Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a really nice pair of Ga. Easterns from Kevin Enge in Daytona this year and I'm curious about what people here think of them genetically. I've read some comments where people consider them to have floridana or even "goini" influence. But where the parents of these originate from do those ranges even overlap? They are unusual looking and don't look anything like easterns that I grew up knowing. But I don't really see floridana in them. I would expect them to be more speckled if that were the case. And these definitely are very "solid colored" animals. Is it because they have shades of orange, red and yellow in them that makes people think that? What are your thoughts?

Thanks.

I have 2 GA females that I plan to breed to an unknown locale male next yr. & see what happens I don't have picts of them yet as I am recently getting back on my feet from a seperation. but I like easterns of all locales. Mine are thin banded but real dark. I don't think they have floridina in them at all as all the ones I've seen are dark animals.

Having lived in South GA. for at least six years and collected MANY, MANY Easterns (when they were still legal) back in the eighties, I can tell you those Kevin Enge animals are typical for (extreme central to extreme southeast) South Georgia animals and ARE PURE Easterns. Here's one of my Kevin Enge beauties (a two year old male already well over four foot long!!!):

Zee

Hi Mike,

Some people assume that this lineage of animals has some other getula influence because of their geographic location in relation to other getula (close to goini) and/or because of the orange color (silly, as most baby easterns have some orange) and increased band width that occurs in a large percentage of hatchlings. however, both Kevin and myself have slectively bred this strain of kings for generations for those exact qualities. My F1s look just like the animal Zee posted, however the next generation had some with wider bands and more orange. I bred those together and surprise, surprise a percentage had even wider bands and even more orange. Even though those traits are exactly what was selected for in my unnatural selection, it is assumed by some that other GA getula must have been thrown into the mix. I will certainly concede that a goini may have gotten it on with a Georgia eastern at some point prior to captivity, but surprisingly none of these snakes ever develop any speckling with age - a major identifying trait of goini. We have no way of knowing what happened in the wild, but in my opinion they as "pure" as any eastern lineage in captivity. Thanks.

Will

This SE. GA. male has wide bands with some brown speckling on some of the white. With the way this one's bands looks (WC, Mc Intosh county, GA.), one must certainly assume at the minimum there was at least some Brooksi Influence a long, long, time ago. . . Not to mention the fact that THIS individual can actually eat a LARGE rat!!!! A feat usually accomplished by large "canal" brooksi only. This Kingsnake eats rats bigger than Big John ever could - And Big John was almost a foot longer than this guy but did have a slightly smaller head.

Zee

from a bird's eye view, I don't think any self-srespecting owl would ever attempt a swoop on that guy! Look at those fake eye blotches! Looks like he is looKING at you! Cool snake, Zee!
Todd Hughes

Thanks Todd ! Wha - sappenin' doooode!
NICE firebellied newt. . .err I mean firebellied Kingsnake you got there!

Zee

Very nice Eastern Zee. I have to agree with Todd. Your king has a very interesting head pattern. Looks like a pair of eyes looking up at you. You'll have to post a close up of his head pattern when you get a chance.

Steve

Thanks for noticing, Steve! I think that was just the camera flash playing tricks on it!

Zee

Thanks for everyone who responded. I was just curious what everyone thought since I've heard some differing opinions.