Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Surely there are a few of us left.
Here's a Virginia mole king.
What localities do you have??
AL? GA? NC? SC? VA? FL? others???
:Mark

Hi Mark,
None currently, though I do look for them when I'm up in the hills stumbling over rocks- some people call that hiking . Kept one a few years ago (VA locale that looked very similar to yours) that was a picky feeder. Lizard or snake scented live prey was all he would take regularly. Some one brought it to me thinking it was a Corn snake, since they knew I kept a few Corns at the time. Nice looking Mole King, and I hope you get some current keepers' responses.

-----
Lora

.

Dang Mark. That is one fine looking mole king. Thanks for posting! I do wonder how many of us are out there that work with naturally occuring calligaster subspecies.

I've got two beautiful CB NC specimens. One is a gorgeous red phase. I'll have to get pictures up here soon.

Also, I just measured them today. They are both around 55 cm TTL. Is that large enough to breed or should I give them another year of growth?
-----
Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Pierson, I have no experience with breeding mole kings but with prairies I would condider that too small. The prairies here lay huge eggs and have small clutches. The before and after is fairly remarkable with a gravid female. The females that I have bred have been more along 3' in total length and usually have laid either 7 or 8 eggs. After laying they look horrible! The babies hatch out after a fairly short incubation period of 50 to 55 days at size of 10" or so and are very robust and often accept pink mice before their first shed. A friend of mine that lives in N.C. has told me that the mole kings he has worked with from that locale were tiny when first hatched, so there is a good chance that a different set of parameters would come in to play with what I have seen and what is the norm for snakes in other parts of their range.

Those KY Prairie Kings are behemoths Phil! I certainly don't doubt they breed at a larger size and produce bigger hatchlings, as well as feed on rabbits and human babies.

Do you ever find any neonates in your area? I'd be interested in seeing what their juive pattern looks like.
-----
Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

We have found yearlings a number of times in the past. Unfortunatly, the site in which most of those would turn up has been cleaned up now and is in the process of new construction. This is a pic of one that was found in May a few years ago that was probably hatched the previous summer. I probably have some pics of some that I have hatched but I can't seem to place them presently. Yeah, I love these guys

Thanks for the pic Phil! That's quite the color shift they undergo.

Bummer on the site too. Nothing is more depressing than seeing your favorite herp sites bulldozed. I've lost a couple tin sites to development in the NC sandhills over the past two years and it never fails to brings a tear to my eye.
-----
Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Well thanks a lot for putting the length in cm.! You know I am an imbecile. Now I gotta go get a ruler!
Anyway, I have some that are 36 INCHES or so and some that have bred at just over 30 INCHES. Honestly I have seen adults from different parts of their range that were anywhere in between those lengths, so I am of little help. I may lean toward the age of the snakes rather than the total lengh. Like most of my snakes, I wait at least 3 yrs before breeding, but I should say that I do not overfeed my animals either. I know other keepers whose yearlings look like my adult snakes!
Here's an adult Pender co.male that is much redder than in this pic in full sun. I have more pics and am starting to redo my pages at www.crimsonking.funtigo.com.
If you take a look let me know what you think.
By the way Pierson, I added a salt marsh snake page at Dick Bartlett's urging.
:Mark

This is their third year so I'll give them another year before I attempt breeding. I've got a couple other projects going so it would probably be best not to overwhelm myself with baby snakes this year.

What localities do you think you'll be producing this year?
-----
Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Well, I hope to get my north FL female bred again this year. She laid duds last time... Along with her will be Va and maybe GA "pure" ones.
Possibly a NC couple as well. And maybe a NC X FL pairing.
I had hoped to get those SC ones from the classifieds, but feared the cold weather shipping--someone else got them.
Of course, I will try and collect a pair of S.FL. moles as well
Just about every AL mole I have seen was dark and not really all that pretty.

Did you look at the nerodia page on my pic site??
:Mark

>>Did you look at the nerodia page on my pic site??

I sure did...beautiful snakes. Do you keep any consistently or just catch pregnant females every year? Also, I think I like those high contrast green and black banded animals more than the solid red ones.

The trio I got from you is doing fantastic, although still pretty small. I can't wait until they're adult size. I may try and switch them over to a rodent-only diet like I do with my Gulf Salt Marsh snakes.
-----
Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Pierson, I usually get my breeders well before they are ready (like late Jan-early Feb) and put them together when I decide which male I want to use. I am keeping a few nowadays and may keep some again this year if I get any really special. Most people want the bright red ones, but I like most and will be trying for some very light and pale ones for something different.
:Mark

no moles but a pair of unrelated prairies from Ok. and Tx. very cool moles!
Todd aka antelope

Not exactly those. My L.c.o. mole pair come from w/c moles From De Soto County Fla. Thses vary from the more frequently seen east Fla coast moles in that they are more often twin spotted and on occasion show a bright sulfer yellow stain to the back. Sorry no pics of them right now (I'm a lousy photographer).

Frank
-----
"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Was just down there this weekend and logged some promising spots
:Mark