Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On May 12 my female Hypo/Blond El dorado Cal King layed a clutch of 8 good eggs. i made sure by checking her that all of her eggs had passed. Well this season i decided not to double clutch so after she layed the eggs i DID NOT put her in with a male. then on july 7 she layed another clutch of 5 good eggs and one bad egg. i did notice before her shed that she looked a little heavy but i though it was because she was in the process of putting her weight on. she also went off feed for those 2 weeks. i was just wondering if this is sometimes common or has ever happened to anyone? the strange thing was i never double clutched her or introduced her to another male. I have heard of boas/pythons retaining sperm, however is this possible for a Cal King. I thought Kingsnakes/milksnakes and mostly all colubrids do not retain sperm. any info would be appreciated. thanks Dave f

Happens all the time on my corns, and a few times every year with my cal kings. It happens with my older, bigger females. Lower fertility on the second clutch without the introduction of a male.

Question??? Hypo Cal King?? What makes a "hypo" cal king?? There are some advertised right now on the classifieds - NOTHING hypo about those.......

I would like to see a nice discussion on this forum with pics on hypo cal kings

Thanks

Kerby...

HI Kerby, hows it going? great i Hope. i know the word hypo has been thrown around alot. i will post some pics on this forum as soon as i figure out how to post pics with this camera. i figured out how to email pics finally,lol i have an adult pair of (which were sold to as Gerald Merker stock)hypo cal kings. they look like the ones on there website and in the magazine articles. They look Hypo to me, ill send you the pics. and let me know what you think. I also have some Blue Eyed Blonds (vivid stock hatchlings/yearlings) do you know how old they are when there coloration takes over. they still look like lavenders. Are the rains coming to Souther AZ as of yet? Happy herping!! Dave

Dave, Yes & no on the Monsoon. Yes the season has offically arrived, but the moisture (heavy rains) has been very spotted. No rain here yet.

The problem with cal kings is that they are so variable in color to begin with. So that when you add the Lavender gene into that mix, you will on f2s get different looking Lavenders. The eye color is a result of that too. Lavender eye color is different than albinos.

A way to prove that the Blue-eyed Blondes are a different gene is to breed one to an albino. If so, then you will get all normals that are double hets; breed back and then you should get some. Same goes with breeding a Blue-eyed Blond with a Lavender. You should get all normals that are double hets. Until I see this last project, then I doubt it. I think that Blue-eyed Blondes and Lavenders are the same gene. I will never find out as Geral Merker has never returned my 3 different e-mails in attempts at purchasing some LOL I guess I will have to buy from someone who has bought from him.

But if someone here HAS personally bred a Blue-eyed Blond to a Lavender and has produced double hets, then I will retract my statement that it is the same gene.

This is my understanding of recessive genes in cal kings.
* Amel/albino
* Lavender
* Ghost (to me it could be a HYPO by definition)
* Mendota (we can't keep calling these "Mendotas" as that
refers to a "locality". When we start to breed this
recessive gene into other cal kings it will have to
be called something else........ hypermelanistic????
hypomelanistic???? melanistic???? What is the proper
term????

Last year I bred a Albino High White to a Blizzard and got ALL albinos. So even though they had some interesting patterns, the amel gene IS THE SAME.

Next year I will be breeding my double hets (Albino High Whites x Mendota) together.

This year I bred a Albino High Yellow to an Albino Banana, should get all albinos.

Next year I will also be adding into the mix some cal kings that Don Shores produced - Chocolate Bananas. The jury is still out on those too.

So how many recessive genes in cal kings?? Four? Five? Six?

Kerby...

>>>>>>When we start to breed this
recessive gene into other cal kings it will have to
be called something else........ hypermelanistic????
hypomelanistic???? melanistic???? What is the proper
term????

Any melanistic Cali Kings I've seen are usually advertised as either conjuncta (banded) or nitidas (striped). I realize these are old terms, but it does still define them as to what they are, and basically what you'd expect to get if ordering one .
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Ace

Dave/Kirby
I also have some of Geralds Hypo kings. Mine are a year away from breeding though. Congrats on the babies, I would be interested in some of your offspring if offered. Whether they are "hypo" or not they are the coolest Cal Kings out there in my book and naturally occuring to boot. All I can go by is what Gerald and Eric Loza have told me.I am waiting to hear from Gerald if he breed his this year.
Randy