Snake purchasing help

[whistlepig]

Well, my family decided to act like pushers for my birthday and got me a new enclosure and setup for a new snake. I already have what I want, a speckled kingsnake, which I had decided I wouldn't get until I had observed one in the wild. But if my family is going to twist my arm, I guess I'll have to give up on my principles, haha. Anyway, I have no experience with buying a snake (my only snake is wc), and am looking for any advice people would like to provide. Speckled Kings don't look to be a hugely popular species for sale, but have seen some for sale online from places like "snakes at sunset", "repmart", and "sunshinesurpents". Anybody have any experience with these? Anywhere else that you know of that might have some?

A few factors that are important:
I'd like a young snake, I'd like to watch it grow.

Ideally, I'd like to get a snake that's origin is as close to my current location (southern Illinois) as possible, though it looks like most cb I've seen come from the deep south so not critical.

One of the things that have drawn me to this species is their adult pattern/coloration. Is there a way to know what the parents look like or if it's a speckled king, they all pretty much look the same?

I have time, so I'm not particularly in a rush. Plus I usually take a long time to make these kinds of decisions.

Any help is appreciated.

[toddnbecka]

I found my speckled king at a reptile show, paid much less than the online prices, but a 3 hour drive each way + admission fee to the show adds up too. Mainly went for supplies, the new snake was a bonus, lol.

Assuming they're legal to keep in your state, are they also legal to sell? Here in MD black rat snakes are a native species, no worries about keeping one, but you have to have a license to breed/sell them. (Not much interest in normal black rats, but there are several morphs now.) Next month's shows will likely have a load of new hatchlings, but I'm not a big fan of new babies, prefer to buy one that's established.

If you want to check an on line seller's rep go to the FaunaClassifieds page and scroll down to the Board of Inquiry, you'll find reviews there for most online sellers.

[dannybgoode]

Can't help you re: the buying as I'm not your side of the pond. I think it would be difficult to determined what a snake will look like as an adult with any great accuracy, however good looking parents do generally give nice looking babies. This is only very general guidance though.

What I would say though is getting a snake local to you means you can set up a really nice looking natural viv as you have all the flora you need on your doorstep and can observe their wild habitat first hand :)

[whistlepig]

Thanks guys. Speckled kingsnakes are legal in Illinois and I'll definitely check out the faunaclassifieds page.

Getting a look at the parents was kind of what I was referring to when I talked about wanting to get an idea of what it would look like as an adult, but as far as I can tell, you can't see the parents with those online sites. Which seems to get to both of your suggestions that my best bet is at a reptile show? I guess I'll have to check one of those out, especially if there's a chance of getting an individual from a location more local to my own than what I've seen so far.

[dannybgoode]

Thanks guys. Speckled kingsnakes are legal in Illinois and I'll definitely check out the faunaclassifieds page.

Getting a look at the parents was kind of what I was referring to when I talked about wanting to get an idea of what it would look like as an adult, but as far as I can tell, you can't see the parents with those online sites. Which seems to get to both of your suggestions that my best bet is at a reptile show? I guess I'll have to check one of those out, especially if there's a chance of getting an individual from a location more local to my own than what I've seen so far.

I'd ask for photos of the parents. If they're the breeder they should be able to provide these and I'd be suspicious of they couldn't.

From a store is different as they may not know the lineage but a breeder certainly should.

[akane]

I use private sellers off classifieds like fuanaclassifieds where you can ask for pics of the parents or join fb groups for the species/group of species and ask about quality breeders. A local area reptile group, or there are often clubs offline, may also know people in your specific area instead but the general nature of representing all species makes it harder when you are looking for something specific unless your particular area is the hot spot for that species.

[eminart]

As you are probably aware, speckled kings are a subspecies of the "common" kingsnake. I kept several of these back when I was a kid. Mine were all of the "black" subspecies that we had in my area.

For whatever reason, they're not all that common in the pet trade. The cali king seems to have cornered the market. I know that speckled kings are protected in some states. That might have something to do with it.

As far as how they look, if you want a lot of speckling, find a baby with even more speckling. I know the black kings look very similar to adults as juveniles, but they do lose a little of the speckles/pattern. I assume the speckled subspecies does the same. Just don't get one that's mostly black hoping it will develop more color.

Anyway, good luck. I've seen them on faunaclassifieds and kingsnake.com occasionally.

http://www.reptilefact.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Speckled-Kingsnake-Range.jpg

[whistlepig]

akane - great advice, I'll start looking around locally and keep checking faunaclassifieds and kingsnakes.com.

eminart - you'll probably tell me it was the first thing that came up when you did a search, but I have spent hours looking for a range map of the kingsnake subspecies with nothing to show for it. Thank you!!!