Black Mexican King Snake

Black mexican king snakes, Lampropeltis getulus nigritus, are one of my favourites. They have black eyes and the whole snake is a black colour, occasionally with a few small yellow flecks scattered along the snake. These king snakes do not grow very long, usually around 60 - 90cm with a maximum length of around 1m. The pure form is restricted to northwest Mexico. They occur naturally in parts of Sonora, Sinaloa and Mexico. The black mexican king snake integrates naturally with splendida andcaliforniae, in parts of Arizona. Juveniles resemble adults and are around 20cm in length when they emerge from the egg. .

Desert King Snake The desert king snake, Lampropeltis getulus splendida, is also a relatively small king snake, averaging 90 - 110cm, with a maximum length of 1.5m. The desert king snake is a dark brown to black snake with the sides of the snake heavily spotted with yellow that outlines black saddles that run along the back of the snake for the entire length of the snake. The desert king snake occurs naturally in parts of Texas, Arizona, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Sonora, Kansas and Oklahoma. The desert king snake integrates with holbrooki, nigritus and californiae. Juveniles resemble adults in appearance and are about 20cm in length when they emerge from the egg.

"Albino Banded Phase" Californian King Snake The californian king snake is probably as common as the corn snake in collections. Like the corn snake, there are many pattern variations and colour variations that appear on the market every year of the californian king snake. The ground colour of the californian king snake is either black or brown with stripes, bands or a mixture of stripes and bands. The bands and stripes are either white or yellow in colour.

"Chocolate Aberrent Phase" Californian King Snake As the name suggests, this snake hails from southern California and Baja California. Californian king snakes are notorious for their taste for other snakes - including their own kind. It has often happened that a sibling eats his brother or sister, something to keep in mind when keeping these snakes. Californian king snakes are immune to the venom of venomous snakes and wild specimens often feed on such snakes.

"Albino Aberrant Phase" Californian King Snake Californian king snakes average about 1 - 1.2m in length with a maximum length of 1.5m. Juveniles may or may not resemble the parents - striped, banded and abbarrent babies have all hatched from one clutch. Juveniles are about 20cm when they emerge from the egg. Clutch sizes vary from 3 - 12+ large eggs.

Californian King Snake (Banded Desert Phase) "Chocolate Phase" describes a californian king snake with a ground colour of brown and yellow and "Desert Phase" describes a black and white ground colour. "Banded" and "Striped" are self explanatory, "Aberrant" is a mixture of stripes and bands that are linked, forming a mesh pattern over the snake, S.O.S describes a snakes with dots and stripes along the snake. Amelanistic (albino) snakes lack the black pigment (melanin).

Californian king snakes are very jittery, they sometimes rattle the tip of their tale when they feel threatened. Juveniles are much stockier and longer than the smaller species of rat snakes. Juveniles hardly ever give problems when it comes to feeding them. Juveniles and sometimes adults will defecate on you when you try to handle them.

"Striped Desert Phase" Californian King Snake Very attractive to look at - black on white or white on black, depending how you look at it...

(Striped Chocolate Phase) Californian King Snake Different! Brown on yellow or yellow on brown,it is a nice addition to your collection!

"Striped Albino Phase" Californian King Snake There is just comething about albinos, that is pleasing to my eye. Specimens that exhibit a perfect straight, uninterupted stripe are stunning!

"Snakes Alive S.O.S. Phase" - Californian King Snake This phase exhibits dots and stripes along the length of the snake, and so Snakes Alive !!! adopted the name of S.O.S. for this variation.

Durango Mountain King Snake (greeri) "greeri" refers to the Durango Mountain King Snake, Lampropeltis mexicana greeri. This is a small king snake, averaging around 1m in length. This snake is found in the mountains of Durango, Mexico. This snake presents with a light grey background colour with black-edged red bands along the length of the snake. There is a distinctive y-shoped or triangular blotch on the neck that is quite large.

The Durango Mountain King Snake is one of the most attractive of the king snakes. These snakes only lay up to six eggs in a clutch. Juveniles are about 15cm when they emerge from the egg. Juveniles sometimes give problems with feeding. Juveniles resemble adults. Beautiful colouring and scarcity make the Durango Mountain King Snake very sought after.

Grey Banded King Snake (Alterna Phase) The grey banded king snake,Lampropeltis alterna, is a relatively small king snake, reaching a maximum average length of 1.2m. "alterna phase" presents with a light to dark grey background colouration with thin bright orange bands (which are sometimes absent) which are edged with black and white, that run the the entire length of the snake. "alterna phase" has on average 15 - 40 black bands.

The grey banded king snake occurs naturally in parts of Texas and Mexico and the Chihuahuan Desert. Juveniles are 18 - 25cm in length when they emerge from the egg. Juveniles often give feeding problems, only wanting lizards as their first meal.

Grey Banded King Snake (Blairs Phase) "blairs phase" just has extremely broad orange bands, but other than that, it is exactly the same as "alterna phase". "blairs phase" also describes a grey banded king snake with a light grey-blue background colouration with wide brigt orange saddles. "blairs phase" grey banded king snakes only have 10 - 17 black bands on average. "blairs phase" is the more popular and most common of the two phases of the grey banded king snake, on the market.

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