New MBK owner and a question

Hey guys, Im new to the forums and pretty new to herp rearing in general. I got my first BP about 2yrs ago, unfortunately I made a lot of mistakes with her, so Im trying to educate myself even more and do better. I recently went to Toronto pet expo and picked myself up a beautiful MBK boy. I think I paid too much for him not being that knowledgeable, but I dont care, I love him. He was a bit of an impulse buy though, as I originally wanted to get a strawberry corn snake. As such a lot of my research was more into corn snakes and not king snakes.

Here he is, his name is the Count of Monte Cristo, Count for short:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HyG...ew?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1HyG...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=d...iM3j0JZMArDf_f

Here's my question: When I bough him he was looking pretty much black. He has a couple of small white spots on his throat which I didn't notice at the time, but as I understand it MBK were originaly black and white to start with and then were bred to black so thats just an artifact of that, I dont mind it. But recently I've been handling him hes been looking sorta brown. Very dark but definitely with a brownish tinge. I figured he was going into shed cause he was looking dull, and indeed he did go into blue and shed within the next week. But heres the thing, hes still looking sorta brownish and when I hold him up to the light his scales and especially his belly still have this opalescent milky blue tinge to them.

Im not super familiar with him yet since I've only had him for a little while and honestly he HATES being handled so i try not to stress him too much and handle him nonstop. So I dont know if hes kinda always been like that and I just didnt notice or if this is a recent thing. I took a look at some other posts of MBK (adults) on the forum and they have the same milky tinge on their bellies, but I think that person mentioned that their snake went into shed shortly after. Basically thats what he looks like to me right now, like hes going into shed, except he just shed a few days ago.

Is this just how MBK normally look?

Here are some closeups:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=d...PwprrdXLhj_YoX
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=d...rDCeYwrrwXVGJD

His ventral ("tummy") scales are totally normal...what I'd call "pearlescent". His black color probably hasn't changed, you just didn't see him in a strong light initially-
some are blacker than others. I have 2 dogs, & if you see the bigger one first, you'd call her a black dog. But in the sun, next to my other dog, she looks dark brown
due to tan hairs mixed in, where my other dog IS pure black. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it...;) and these are excellent pets, btw. But babies should be handled
only for a short time & gently...they're afraid (anything that picks up a snake in nature is normally a predator about to eat it!) & also they can easily over-heat (don't
forget their tiny body size & that you are roughly 98*). Be patient...they learn & get better to handle as they grow up. I love corn snakes too, & many kinds of rat
snakes...it's hard to stay focused with so many great choices to shop from.

BTW, many snakes that appear to be black do also have red underlying pigments (that makes them appear dark brownish). Among "Black rat snakes" native to the
U.S. -some have red & others don't, & when bred for albinism, the ones with red end up with beautiful patterns in shades of orange to red-orange with a background
of cream or white. (I used to breed them.) It wouldn't surprise me if the breeder you got this snake from has been selectively breeding for a similar thing in MBKs. ;) But personally, I think solid black (even "imperfect black") snakes look fantastic too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

His ventral ("tummy") scales are totally normal...what I'd call "pearlescent". His black color probably hasn't changed, you just didn't see him in a strong light initially-
some are blacker than others. I have 2 dogs, & if you see the bigger one first, you'd call her a black dog. But in the sun, next to my other dog, she looks dark brown
due to tan hairs mixed in, where my other dog IS pure black. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it...;) and these are excellent pets, btw. But babies should be handled
only for a short time & gently...they're afraid (anything that picks up a snake in nature is normally a predator about to eat it!) & also they can easily over-heat (don't
forget their tiny body size & that you are roughly 98*). Be patient...they learn & get better to handle as they grow up. I love corn snakes too, & many kinds of rat
snakes...it's hard to stay focused with so many great choices to shop from.

BTW, many snakes that appear to be black do also have red underlying pigments (that makes them appear dark brownish). Among "Black rat snakes" native to the
U.S. -some have red & others don't, & when bred for albinism, the ones with red end up with beautiful patterns in shades of orange to red-orange with a background
of cream or white. (I used to breed them.) It wouldn't surprise me if the breeder you got this snake from has been selectively breeding for a similar thing in MBKs. ;) But personally, I think solid black (even "imperfect black") snakes look fantastic too.

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Yeah hes fidgety so i try not to stress him too much. Hes been getting much calmer though and getting used to it, hes gon be small for a while so ill have lots of time to get him used to handling i figure. I dont mind that he has underlying colors, and the opalescence is actually very beautiful. Just wanted to make sure it wasnt some issue that I dint know about that was making him look that way.

Thanks for the tips

Edit: Funnily enough I have a white spitz, if you see her she looks pure white but when we go outside in the snow in the winter she looks yellow compared to the pure white snow, so I totally get ya XD

Congrats on the purchase. I've had my MBK for about 2 years now. They are indeed beautiful snakes. She was a few months old when I got her, and was very calm... just musking a lot. Then she start being flighty and very wrigly... and now she's a great handling snake. They are awesome.

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Congrats on the MBK. They are awesome critters. Yours look pretty normal. In certain light, mine can have a the slightest hint of brown. There is a good chance the white specks will disappear as he ages. When I first got mine, he was about 4 months old and had numerous tiny white specs down his sides. As he got older, with each shed they slowly disappeared. He now has no trace of any of the white specs and is a solid black. You will be happy getting one of these. Great snakes!

Congratulations, you're going to love having a Kingsnake.