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.

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.

About This Project

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. Pyros have long been a favorite Colubrid snake of mine, albeit mostly admired from a distance. I am very glad to be working with this small group of pyros and am looking forward to expanding the size of this project. Thanks to Joel Reep from Prismatic Reptiles for helping me to acquire my stock and for providing lots of info.