Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi keith hows it going? great i hope. i love your website, great pics and great info. i was wondering if aberrant patterns are common in OBK's? i also was wondering about the pics of the Mosaic kings on your website. They are outstaning looking snakes from SC!! Are they pure eastern Chains with aberrant patterns/striping or are they intergrades. i was just curious. thanks again for reading my post. Happy Herping!! Dave Flanagan

"Do we really need more malls,shops,houses, etc? Don't we have enough already?! When is the habitat destruction going to end so the wildlife has a place to live.""

Hello Dave

Aberrant patterns in OBK's isnt common. It's popped up in captive populations here and there but with more frequency in the Carl Bartlett line. Bob Johnson of Reptile Artistry www.kingsnake.com/reptileartistry/ has the bulk of Carl's breeders and produces the aberrant animals.

Mosaics are a naturally occuring pattern mutation. They are 100% Eastern King nothing is mixed with them naturally or unaturally. A very hard to come by animal with only 1 or 2 people working with them. Thanks for the compliments on the site.

Keith
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Years ago I had a pair of founder animals and they produced a fair number of aberrancies as well. I once hatched out a completely striped male. In my experience you see more aberrancies in CB eastern (and OBX) than in wild populations at least with all easterns that I have worked with. Either abberent patterns are a disadvantage in the wild or its an incubation thing with the captive population. Or it could be my imagination. LOL