Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My measurments I posted were a tad off, but close...SerpWidget is a great tool! I took these shots less than two hours ago. The scale is 6" long (careful, the actual measurment is not the whole length of the scale - shave off a 1/4" from each end where the actual scale begins).

First, my big GA boy, Augustus: 66" and 4.7 lbs; Hillson, check out the girth since I got him from you! He hasn't eaten in 8 days so he's on empty here. I didn't put him down this winter so he's been chowing down like there's no tomorrow!

Here's one for you Hillson! He's not quite as bright as the pic suggests, but he's got more of that glades white in him than many brooksi, and to my surprise, continues to lighten even though he's got to be 5 years old. Have your brooks continued to lighten like this?

This is the snake I got for $30.00 from some guy in Florida who challenged me. He says, "I'll give you that snake for half price if you can get him out without being bitten. I've had him for a year and he's bitten 8 people and I can't sell it." I just laughed and went to the 24 gallon (!) tank he was keeping him in, put my hand on the top and saw a classic king feeding response. I just took my hands and by drawing his attention to one hand at a time by alternating moving them on each side of the cage, I quickly grabbed his body and pulled him out while he was watching my other hand - he never bit and I got a great deal! You should've seen the look on the guy's face LOL

This is Loco, a crazy as#, rat wrecking, brutally effecient predator; he's 61" and 3.6 lbs.

This is Bonkers, the '00 Kevin Enge stock that's now 52" and 1.9 lbs. For those of you who have Kevin's stock of this breeding line, plan on spending more on chow - this line of S. Georgia/N. Florida Eastern (mine at least) eat like pigs and grow like weeds! This may be the potentially largest king I've got and a sure mate for my big GA boy next spring.

Finally, this is the wc McIntosh Co., GA I caught 19 months ago, the one I thought for sure was going to die he had such a gut load.

This is Philo, 55" and 4.1 lbs.
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Well, I've done my part! Now we can see who's got the largest king! It won't be mine (yet! LOL).

Peace.

-John

Hey John,

Awesome snakes especially the big GA male and Bonkers, dude you defintely got put me down for a pair of those guys next year. They ought to be some brutes

Augustus is a monster he looks like he could destroy my 69" 5 lb Black Pine. How's the strength on that guy, I bet like holding pure flexible steel.

Nice pics.
Dave

Thanx for the compliments; I've got too many (for me) kings, 12 - but it's hard to decide who to keep!

I love bull and pine snakes, and have had several bulls, to include a gorgeous white-sided bull that my buddy's got (he was a Pituophus freak!). They are really good snakes I found. Good disposition (yeah, they hiss a bit, but I was never bit in defense) and ate faster than any group of snakes I've kept, to include rats, which wolf down food fast themselves. That was always cool - sometimes kings will take 20 minutes after killing/seizing prey befor they decide to start chomping! That's the one think that pisses me off when I'm feeding 12 snakes - it takes 2 hours at least when corns/rats/pines would be done in an hour, if that!

Kings will take Pituophus without too much problem, but I do wonder if they can eat a 7.5' or 8' Pituophus. A 75" king would kill one in most cases, but eating it may be another matter.

Augustus is a very strong, slow moving snake that is rock hard (he can turn my hands purple and lock them down in no time if I put him in a situation where he has to wrap in that fashion) but very docile when handled; when he does hit a rat, it's with incredible force.

And even though some of my king are only slightly shorter, he's got too much muscle for any king that weighs 0.5-1 lbs less if they "threw down," even if it were longer by 2-4." He's getting to that age where girth is coming on quickly, like I've seen in two other Eastens I've had. He'll be 8 or 9 this year, so he's not young. But if I take care of him I think it's in his "genes" to make it to 73-74" and weigh 6.5 lbs or so - my guess is that he can make that in 5 years.

Thanks again for the comments!

Peace.

-John

...LOL! he definatly looks like he can reach some massive proportions. id like to see him in person, as well as thomas's snake.

(eastern)kings have a way of conveying more size than they actually have, i wish i could have seen that record 82" beast. i bet that thing was SCARY!

greg

>>This is Bonkers, the '00 Kevin Enge stock that's now 52" and 1.9 lbs. For those of you who have Kevin's stock of this breeding line, plan on spending more on chow - this line of S. Georgia/N. Florida Eastern (mine at least) eat like pigs and grow like weeds! This may be the potentially largest king I've got and a sure mate for my big GA boy next spring.

John

Keith
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Glad to have the locality data on that female! Mine had the same coloration of your '03 of his - and kept that red-orange until she hit 3 years of age or so.

Statenville is ecologically similar, nearly the same, type of community - remember it's only about 12 miles from the city of Statenville to the FL state line and the natural vegetation and soils are for our purposes the same. So when I say N. Florida/S. Georgia I'm encompassing an area 10-20 miles from each state line because they are very similar ecological communities with a few localized exceptions.

I've probably walked/hiked as much as anyone my age the border counties of N. Florida, S. Georgia, and southern and SE Alabama searching for rare plants and collecting in general, and I could plop you down in a nice area of any of this stretch of land and without looking closely as soils or some other fine details, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish them apart with the exception of the area east of the Suwannee River which starts to take on the Atlantic Coastal Plain look.

Tifton is a bit more northernly, but not much...you do see a change in vegetation when you get beyond Thomasville, GA a bit.

So you're right about the locality, but in this case it's more about ecological boundaries and not political boundaries.

Peace.

-John

what that 82" beast must've looked like, doesn't it!!!
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Ace

n/p

>>what that 82" beast must've looked like, doesn't it!!!
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>>Ace

for validity we ought to s tart requiring a direct overhead photo of the snake in question along with a ruler, so there'd never be any doubt whether a measurement was real or accurate.

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