Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I picked this girl up today from a friend of mine who runs a small pet store and is going out of business. She is a beauty with a perfect stripe and some great patterning as well. I would describe her as a striped banana Cal King but wanted to check in with the "Cal King Experts" to see if you agree

How would you describe / name her?

It appears to be a product of newporter kings, and San Diego types.

There are some key characters from these. Newporters carried the black on top the tail trait. Its very dominate.

The San Diego gene pool has the stripe continue on top of the tail, often breaking up into dots or dashes.

A banana king was first givin to kingsnake from an esturary north of San diego(natural morph). They are yellow and darker yellow(instead of brown)

Then later used to cover the lemon yellow kings with almost no dark(captive morph).

A true newporter is striped or broken striped down the top and barred on the sides. Of course good ones are right in the middle. And there are those like yours that tend to be very striped, and black bellied is common as well with these.

Yours appears to be a cross between a newporter, black on top the tail, and a strong influence from San diego striping. Cheers

Thanks for your help Frank. she is best described as a "Newporter/San diego Striped cal King: No banana because the banana phase has no brown. right?

Is this yellow and brown coloring what is referred to as the coastal phase in Cal kings? I know that some are yellow and brown and others are black and white. SO many different types of cal kings..I am simply trying to be accurate in my learning.

I didnt know that about banana's I have seen so many with brown on them mixed in that were described as banana...Learn something new every day!

Bananas are yellow. The term was applied to kingsnakes that reminded the viewer of a banana, in coloration. Which means mostly if not entirely bright yellow.

If a kingsnake has lots of yellow, but some brown or black, its a high yellow. It could be a high yellow newporter, or high yellow San Diego, Or high yellow, Davis king, etc.

If a kingsnake is lots of white, and some black or brown, its a high white. If it has a certain local pattern, it could be a high white Phurrump(Vegas) or a high white whitewater, etc etc.

Some kings have equal amounts of Black and white, thus a 50/50. What if a desert king has 70% white? Its no longer a 50/50. Some of the vista kings were 50/50 high yellow banana kings.

Coastal kings are normally yellow and brown of many different shades. They then blend into desert kings which at the far end are black and white. But then you consider, in Arizona there are desert type kings that are brown and yellow, brown and white and black both yellow or white, etc etc.

Cal kings polymorphic, which means they normally can have many different patterns and colors. Then Cal kings occur from mexico to southern Washington. Then to central arizona to the east, they occur in many different types of habitats. So yes, there are hundreds of local types. These local types are indeed independant of eachother. That is, they do not overlap.

Now consider, all the above has been mixed and matched and bred for abnormal colors and pattern mixes. Of course your confused. (so am I)Cheers

actually Frank, you cleared quite a bit up for me. But yes still a little confusion of course because I am a blond ;o)

Nice explanation. I have always called this guy a banana...I guess after your clarifications he is actually a high yellow. Do you concur?

I appreciate your input. Its always nice to learn something new!

Its a high white, just not very clean. Its not a local type but a product of crossing newporters(see tail top) Black&white(for the white) a coastal melinistic(to reduce dark coloration?) the melinistics unified the pattern, only it did it with both the dark and the lite colors. So we kept the white and yellow ones, then cleaned up the dark cast.

For instance, the Choco banana posted below is a non-cleaned up example.

I am not sure what the name is NOW of a all white or nearly all white. I have seen a few without any dark markings on the body, Just the head markings. Maybe a legbone Calking, hahahahahahahaha

People who actually do this understand there is no clear line between these types(trade names) there are only extreme examples. For instance, a black king is a king thats black. If its not black, all black then its not a black king. A banana king has to be bright yellow and almost no dark, or its not a banana. And many other cases. There are mostly tweeners.

As far as I know, there are no true morphs, that is, they breed entirely true. For generations, other then pure heteros like albinism. Cheers

the color in that pic doesnt come through well. Its a very yellow snake..no white tint..Your just a wealth of information today. thanks again.

I must say..Darn there are alot of color morphs out there!

I do totally get what your saying about if if it is not accurate to the name such as a black king being ALL black or a 50/50 actually being just that, then it should not get the label. I know they must be called something but its hard to buy off the internet sometimes because of that and the pics dont really show it well enough.

I dont by any means know enough yet, but by all means I will keep learning!

Dawn

Very nice cal king there! I really like the one yellow ring around its' neck that you can really see in the second pic! Good find!

Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1

I thought she had a great patterning.