Yeah, the people on the other forum don't know what they are talking about. Not all so-called Okeetees necessarily have extremely thick black borders anyway, especially the locality specimens. It just so happens that many do and of course because many years ago captive-breeders like Kathy Love, Lee Abbott, and Jeff Cochran selectively-bred for those characteristic because it is a very eye pleasing phenotype. Also, the term "Okeetee" can be very misleading and mean VERY different things to different people in the hobby.

See, starting back several decades ago, the term "Okeetee" was applied to cornsnakes that are richly colored with orange and deep red blotch saddles because the 50,000 acre Okeetee Gun Club estate in Jasper, South Carolina tended to have some very vivid and colorful corns that could be found there. This is the phenotype that has been bred for now for many years, and Lee Abbott really keyed in on the thick black borders in his projects and now the look is basically a houshold name. They don't necessarily have to be locality-specific to be called Okeetees, but to distinguish between the two, I like to call the non-locale types "Okeetee phase" corns with an emphasis on "phase" at the end.

True "Okeetee" corns are corns that that have traceable lineage actually ORIGINATING from the Okeetee Gun Club property, not just line-bred for the similar look. Not all locality-specific Okeetee corns will look like Lee Abbott's or Kathy Love's Okeetee's either, but some certainly do. The problem is most people in the hobby call almost any "classic" corn that is richly colored with vivid orange and deep red with thick black saddle borders an Okeetee, and they certainly are, just not necessarily locality-specific Okeetee stock is all. The important thing to keep in mind is are they actual locality Okeetees, or simply Okeetee "phase" animals?. They can have VERY similar looks, but one means a specific locale, and the other one means a certain "look" that the area was renowned for having.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if yours did originate from that locale, or at least parental stock that did.



cheers, ~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

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