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My female NJ Eastern is around 4' long or so and has some of the cleanest whitest crossbars Ive seen...until last week ! She just had her first shed since laying eggs in late april and her beautiful white crossbars have turned a grayish color. Each white scale persay isnt gray but the center of the scale encompassing about 60% of the white is now a dingy gray. Now Ive seen many a Eastern get dingy but its always gradual and usually between 1-3 years old and she is well above that. Could hormones in her body cause this from laying eggs ? Does this happen in other colubrids ? Last year after her first shed after laying she was as vibrant as ever and she was bright white like I said up until she shed last week. I hope it goes back to normal but if not she is still a beauty.

Keith
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Interesting question. Recently I have noticed an extreme lightening of ground color with 3 female western hognose in our group after their pre-laying shed. All are within 3-4 years old. All were various shades of brown to tan. Actually one was almost black in ground color and REALLY stood out until now. She has become almost a straw color. I have never noticed this before with other colubrids or even with other hognose. Now this will be great if my reds and orange follow suit with this next season to best show their colors.

I friend also mentioned this to me with one of his breeder banana CA kings turning from a very vivid yellow to more of a grayish yellow after egg production this year.

Be intersted myself to hear of others that have had such experiences.

Best Regards.........

Keith, although I havent witnessed this color change in colubrids,over the years I have seen a "darkening" of color in kenyan sand boas.Bright orange patches give way to increasing brown color. Sometimes its very apparent in older kenyan females. The "dusting" in the orange sometimes gets to a point where it is the predominate color. Ken Leach

Keith,I have noticed particularly in eastern milks that the spring coloration is definately DIFFERENT from others.But I have noticed this in both sexes....Jeff