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I posted a couple months back about my unbelievably chalk white Burlington Co.,NJ Breeder female that after laying eggs she turned muddy ! I mean it was like someone replaced my snake with another. Literally from one shed to the next it was bright white to a 30% gray and I was so bummed. Ive had Easterns get dingy over a period of time but never like this. I chalked it up to the stress of egg laying although it didnt happen last year at all when she laid. After the intial post I posted again that she was back to normal but I was wrong (wishfull thinking probably) once I had her in decent light she was still dingy maybe a 20% gray. I figured it was part of her just getting older ??? I pretty much figured thats how she was gonna be from here on out. Anyway she shed tonight and YES ! she is back to her stellar glowing bright white ! I did a small happy dance after seeing her return to her original color.
What Im curious about is why this happened. I will thow out some ideas or possibilities and see if anyone has anything to add or debunk my ideas totally as I really dont know I just have some thoughts.

1. Stress of egg laying but like I said last year she never got dingy

2. We had a cool summer here and the snake area was cooler as a result did she darken to maybe help attract more sunlight to get warmer ?

3. She bred real early this year (a month earlier than last year)

4. She did just to drive me nuts !

A little story about when I first got thsi snake in the summer of 2002.
When I first got this snake in 2002 she was a bit skinny but I was told from the guy at the show she was Captive Bred but I wormed her anyway as someone told me once he wormed his whole collection once a year ! So I wormed (I used Ivermec) my adults including this girl. Everyone did fine but she went into a catatonic state where she just lay stretched out on her side sorta and didnt really move but a jerk here and there. I was bummed and super pissed at myself as I obviously gave her too much wormer. I put her head in the water dish once a day and she did drink a little but I figured she was going to be like this forever or simply die any moment. She was so bad that if you flipped her on her back she stayed there. After 7 days of this I decided I would put her down if I didnt see a drastic improvement over the next few days. After a couple of days I went to check on her and she wasnt where I left her in the tank (lol thats how vegetated she was put her somewhere and she was in the same spot the next day !) She was in her hide so I lifted it up and POOF she was completely back to normal and hungry ta boot. Thats when I realized just how tuff Kingsnakes are and that they seem to have an inner strength other snakes may not have. Long live the Kings baby !

p.s. I dont worm my adults every year its too dangerous and I just go get fecals done after brumation. Ive never gotten a positive result for anything so I will probably cut that down to once every few years unless I see a problem. Also the female NJ never pooped any worms out or eggs that I could see and her fecals after the worming came back clean.

Always get a fecal done before worming snakes yourself its cheap (like 10-20 bucks) and its safer with a Vet helping you.

Here is an older pic of my female that I just rattled on about. She is as clean as the pic portrays.
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Glad to see that she is back to her stunning self Bro. My Burlington did the same thing this year. After metamorphosizing from her dingy juvi color last year, she darkened right up again once she was gravid. It is only with her most recent shed that she turned bright white again. Come to think of it, all of my GA girls did the same thing. Their peach/pumpkin orange color darkened to a dingy copper color, their former bright color also just returned with the last round of sheds. This is a phenomenon that I have seen for many years with jungle carpet pythons. Very vibrant black and yellow females darkened up considerably when gravid, only to regain their color at some point after the eggs were layed. I think this occurs for all of the reasons you posted, except to piss you off (LOL). The stress of becoming gravid and the need for more heat obsorbtion probably play a big role in this color change. Interesting stuff. How big is she now, by the way?

Will

She is around 45-46" or so and when I got her she was maybe 40" or so. Thanks for the reply I thought I was crazy lol. I wonder if keeping Kings warmer has any effect on the dinge color coming in period as they age ??? Something to think about anyway.

Keith

>>Glad to see that she is back to her stunning self Bro. My Burlington did the same thing this year. After metamorphosizing from her dingy juvi color last year, she darkened right up again once she was gravid. It is only with her most recent shed that she turned bright white again. Come to think of it, all of my GA girls did the same thing. Their peach/pumpkin orange color darkened to a dingy copper color, their former bright color also just returned with the last round of sheds. This is a phenomenon that I have seen for many years with jungle carpet pythons. Very vibrant black and yellow females darkened up considerably when gravid, only to regain their color at some point after the eggs were layed. I think this occurs for all of the reasons you posted, except to piss you off (LOL). The stress of becoming gravid and the need for more heat obsorbtion probably play a big role in this color change. Interesting stuff. How big is she now, by the way?
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>>Will
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>>I did a small happy dance after seeing her return to her original color.

that's a mental image i could have done without!
terry

Hey you shoulda seen what I was wearin' lol

Keith
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