To King or not to King?

[wstphal]

I had never seen them. Wow! I see why you want one.

 

[o7sugar]

Blotched king.
Also known as applachicola.
I have one and she is an absolute doll
Huge, sweet, mellow, and wonderful is my girl Maytag!

(I know, I have posted these pics before, I really need to do a photo shoot with this girl)

Wow Beth!!! Her pattern reminds me of a checkerboard and I just love it!! Uh oh this could be really bad for me!! :uhoh: Like I need something else..... hee heee heeeeee...yup I DO!!!!

 

[The_Thunderer]

I love catching/releasing CA kings here in AZ... BUT, my favs are the FL kings. Either way, you're getting a great snake.

 

[danielle]

FL king all the way!!! They get slightly bigger than a corn, but not too big, make great garbage disposals, and have awesome personalities. Mine is always out day or night and has a ton of personality

 

[tyflier]

Florida Kings. They are my favorite, after greybands, and since you can't have greybands...get a floridana! I have several and they are all AWESOME!! Fantastic little garbage disposals with wonderful personalities...

 

[Hallie]

Y'all are making me want more kings... :awcrap:

 

[starsevol]

Wow Beth!!! Her pattern reminds me of a checkerboard and I just love it!! Uh oh this could be really bad for me!! :uhoh: Like I need something else..... hee heee heeeeee...yup I DO!!!!

Thanx Nicole!
She is a bit strange, as her pattern is referred to as a patternless. Most blotched kings have a pattern to them. She was a gift from another member on here, who I met last year irl. He knew I wanted a king as a garbage disposal and was looking for a good home for this girl, and it was fate

 

[desertanimal]

I love catching/releasing CA kings here in AZ... BUT, my favs are the FL kings. Either way, you're getting a great snake.

Fred, where do you find them?

 

[The_Thunderer]

Fred, where do you find them?

You know... I might be wrong in calling them California Kings... They "look" like normal Cal Kings, but when I looked them up, they're just called "Common Kingsnakes". The ones in the link are EXACTLY what I've been catching.

FORGIVE ME if I've been wrong all along. AM I wrong? I certainly hope not... else I'll have to correct myself with LOTS of people. LOL.

EDIT: I catch them ALL OVER where I live in Mesa. Thus far this year, I've already caught at least 8... Beginning that hot week we had in February.

 

[desertanimal]

I was just wondering where you find kingsnakes at all. I've never caught one and I'd love to! Do you find them at night? Where do you look? I've never really gone herping in the city! LOL!

 

[wade]

Fred, they are Cal Kings. I have seen a few sites lately that call them Common Kings as well but California King is the common name that has been around the longest. Lampropeltis getula californiae is the Latin.

Steph, I seem to see them the most around farm land and streams. They don't live in the water but I seem to see them most often around areas where water is available. I'm guessing between dusk and midnight would be the best time to road cruse for them.

 

[desertanimal]

Steph, I seem to see them the most around farm land and streams. They don't live in the water but I seem to see them most often around areas where water is available. I'm guessing between dusk and midnight would be the best time to road cruse for them.

Yeah. I'm just wondering what types of environments Fred is finding them in in the city, where there are neither farms nor streams, and where driving slowly along the roads and stopping randomly for snakes is frowned upon by other drivers. It takes an hour of driving just to get out of the city from my house, which I'm not always up for. :nope: The possibility of in-city herping interests me greatly.

 

[wade]

Not so much anymore but I used to see them around the neighborhood streets. The kids in the neighborhood used to bring them to me fairly often. I don't see them so much any more but I don't know why.

 

[The_Thunderer]

Yeah. I'm just wondering what types of environments Fred is finding them in in the city, where there are neither farms nor streams, and where driving slowly along the roads and stopping randomly for snakes is frowned upon by other drivers. It takes an hour of driving just to get out of the city from my house, which I'm not always up for. :nope: The possibility of in-city herping interests me greatly.

Sorry, Steph... I keep popping on and off of here.

We're right on the edge of the city... the RM 202 is just north of us and north of that is a huge nothing until the road that goes to Fountain Hills... there's a huge tract of land just to the east of us... and all around us is a little bit of "desert".

I find them at all hours... mostly because I'm not the only one looking. Most of the time it is other staff around where we live that call me to catch and relocate them - which I happily do!!! The alternative is to let those that are irrationally fearful of ANY snake kill them and then tell me later.

Thanks for the clarification, Wade. I thought I was giving out bad information... which I never want to do.

And to the OP... Funny thing about the Cal/Common Kings I find. THEY have never bitten me. The Cal King that has bitten me was a nice little 50/50 CB Cal King. LOL. W/C Cals are so very friendly.

 

[desertanimal]

Sorry, Steph... I keep popping on and off of here.

We're right on the edge of the city... the RM 202 is just north of us and north of that is a huge nothing until the road that goes to Fountain Hills... there's a huge tract of land just to the east of us... and all around us is a little bit of "desert".

No need to apologize for anything.

Ah. That makes more sense, but I was excited about the possibility of finding them near home! Guess not. Oh well.

 

[wade]

Fred I'm curious, how do people find you to ask for help? Are you regulated in Arizona? In Florida you can't relocate a snake off the property you found it on, which makes relocation rather stupid. Does Arizona have any rules about where you take animals to release?

 

[The_Thunderer]

The people who call me are the ones who live on our campus (Remember I work at a Children's Home... we've got 105 acres of campus and desert). They're all employees or volunteers and they've all got my cell phone number. They call me at any time.

As for relocating... I went to the Arizona Herpetological Society and asked about relocating rattlesnakes OFF of the property. They said it is fine and I usually only take them about 5 miles away where the REAL desert is. I'm not sure if they just made that up or not, but I've met a few of them and they're pretty legalistic, so I don't think I have anything to worry about. A policeman once stopped to see what I was doing and actually thought it was "nice" of me to want to save the rattlesnakes... so I've taken that as a good sign too.

The kings, longnosed snakes, night snakes & coachwhips I find are usually relocated right within our 105 acres of land.

 

[wade]

That is really cool Fred. You do the world a service. Well maybe just a corner of Arizona but a service non the less.

 

[tyflier]

You know... I might be wrong in calling them California Kings... They "look" like normal Cal Kings, but when I looked them up, they're just called "Common Kingsnakes". The ones in the link are EXACTLY what I've been catching.

FORGIVE ME if I've been wrong all along. AM I wrong? I certainly hope not... else I'll have to correct myself with LOTS of people. LOL.

EDIT: I catch them ALL OVER where I live in Mesa. Thus far this year, I've already caught at least 8... Beginning that hot week we had in February.

All Lampropeltis getula are "common kingsnakes". L.g. floridana, L.g. splendida, L.g. californiae, L.g. holbrooki, L.g. getula, L.g. negritus...they are all Common Kingsnake subspecies.

So Fred, you are correct in that those are Cali Kings. But they are a subspecies of the Common King.

 

[tyflier]

Fred I'm curious, how do people find you to ask for help? Are you regulated in Arizona? In Florida you can't relocate a snake off the property you found it on, which makes relocation rather stupid. Does Arizona have any rules about where you take animals to release?

I'm not in Arizona, obviously, but as another piece of the "puzzle", California doesn't have any relocation regulations, per se, but they do have captivity regulations. Under normal conditions, once you place an animal in captivity(meaning you remove it from the wild and put it in a container), legally, you either keep it or kill it. This means that collecting a snake from someone's property and putting it in a container to move it would normally be illegal. However, the DFG will grant people the right to remove snakes and relocate them. I was given 24 hours to release any captured snakes as leeway for this section of the regulations.

Just in case you were curious...