Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I haven't had a bull snake in about 10 years, but about a year ago I saw a pic of a red bull and loved it. Now that I've got some more room I think I'd like to get a pair. But first I have a few questions that I haven't really been able to find the answers to...

Is the trait genetic (and if so, how?) or is it just selectively bred for? And who would you recomend getting the best red's from? I've noticed that the juvies lack the color of the adults, which would make it pretty easy to potentially be ripped off.

Thanks,
Will

Red bulls are really pretty animals and a joy to work with. But as far as the red coloration is concerned it is a color morph that varies very widely, even within a clutch. All of them will usually be a little different but in our experience it is a hit and miss proposition when trying to produce only high red animals from any given two animals. We have been working with three lines of reds and the results have been pretty much the same for all three. We get some really high red animals, a few that are red but not quite as much and then some lighter/more of an orange than a normal bull out of a typical clutch. This is though pretty typical of color morph bred animals. Some are just better than others. The other thing that sucks sometimes is that the babies really do not color up untill they are a little older than normal bulls.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

Cherryville Farms

This is a Crumbley line red bull at 6 months, and at 1 year old , his line is the result of selective breeding.

...EXTREMELY lucky with that gorgeous animal, or is the Crumbley line more uniformly red?
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Carl

We have some of that line in the collection and they are very nice animals. But they still produce offspring in about the same ratio as I discussed in the earlier post. As time goes on this should become less and less prevalent if the lines are kept pure and then some line breeding is done.

John Cherry
Cherryville farms