I am not sure if anyone will know the answer, however, do king rat snakes or rat snakes in general experience sexual dimorphism meaning that the males are of greater size than the female?
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I know in the wild, for black rat snakes here in Indiana, basically all of your 6+ footers that you find are male. They get bigger because they fight with other males during breeding season for females. The bigger you are the better your chance to pass on your genes. The females are usually smaller due to breeding a lot sooner than in captivity, and possibly dying due to complications from breeding. In captive collections it is usually different, we don’t breed for size in males, just females.
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That’s so interesting! Nature never ceases to amaze me! I have always assumed that females are normally larger than males in order to bear the young.
That’s why I love this forum so much! I’m always learning something! 
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It’s true that in many species of snakes, the females are larger, but there are a fair number of exceptions. Male cobras get larger than females (I think that’s true of most elapids, someone correct me if I’m wrong), and I think the Drymarchon genus (indigo snakes and cribos) also have larger males. I’m sure there are other examples I just don’t know about. In most of the instances I’ve read about, it seems that the males typically fight each other for females, so gain an advantage by being larger.
I didn’t know what @ashleyraeanne shared about black rat snakes, that’s super interesting. I usually think of colubrids as having larger females, but I guess there are exceptions!
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I never even thought about male snakes fighting each other for their females! Guess I’ve been under a 
rock! Lol! 
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I thought all snakes had larger females for a long time too. Most of the species commonly kept as pets do have larger females, so it’s not an unreasonable assumption. But in nature, there seem to be exceptions to almost every “rule” and stereotype!
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I asked the breeder this same question (where I got my king rat snake) and he said that all his males are bigger than the females as well. Ye I read usually in species that compete for females the males are generally bigger. Rat snakes , indigos and apparently cobras lol
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I’d be surprised if there weren’t differences between what we see in captive animals versus the same species in the wild. Females in the wild don’t get the same care we give our pets and breeding females. Making, growing, producing eggs and babies is a huge biological commitment. Herps do keep growing, but it makes sense that wild females can’t keep up with captive females or males in general.
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