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gray-banded kingnakes
(lampropeltis alterna)
Great, hardy snakes with a locale look for all tastes. I have been fascinated by these snakes for a long time, but had held off on acquiring them because I didn’t know of a good source for solid locale-specific stock. After becoming aware of the great work being done by Bryan Box, Stu Tennyson, and Robert Hansen, amongst others, my collection has grown exponentially in the last few years. I hope to produce my own for the first time in 2017. I am working with groups of principally first and second-generation CB animals from a variety of locales, including: 9 miles North of Sanderson, 3 miles West of Sanderson, Hwy 118 outside of Fort Davis near Limpia Creek, “Big Hill” at River Road, Limpia Canyon, Madera Canyon, the “Headquarters Cuts” at Black Gap, and the Christmas Mountains. These are “10 gallon kingsnakes” as Bob Applegate says; they do great in simplistic enclosures at room temperature, as long as they have a warm area (in the upper 80s) to utilize when digesting food. They aren’t squirmy, and don’t bite. They can be a bit of work to get started, as they naturally feed on lizards in the wild (Sceloporus, etc.), but for the most part, I’ve found their reputation to be overblown as long as you know the usual set of tricks for initiating feeding on young snakes.