At hatching, they seemed too small for pinks and clearly weren't motivated to make the attempt, so I tease fed them with pinky heads for a few meals. As soon as they were big enough, they started on thawed pinks and haven't looked back. Thanks for looking.

Will