Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this guy in here about a year ago and never got a defenite ID. He was sold to me as a melanistic cal. king, but I have my doubts. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Tom

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1.0 Albino Bumese
1.0 Columbian Boa
1.0 Mexican King
1.1 Alterna Gray Bands
2.1 Speckled Kings (1 albino pair)
1.0 Melanistic? California King
1.1 Bull Snakes
1.1 Red Milks
1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Red Northern Pine
0.1 Mexican Black King
1.1 Bearded Dragon (13 eggs)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko

Belly--

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1.0 Albino Bumese
1.0 Columbian Boa
1.0 Mexican King
1.1 Alterna Gray Bands
2.1 Speckled Kings (1 albino pair)
1.0 Melanistic? California King
1.1 Bull Snakes
1.1 Red Milks
1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Red Northern Pine
0.1 Mexican Black King
1.1 Bearded Dragon (13 eggs)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko

Looks right to me but I'm sure Kerby or someone else will have a better idea.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Both the Mendota and Davis melanistic locales have that belly color. Both have that body color... BUT.... the males usually have aberrant/striping pattern and the females have more of a banded pattern.

Looks like a cal king to me. The only weird thing is the almost perfect banding, but I did hatch out a female Mendota melanistic 2 years ago that had perfect bands.

Kerby...

Thankyou for your replies. I thought mendota too, but I took it up to the KC herp show a year ago and this guy who was supposed to know alot about kings told me there was no way it was a mendota and didn't know what it was. Guess he didn't really know as much as he said he did. Thanks again. Tom
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1.0 Tiger Retic.
1.0 Columbian Boa?
1.0 Mexican King
2.1 Alterna Gray Bands
2.1 Speckled Kings (1 albino pair)
1.0 Melanistic? California King
1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Red Northern Pine
0.1 Mexican Black King
1.1 Bearded Dragon

Also, was wondering is there any website that has any pics. of the davis melanistic's or mendota's that I could compare to. Thanks
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1.0 Tiger Retic.
1.0 Columbian Boa?
1.0 Mexican King
2.1 Alterna Gray Bands
2.1 Speckled Kings (1 albino pair)
1.0 Melanistic? California King
1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Red Northern Pine
0.1 Mexican Black King
1.1 Bearded Dragon

My site LOL

I have 1.2 adult breeder Mendotas and 1.1 Davis (Rick Staub stock).

I will post the pics.

Kerby...
California Kingsnakes

Breeder male Mendota

Kerby...

Kerby...

Kerby...

Kerby...

Wow, very nice snakes! Your fem. #2 mendota looks alot like mine, except mine is a male. I guess I'm going to start calling it a mendota..lol Thankyou kerby.
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1.0 Tiger Retic.
1.0 Columbian Boa?
1.0 Mexican King
2.1 Alterna Gray Bands
2.1 Speckled Kings (1 albino pair)
1.0 Melanistic? California King
1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Red Northern Pine
0.1 Mexican Black King
1.1 Bearded Dragon

I had the same problem with this guy..
:Mark

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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

I know for a fact that it is a simple recessive gene. I'm sure that the melanistic Mendota, Davis and Baja are the same gene. I haven't proved it out through breeding yet. I will be breeding the Davis and Mendota together soon though.

I do know that they are hard to tell apart at times (Davis and Mendota).

I will also be breeding my Chocolate Banana (Don Shores stock) to the melanistics to see if they are the same.

Kerby...

...I hope to find out as well.
Remember these two?

I kept them. Their father is the dark one above, so I may get some interesting looks in a few years...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

...how'd you come up with that,may i ask?

Well, I'll tell you, it has been a surprise just about every year for me with the parents of those two. You saw the father above, a dark "melanistic" looking mendota type.
I found out last year that he was wc many years ago. I've had him for at least 6-7 yrs. Anyway, the female parent is a "banana" Cal with no special looks at all really, so I'm always surprised when I get so many stripes and (this year)high band count babies. I've never kept any of the babies 'til now (actually, I did keep a VERY COOL striped one-pictured here)

I have an'04 with some of that stripe but not like this one!
:Mark

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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

Didn't have a pic on my site so I had to take one tonight and upload it to my site, so here it is.

Kerby...

n/m

.

This is just my opinion but I think that snake should be called a Brown-Bellied Hypermelanistic Cal King. Like Kerby said the trait is simple recessive and it is likey the same trait that occurs naturally throughout the San Joaquine River Valley, including Mendota and Davis. I don't know if it is compatible with the Hepermelanistic Cape Kings, "nitida" and "conjuncta", from Baja but also like Kerby said it probably is.
Also Hypermelanistic kings have been found in the Los Angeles area too.
To add a little further clarification, melanistic may be the commonly used term but they are not completely melanistic so I think Hyper, meaning increased rather than complete, is more correct.
As far as pinning a locality name to it I am against that. Generic, morphs and hybrids can all be great snakes but as a primarily locality collector with some generics I hate to see locality names thrown on something when it is not.