Reptile & Amphibian Forums

all it takes is a little time and TLC.
This one was WC 3 years ago down around Lake O in Florida
and was sold to me as a pinky eaty and has never eaten anything but. She now eats a big F/T Fuzzie q3 days and double clutched
last summer.

There beautiful snakes thats for sure, i actually caught one in the beginning of the summer and it was absolutly the most docile snake i have ever caught. It was as docile as my corns. I wish i would have kept him.

in the kingsnake classifieds all the time. There are 2 or 3 of them for sale now. A couple of them are good looking ones too.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables

here is one I caught last year and let go....I still cant believe I let this one go.... but sometimes it feels so good to just let them go on their way!

What state is that one from? Florida? No doubt that one is a beauty.

Steve

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My scarlet has eatin from my hands before. He does that head between my fingers thing that earth snakes do to hide.Wish i had a female for him.
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Doug
....and am I the only one here that thinks designer snakes are ugly ?

But anyway . . .
Most scarlet kings ARE skittish until much time is spent with them.
Very nice & glad to hear that you're having great success with her. She must be preety good size to eat Fuzzies...How big/long is she? Thanks for sharing.
Here's one from the sandhills of NC. :

Zee

yours has some really nice red to it

Nice cherry red on that SK of your's!!!!!
mine is LTC 3 yrs, 21 inches, and she is a chunk.
here is another photo of her

Thanks! That's a good sized beauty you have there. Kinda resembles a mexican milk with that deep red!

Zee

Maybe that's why I'm such a huge fan of Mexican Milks. I always thought they had a simular look to scarlet kings, but are larger/much more robust, and are pretty much rodent feeders right from the start. Not only that, but they are one of the more calm milksnakes. Mine is pretty darn laid back. Here's my 05 male

Steve

Thanks! That's a good sized beauty you have there. Kinda resembles a mexican milk with that deep red

My annulata should develope the tangerine bands as he gets older. Both parents had the nice red with deep tangerine bands. Kind of like the scarlet kings, where some develope the nice tangerine bands, like the SK pictured above, instead of the white or yellowish bands Is it a locality thing with the tangerine bands for SK's? Or can the tangerine bands occur in any region/state?

Steve

Beautiful animal you got there Steve! I used to breed those myself about 12 years ago when I lived in Texas. I love em' The babies are not that hard to get going either!

Zee

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Thanks Steve! I like your little male annulata! He's super clean looking!

Zee

Beautiful! it's nice that the bands stay so clean.I once had a little Lousiana milk that was demon possesed and no amount of gentle handling worked, I will never forget that little snake!

Size... It matters so much with SKs and their behavior in my experience. I have come across 5 or 6 "calm SKs and all have been over 20". I have a crazy little female right now that is under 20" but her long time mate was 24" and always calm. Out of he few 24" SKs I have seen all three have been calm. I had a monster in the making CB SK that was about twice the size of his litter mates after 2 months and he was calm at about 2 months of age but he died when I feed him a anole that was poisoned.

So I would say that like most snake there is a size threshold that needs to be met by most SK's. Look at easterns as babies they will strike at you every time you go near them. At about 6 months they stop completely.

I think the idea that you can out will a snake into not biting you is stupid and dangerous to high strung animals. It only adds more stress. Most snakes calm down with time.

Just my 2 cents

Later Jason

proper repetitive handling is the key I think.

Problem is most of us think we know how to properly handle a snake and sometimes the snakes don't think so.
Later Jason

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np

Bob That is because a lot of the SKs that make it into the hobby that people buy are the cheap ones. The cheap ones are the ones collected by the pillagers of the forest's bark. These are usually smaller snakes and are less apt to eat pinks.

You see come spring the southern forest tend to flood and the younger SKs seem to be in the areas that do flood. If you make it out in the spring you can peel every piece of bark you see and find SKs in pretty good numbers. Two problems here though.

One is that the bark you are peeling bark that takes about 75 years to form. Once its off the tree the habitat is pretty much destroyed. Some people have claimed that if you tie a string around the tree to hold on the bark it will continue to attract snakes but I have never seen this myself.

The second problem is the Sks found under the bark seem to be in the 8-12 inch range. In my experience 14 inches is the size that most SKs start taking pinks at. Yes some will eat pinks at a smaller size and yes some bigger snakes are found under bark but the majority fit this situation. The guys who collect the kings like this come up with amazing numbers of snakes. Sometimes 30-50 SKs in a day. They then sell these and because the market is so small the price is usually way down. Oh and most of these die. Joy of Joys.

At least thats my take on the subject.

later Jason

np

sad but true,all facts jason.....before i even read your post,i was gonna say,i would like to see the number of those cheap s.k.'s that actually survive more than say,4 months in their buyer's home...at leats i'm seeing more captive bred ones for sale these days....oh yeah i like the point someone else in this thread made about mexican milks compared to s.k.'s...and yes most are squirelly!but sure are preeety.

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