Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are Cali kings illegal to sell in pet stores here in Cali? I know they used to be so you could imagine my shock when I saw a Cali King and a Ringneck in a petstore around the block from my house. I tried to talk to the "snake expert" there but she thought it ate crickets so that convo didn't go very far.

Legal to sell...it depends. A captive breeders permit is available that allows limited sales. No wild caught native herps may be sold. The ringneck sounds like a potential problem, as I know of nobody captive raising them in commercial quantity, I wonder where the shop aquired it?

>>Legal to sell...it depends. A captive breeders permit is available that allows limited sales. No wild caught native herps may be sold. The ringneck sounds like a potential problem, as I know of nobody captive raising them in commercial quantity, I wonder where the shop aquired it?
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Like I said I wanted to question them but the snake expert was saying things like, the cal king eats crickets and it will only grow as big as the cage you put it in. So this was obviously not the person i needed to talk to.

They also had a Bananna Cal King? Which was pretty cool never seen one of those before.

I'm going to go back to the store and look better at the animals and see if the rings look flawless like a captive bread animal or maybe broken, scars that kinda thing.

wow that lady doesnt know much, im not sure if they are illegal to sell there because i remember seeing a bunch of cali kings like 6 years ago when i was in california. Do you happen to know what species of ringneck it was?
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1.0 Albino Corn "Lucky"
1.0 Snow Corn "Snow"
0.0.4 Southern Ringneck "Collar", "Bc", "Lazy", "Biggie"
1.0 Green Amevia "Gizard"

>>wow that lady doesnt know much, im not sure if they are illegal to sell there because i remember seeing a bunch of cali kings like 6 years ago when i was in california. Do you happen to know what species of ringneck it was?
>>-----
>>1.0 Albino Corn "Lucky"
>>1.0 Snow Corn "Snow"
>>0.0.4 Southern Ringneck "Collar", "Bc", "Lazy", "Biggie"
>>1.0 Green Amevia "Gizard"

I can't say for sure what species of ringneck, but I caught one years ago in Northern California and it was exactly the same looking. The orange ring with an underbelly that went from Orange to a pink. Beautiful Animal's those, but I hated going hunting for slender salamanders all the time.

>>Are Cali kings illegal to sell in pet stores here in Cali? I know they used to be so you could imagine my shock when I saw a Cali King and a Ringneck in a petstore around the block from my house. I tried to talk to the "snake expert" there but she thought it ate crickets so that convo didn't go very far.

Captive bred Cal Kings are legal to sell IF the breeder has a CA reptile breeders permit and has all the required paperwork. Wild caught CA Native Reptiles are NEVER legal to sell in CA (albinos are an exception). The only CA Native Reptiles that are allowed to be bred and sold under the permit are Cal Kings, Gopher Snakes, and Rosy Boas. NO other native species/sub-species are allowed to be sold under the permit. Ringnecks are not allowed but there is a gray area if it is obviously an Eastern sub-species (obviously not native to CA), it would depend on the CFG Wardens herp knowledge and your communication skills. IMO, gray areas are best avoided.

I also heard someone swear up and down that their baby CAL king would eat crickets as well as pinkies at a recent herp show. All things are possible I guess? I'd have to see it before I believed it though.

Any pet store is supposed to pass on the receipt that shows they acquired the Cal king from someone who has the Calif Fish & Game Captive Reptile Breeding Permit.

Some stores do not do this. Fish & Game can't police everyone. Some Petco stores do this. Petco is a large company with lawyers on retainer I bet. I doubt Fish & Game would want to fund tackling that monster.