Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....(and since I never really considered them as "milks")
here's a little guy seen last year in Pinellas county, FL.

Originally, wasn't fond of all the black, but I think if I breed them again in the future, I may head in the direction of that and/or aberrant looks.

Anyone else here keeping and breeding scarlet KINGS next year?
:Mark

Hey Mark, I need you to find a black female for my black male..
I have 3 fat proven females I will brumate come Thanksgiving.

My buddy Dan found a high black 22" female down in FL last week. Not as black as your male, but close.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 9/19 NEW PICS/INFO

fantastic, post some photos when you get them...where does he live? do the guys on this thread know you feed kings to ringneck snakes(LOL)? don't worry, I won't tell.....

They do now.

I'll email you a pic if I can find it... Check your mail...
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 9/19 NEW PICS/INFO

Very nice Mark! Scarlet Kings are definitely something I would love to add to my collection in the future. How many are you currently working with?
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Will

Maybe just a few pairs this year is all. I once had a dozen or so breeders. I lost my big (25") female recently. She must've been 15 yrs old.
Depending on what's out there I may get more again, who knows?
The crazy thing is, I had a line that I bred years back and a guy from Germany talked me out of them. I got some really nice babies from them and when he saw one I kept, he had to have them!
He ended up producing striped scarlet kings from those and their offspring. Not that crappy ziggy zaggy stripe thing either. Perfect white stripe down the back. Killer! I kick myself for not keeping them but I could have bred them as I was and never got what he did by experimenting.
Anyway, if you ever see any fully striped ones from Ger. they might just be from FL ones I collected years back.
The guy keeps everything to himself and doesn't sell off anything as far as I know and I haven't heard from him in 2-3 yrs.
Here's one of the only pics I have of one of my babies I sold to him along with its parents....

:Mark

Shame that big one died. I think I still have a pic of her somewhere.

I thought you bred your SK this year?

Aberrant ones are nice. I had a small female this year with some nice bullseyes on her back. Along with a nice apricot adult female.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 9/19 NEW PICS/INFO

Mark, you must have been nuts letting that SK go..she is absolutely gorgeous.I hope he paid alot!

Please don't rub it in.....
He got them all for a song I'm sure.
Maybe between you and I and Dan we can get some black ones going, huh?
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Im just wondering if all of your scarlet kings are wild caught or if any of you have purchased captive bred. Im just wondering because im going to a repticon show and im hoping that they will have some there, ive looked up alot of good information. Except one thing, what do you guys do about heating? undertank, light?
Thanks

I live in NW Florida and keep mine at room temp except when brumating when I try to keep them between 50-60F which is not easy in Florida since we dont have basements. some use wine coolers.....
natural lighting from windows.
F/T pinks and fuzzies for the well behaved one
F/T brown anoles for the picky ones.
anole eggs if I get lucky and find some.
CBB SKs are hard to find and if well started should be at least $150 or more because of the hassle getting them on pinks unless you are fortunate enough to have a steady supply of ground skinks.

I don't need any heat that's for sure. In fact I should use the a.c. more than I do. Anyway, I have both wc and cb most times (except when I am stupid enough to sell 'em off) and almost always produce a clutch or two. This year I did not. Generally my cb babies are less than thirty bucks. I spend way too much time at shows talking people OUT of buying them!
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

I hope you aren't selling CBB pinky eating SKs for under $30...

maybe pinky "parts" huh?
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

i second coolhl7's notion-eating any unscented warmblooded prey,parts or not,i usually see going for no less than 75$,esp. if c.b.b....hell you're almost tempting me back to s.k.'s at your price!

first ,i'll say that i too am a fan of scarlet kingsnakes.had some a few years ago-c.b.b.,1.1 pair...from south carolina....well,long story short-by the time i got them eating unscented thawed pinks,i opted to sell them off-i.m.o.,just a bit too much trouble ,and not enough return on the babies....problem being,which brings me to my next point,i think you asked about-the vast majority you see for sale are wild caught;freshly picked from under peeled bark,etc. in florida or the carolinas,etc....also keep in mind these are snakes to be looked at,not handled-very nervous and wriggly(ok,i'm sure some out there are exceptions to this rule,but few and far between)...nonetheless,still a very cool snake;oh yeah,btw,that earlier-post guy(sorry,name escapes me)was right-they really ought to be their own species,not a milk subspecies.

btw i used undertank heaters,but the ambient air temp was a little cooler than for most of my other snakes,say 75 f.....also i know a fwe guys that have quality c.b.b. scarlet kings,several bloodlines....elt me know if you want the info

I got the male, let me know when you get a suitable dark female and I am sure we can work something out.

Well, I think the more red the better! Although these blacker ones are nice too.

I almost snatched up a male scarlet king at the last Dixie Show. I went back to the table to hand the guy the $$ and he sold him!! Dang.

:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Now that is what I would want...would, heck who I am kidding? I DO want one. LOL.

Nice! That first one has got to be a female!
one thing I love about SKs is no matter how spastic some are when you first try to handle them, there is not one I have had that would turn down a ground skink no matter how agitated.
Put one in front of their face and its like crack to an addict.
They have a tremendous feeding response: too bad its to ground skinks.

.

.
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

.

thats surprising...they will usually suck up 5-lined skink body parts but neos can be real shy....they seem to feed best late afternoon/early evening, ,,

... a bit of a locality thing. Most of my wc are from areas where the s.e. 5-lined skink is more abundant than the ground skink, so maybe they have a particular fondness for them.
Not many refuse skinks that's for sure.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

yeah,i had great luck on ground skinks,less so if any on 5-lineds parts,even when it just came to scenting...and yeah this seemed so strange to me...

There was a guy in the New Orleans region (I think) who had frozen ground skinks for sale. The thing was he wanted 75 cents apiece. If you can find live ones they actually make great pets and breed well in a large enclosure. They are little monsters when it comes to feeding. They will take a pinhead cricket like a croc takes a zebra. It is to cool to watch. The males will kill each other if they are in a cage together. It just takes to many to feed a whole clutch of baby SK's.

Later Jason

Yeah, I kept some for a while. They bred well and all but I found myself getting quite attached. All in all, they really are very cool animals. I've always liked them and when I was a kid, when we'd find one or two here it was a big thing. Their subtle colors with the blue and brown are cool to me.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com