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The story behind this young female (about 30 inches) -

She was found as a baby in someones backyard in Sacramento, CA.
She was shipped to Alaska to friend of the person that found her.
She went on an extensive feeding strike, resulting in her becoming skinny. I just bought her from that individual, she arrived yesterday and acclimated very well - after just a few hours, she was out "hunting" like my other kings do when they wish to eat.

I fed her two live mouse fuzzies, which she readily took. I plan on offering her a hopper (two if she takes the first one) on Monday when local pet store gets them in.

I do not believe she is really wild Sacramento stock. I think she is the product of captive breeding. I've never caught a kingsnake *in* Sacramento, but I've found plenty in the area around Sacramento (Davis, Vacaville, etc.) and she's nothing like them.

First of all, her brown bands are completely different, much more like spots than bands - look at her belly, many of them do not go to her belly. The bands she does have are far wider than any I have ever seen. Also - it doesn't show up well, but the yellow color is far more yellow than I have ever seen on a wild king from anywhere in northern california, and the brown is much more of a light chocolate brown than any king I've ever seen from northern california.

I will try to get some better pictures of her later this week, I didn't want her out of her enclosure for too long since she just ate and just traveled by FedEx and she's really skinny, regurgitation is the last thing I want to risk.

But anyway - anyone ever caught wild cal king anything like this in or near Sacramento, CA? How about anywhere?

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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)

really great lookin' snake.. best of luck with it.

byron.d

Thanks.
Pet store didn't get any hoppers today like they were suppose to (rodent guy was out). They also didn't have any live fuzies or frozen hoppers, so I got frozen fuzzies.

My two young WC males (cali kings) had never eaten f/t before. The one that is the best eater was offered two and took them, even though I can see a shed cycle beginning. The one that is a little more shy about eating (waits at least 5 minutes after food is introduced) and has just shed took one. The female pictured in this thread took two and is currently comtemplating taking the third. I don't know that she'll actually take it or not, but between the two f/t today and the two live fuzzies last friday, she's definitely had some good eating.

I'm confident I'll have her fattened up in no time, assuming she keeps them down. I'm hoping to breed her in '08 (I won't breed her next year even if she's big enough)
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)

Nope - didn't take the third. Lost interest.
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)

Nice Cal! Never seen pics of any WC like that! If she is WC, I wonder where from.

reako45

If she is wild, she's from Sacramento - what part of Sac, I don't know - but the person I got her from, it was given to him by a friend who found it in her backyard in Sac.

Much of Sac is too urban to have kingsnakes, but much of it still has farming going on and big open fields.

I'm guessing right now it was an escaped pet and is captive bred. If there are kings like that known in Sac, then coming from wild stock would be more believable. There are so many location varieties of Cal Kings that it is certainly possible she's wild stock, but either I'm ignorant of this variety in wild (certainly possible), or its a fluke of nature, or (what I think) it was an escaped CB.
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)