Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Some people have asked for an updated photo of Yertyl. For the zillionth time I tried to catch her looks in a photograph, and finally, in the evening sunlight, on a bale of hay, I was able to get a really good photograph of how she looks! (at least on my monitor).

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~Sasheena

What are the specifics on this beautiful snake and how can I get one!

Well she is an Apalachicola kingsnake. Sometimes referred to as a Blotched Kingsnake or a Goini. There is a lot of debate regarding this species of snake. Yertyl, the one in the picture in the above message (I'll post a picture of her as a tiny hatchling in this message), is the offspring of two kingsnakes. Pandora is the mother snake, and she has been said to have all appearances of being a pure Apalachicola kingsnake. The father snake, Phantom, who recently passed away, was more likely to be a natural integrade between the Apalachicola kingsnake and the Eastern Kingsnake. This would, in simple terms, make Yertyl really 75% Apalachicola and 25% Eastern, but her actual specific pedigree isn't known. Last year Pandora had 8 eggs, the prettiest hatchling passed away, (pure red with a dark red stripe) and Yertyl was one of the other babies. I had hoped to have more eggs this year, but alas, no luck.

Next year, if I get another male to replace the one who passed on, I hope to have more beautiful babies. This year, I just get to admire Yertyl.

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~Sasheena

Do all apalachicola kings look similar to her when they are hatchlings? I am new to kings and I guess I have not seen any juvenile pics of apalachicola's yet. I would not have guessed that she was apalachicola though.

My boys and I recently purchased a pair of Brooks Kings and we are learning more about kings every day.

>>Do all apalachicola kings look similar to her when they are hatchlings? I am new to kings and I guess I have not seen any juvenile pics of apalachicola's yet. I would not have guessed that she was apalachicola though.

They have a variety of "looks" when they hatch. Of the 8 I hatched out last year, one was red with a dark red stripe, one was very dark with some random blotches but no discernable pattern, one was a light buckskin color instead of the reddish color of Yertyl, and the rest were similar to her, though she was the most red and the most feisty.

The original picture in this thread is Yertyl today... she was hatched out in July of last year, so she's still quite a juvenile.... I'll post a picture of her mom as a yearling, which is how old she was when I bought her, and then another picture in the next post of her a year later.

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>>My boys and I recently purchased a pair of Brooks Kings and we are learning more about kings every day.

Congrats on the Brooks! Hubby and I just got some nice Florida Kings.

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~Sasheena

Here she is coiled in my hair (NO, I do NOT wear snakes like jewelry, she just crawled up there while I was changing her cage.)

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~Sasheena

He has much darker "blotches"

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~Sasheena

So Yertyl's colors appear to be much more vibrant than Pandora at 1year old. I hope she stays close to what she is now. She is beautiful.

She is keeping her color very nicely! I think today was the first time she didn't bite me when I opened her cage. I expect she will fade out overall, but perhaps keep a more red/pumpkin color.
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~Sasheena

Here is a link to some more pics of Apalachicola Kings like Sasheena's and some info.

Keith

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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

Pandora's clutch last year had 8 babies. Only two of those were male, and one of those I sold to a student who now is in need of money more than snakes... so he's trying to decide whether to sell it back to me. My question is, for those who know these snakes better than I do...

If one of Yertyl's siblings was already almost patternless at 10 months of age, would you predict that his adult form will have him completely patternless? The one I sold my student was the one who came out of the shell a light buckskin color instead of the red-orange of the rest of the babies.

If my student sells it back to me (I offered twice as much for it as I sold it for) I'll post pictures.
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~Sasheena