Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When searching the ads posted for Gray-Banded Kingsnakes I wonder why
the you rarely see Males offered for sale.
Any thoughts?

Males for sale. Right now at this time, I have only seen one that I need for my collection. Most of my snakes are females, with the exception of a East Sanderson male that I received from Ricky Green last year and a non locality male.

Actually oftentimes females are harder to come by than males. Currently I would guess it's because alot of the ads are selling holdbacks and/or snakes that people previously bought for themselves. When people hold back babies they hatched and/or buy snakes for breeding purposes they often like to have more females than males since one male can breed several females. If they later decide to sell their project, or sell a few animals out of their project, they may have more females to sell.

This can work in the reverse too because at the first stage somebody holding back extra females may be selling off more males. Except I suspect often the extra males are wholesaled and never make the classifieds.

Another explanation is that more females hatched this year overall. Skewed clutches are not uncommon, some years I hatch alot of males and the next year the same pair produces alot of females. If females are available and you can use them then you should get them while you can because it's usually alot harder to pair up lone females than males.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

I also notice that a lot of people will only sale pairs, etc. Many times its not stating if these animals are from the same clutch or not. As for me, I always try and make sure that I can get a male and a female that are unrelated.

Would the selling of pairs only perhaps increase inbreeding in the alterna market?

"Would the selling of pairs only perhaps increase inbreeding in the alterna market?"

Well it's pretty common throughout the herp market for offspring to be sold in pairs. Personally a generation or two of inbreeding doesn't bother me. I think a fair amount of inbreeding happens in the wild too. You may just have to go two different breeders and buy a pair from each if you are concerned.

Don't get me wrong I do think it's a valid concern. At least with graybands there are a good number of breeders who can trace their stock back to wild caughts and it's still legal to collect them from the wild so breeders are adding new blood all the time.

Some localities are more rare but there are more than a few for which unrelated stock should be obtainable with not too much trouble. I wish the same could be said for the kings and milks of Mexico. I would love to have some L. mexicana ssp., or some Sinaloan or Pueblan Milks that could be traced to wild caughts.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

Good points Aaron,

Unfortunately for me, I have been particulary anal about having unrelated bloodlines with my alterna. And another unfortunate thing for me, I do not live in alterna country. The price of shipping for 2 snakes that are unrelated can almost buy me a new snake.

Well it's a good thing to have unrelated pairs so I don't think you should regret it.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

No regrets,

I do really need to come out to West Texas one day and experience the thrill of Alterna country first hand. Hopefully when I do make it out there, there will be plenty of rainwater and I won't be limited to just seeing Crotalus Atrox, lol.

You just have to buy them paired with a female. Which is completely normal. Most breeders sell all their males paired with at least one female and then in the end sell of what ever they have left whether it be lone males or lone females.