Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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lavender

thanks for looKING

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>>lavender
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>>thanks for looKING
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You REALLY make me miss mine back when I worked with about 4 different lines and morphs.

Ever seen the orange and black ones from SW LA?
KJ

No, i hav'nt seen the type you mentioned are they like the ones from Tex., BTW the orange and black specks are my absolute fav. holbrooks, hopefully i'll be adding some to my collection someday.

>>No, i hav'nt seen the type you mentioned are they like the ones from Tex., BTW the orange and black specks are my absolute fav. holbrooks, hopefully i'll be adding some to my collection someday.

Well, I lived in SE TX for 4 years not very far from where the orange ones were found in SW LA. I never found one ANYWHERE close to the ones I'd collected in SW LA. The "multispeck" pattern was the same, but not the coloration. I've seen some awesome ones further north in TX (perfectly "multispeckled" with light yellow specks!), but nothing like the ones in SW LA. Central LA has some ones that are a super dark olive green in sunlight (more green than the normal "black" ones), too. I've never been lucky enough to catch one, but I've seen images, etc. from friends who found them.

My favorite ones will always be from southern LA near the Atchafalaya where I gre up, though.

Who did you get your lavender/chocolate/hypo/whatever-they-are-called-today ones from? I regret ever selling my colony of them.

I got my lavender specks from Rainer, i don't think he produces them anymore.

KJUN, I hatched out several this year from Acadia, LA that were killer orange! Is that the area you were referring to? Or closer to TX down I-10?

>>KJUN, I hatched out several this year from Acadia, LA that were killer orange! Is that the area you were referring to? Or closer to TX down I-10?

No, but the first lav speck came from just east of there, and I grew up just west of there. The ones I was describing came from much further west: south of Lake Charles.

I wrote this for another reason a long time ago, but it'll give you an idea of what I found:

"When I had just got started in breeding speckled kingsnake morphs, I was collecting some summer data in southeast Louisiana and caught 3 males. The first was nothing special. The second was just orange enough for me to pointed it out to some non-herpers that were with me. The third male was slightly orange, but I probably would have overlooked the slight difference if I hadn't have caught the second one that had a good bit of orange. I, like a big dummy, let all of these go where I caught them. Then I caught a superb female.

Her ventral was extremely orange -- even the spots were orange -- and obviously gravid. Because her body was swollen with eggs, her coloration was actually purple and orange/gold. There was actually a second snake coiled up with this female in the knee-high grass, but the second one hit the taller, thicker, grass and ran. (The study site was in the second year post-planting of wetland aforestation project.) Obviously, I brought her home and kept her.

She laid 15 eggs good eggs for me four days later. All hatched (10.5 healthy hatchlings) in just less than 60 days. About 1/3 were distinctly orange (pumpkin orange), 1/3 were just slightly darker yellow-orange than normal, and 1/3 were almost completely normal. I kept the best pair of hatchlings. I traded a pairs each to 2 separate buddies and sold the rest. The female rebounded from egg-laying FAST, so I placed her with a wild-caught male from Clinton, LA. I never saw any indications that the pair breed, but I wasn’t positive that they didn’t bred. So, I considered her second clutch from that year as unknown.

About 5 to 6 weeks later, she laid 12 more eggs. One infertile one went bad within 2 weeks, and the other 11 hatched. About half had some orange (a few choice ones) and half were normal appearing. Some were even lacking almost all dark ventral belly markings. This could be due to the fact that they were incubated at cooler than optimal temperatures, though. I've traded off 1.1 to some buddies, kept the best female or two, and sold the rest. I did have trouble getting many of them to eat on unscented pink mice. The ones I kept and my friends' are growing good thanks to using geckos, though. The original female didn’t rebound too well immediately, but did come around before brumation. However, she didn’t produce for me the following year. I got rid of her the year after that when she stayed off feed for me.

I had planned on breeding my orange female speckled kingsnake to an albino the first year and a hypo the second year in captivity. I had also planned to cross the F1's together to improve the orange for crossing albinos and hypos. There wasn’t much fading of color towards the head on most of them, and they were all multispeckeled once they got a little size on them. (All hatchling speckled kingsnakes have the banding pattern.) Of course, when I took a job in Texas and had to sell off (almost) all of my speckled kingsnakes, this projected disappeared. I’m not even sure if the original F1 hatchlings are still together with breeders."

That is very interesting.

A friend of mine invited me down to Acadia to visit his friend, who ran a crayfish farm down there. All he talked about was the high numbers of snakes he saw on a daily basis, and me being a sucker for LA specks decided to try to track down a few down there. We spent all day hunting on clear April day and ended up capturing 48 snakes. 5 of which were holbrooki. One large male, yound adult female, and three juveniles. We decided to bring all of them home and see which ones we wanted to keep, then we would later return to release the "culls".

Well, the young female produced 12 fertile eggs, all of whcih hatched. They were spectacular offspring. Three of them have flaming orange/red bellies that even sweep up the lateral sides.

Some of them are in between, and then you have the normal yellow babies.

We still have the majority of them, but several of them have been sent to friends.

I find it quite interesting that you say you have had trouble getting them to eat scented pinks. We have too! Out of the 12, only two of them are eating scented pinks now. The rest are still eating live ground skinks. I am soon to try live scented pinks, as movement seems to start a feeding respnse in them.

I'll try to post some new pics ASAP of the ones I kept.

Not yet finished but you get the idea.

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Very nice work, I used to carve stone for bookends, paper weights and knik-knacks, it's always good to have a hobby.

AIEEEEEEEEEEEYOW!!!!! Now that is a one of a kind speckled! Dang, Toby that is truely the best! I acain't wait!
Todd Hughes

If I dont go blind by the time I finish all this little bitty specsssssssssssssssssssssss

Toby
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HAHAAAAAAA! I told you it would be a labor of love and not easy! I really appreciate all the hard work you have put in! Now GET "R" DONE!!! LOL! Take your time, buddy, just kiddin'! Can you believe how ugly she was when I first found her, but she will always be a special snake to me. She had a slight orange sidewall to her that I noticed right after she shed.
Todd Hughes

What no albinos?

Very nice. Lots of speckles(maybe that's why they have such a name lol). I think I might have to get some lavenders.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 10/24 NEW PICS/INFO

If you can find any Lav.specks get em, they are great kings that are calm and mild and eat like pigs.

I found this guy in early August on the road near my home. If he hadn't been on the road, maybe I wouldn't have bothered him, but I see quite a few of these after they've been run over. When I see a live one on the road, I grab him. Not that I really think it does any good in the big picture, but I'd hate to see him alive while I was walking one direction and see him dead a few minutes later on my return walk home. I have a couple of other pictures of this guy in my gallery.

Finding this guy might have been what pushed me over the edge into snake ownership. I kept him for about a week because I wanted to show him to a friend who'd never seen a speckled kingsnake. My friend never got around to visiting, and I put him in some woods somewhat near where I found him.

Bill

That is a very nice and healthy lookin speckled, a Mo. locality?
perhaps?
And i commend you for getting our friends outa the road, it's a shame that some people go out of their way to kill them every chance they get.Thanks for sharing.
this is a baby lav. speckled

I'm sorry, but I'm not yet fully conversant in the jargon here. Can you fill me in on what you were asking here?

In terms of locality, I'm in Louisiana just southeast of Baton Rouge. My neighborhood is one of those rural/suburban mixes. The road where I walk is bordered by many fields where people keep horses, but they aren't big spreads. There are some woods, but things are mostly open. Of course, there are ditches that are often full of water and a couple of bayous within a mile or two. Sadly, the place is growing up and is experiencing another growth spurt as a result of people moving from New Orleans because of Katrina.

I like your little guy in the picture.

Bill

I didn't word that right, what i meant was, did that speckled come from a locality somewhere in Missouri?
Well anyway that's a nice Louisiana speckled,lol.

Muy bueno, Jetzen! I love the norms but that lavendar is spectacular!
Todd Hughes

!Mucho Gratz, Lets see some o those killer Tex. Speckleds.

Maybe Scott or J. Lassiter can help us with some new Texas speckled pics? Mine are worn out!!! Will you be producing the lavs next year?

Todd Hughes

I think they're to young, but i'll prolly put em together to see what happens anyway.

Here are some South Texas Holbrooki / Splendida intergrades.....

The first pic is from Aransas Co......It is an F1 from wild caught parents. Born this year
The second pic is one of my Calhoun Co., TX specimens....it was born this year and hatched out of some wild collected eggs that Todd found this summer.
The last pic is of my my female breeder Aransas Co, TX Splendida/Holbrooki......She laid 8 eggs this year and all hatched....BTW...they are the most stubborn feeders I have ever had...Worse than any Mexicana......LOL....They have taken some snake and lizard meals and should soon take some scented pinks....

John Lassiter