Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was kind of amused to see a reference to a zonata born in 1999 as "old"! I have a San Bern. Mtn. king (L. z. parvirubra) collected in early June of 1984 in the San Gabriels that is 43" long and thriving. He must have been at least 3 when we found him, but based on the size of his head I suspect he may have been 5 years or older. He was only 24" and "pencil thin" but his head was so large it appeared to be mismatched to his body. We took him to the car and fed him live side blotched lizards from our hands. He ate pre killed mice from my hand that first season, even full grown adult mice that he could barely swallow. By the end of summer he was 31" and very robust. He eats half the year and shuts down by the beginning of October until early spring. I believe him to be close to, if not 30 years old.

I did refere my 1999 male agalma as "old" just because it's much older than my other seven specimen, of wich one female was born 2003, the other six were born 2005. I know that 8 years is no high age for any kingsnake. I have a friend who owns a male L.zonata parvirubra even older than the one you presented, it was born in 1982.

Thanks for the reply Peter. I collected my snake in 1984; he would have been born between 1979 and 1981, possibly even before 1979.

Sorry, my mistake, I didn't realize that your old zonata was a WC snake and that it was already adult when captured. My friends parvirubra is his own CB.

I lost one pretty old male agalma last spring. He was imported from the U.S. back in 1987 as a yearling. He died from some strange intestinal disease making him loose weight rapidly though eating good the whole way thru. Vet's couldn't stop it. They suspected anaerobic bacteria (flagellates), but the medicine had no effect on him.

He went into shed and took to his hide, I didn't realize that he was dead until I felt the bad smell from his enclosure and by then the body was too decomposed to allow a postmortem.

I purchased a small zonata in the early 80s. The seller knew nothing about the snakes history. It looked good and was a great eater but one day I came home and he was dead. The same thing happened with 2 or 3 WC adult Tangerine Hondurans back in the 80s. They appeared to be in perfect health and were all great eaters but all died sudden mysterious deaths. I suppose now I should have flushed them out.