Arizona Mountain Kingsnakes
Lampropeltis pyromelana
I’ve had a special fascination with the tricolor mountain Kingsnakes since childhood. My parents purchased a set of World Book encyclopedias when I was seven years old. Of course the first thing I did was to look up the article on snakes! There on the first page was a large color photograph of a gorgeous red, white, and black Kingsnake wrapped around a pine cone. Not knowing a thing about what I was seeing, I spent hours as a child searching pine trees for one of these beautiful snakes. Thanks to the late Roy Pinney for this iconic photograph.
Pyro Morphs
There are currently a handful of pyro mutations that are established or in development. My small group is focused on making what are known as Applemels- double visual Applegate hypo and amelanistic animals. Along with these there will also be single gene Appplegate hypos and normal albinos. Two other hypo strains, hypoE and Sentz hypo, will be added in the future. Thanks to Joel Reep from Prismatic Reptiles for helping me to acquire my initial stock and for providing lots of info.
Male pyro, double het for Applegate hypo and amelanistic (albino.) A classic Arizona Mountain Kingsnake in appearance, with great genes.
Double het female, Applegate hypo and amelanistic.
An amelanistic female, also het for Applegate hypo.
Locality Pyros
As much as I love designer morphs of various species, including pyros, I have a special place in my heart for locality-specific breeding. I do research and investigate all locality claims and only rely on credible information from sources that I can trust.
The beautiful pair shown above were captured as juveniles from the East Yarnell, Arizona region. The male is shown on the left.
Female pyro from East Yarnell, AZ locale. This pair successfully produced four babies in 2004.
The founder stock for this F1 pair came from the Cave Creek area near the South West Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Arizona. Male seen here.
F1 female Chiricahua Mountain pyro, from a wild collected pair bred by Gerold Merker.
About These Projects
Pyros have long been a favorite Colubrid snake of mine, albeit mostly admired from a distance. At long last I now am working with these classic snakes. Known for their beautiful colors, gentle dispositions, and willingness to feed on pink mice as new hatchlings, they are a great species to keep as pets as well as fun and fascinating to breed.