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Who has the nicest red bloods out there? I want to get a nice blood that will turn bright red as an adult. I know you can't really tell by looking at hatchlings. Thank you for any info

VPI if you want Red Albino's

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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

Hit the button to quick Kevin Marter has awesome Reds too.
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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

Yeah,that's the reddest Blood I have ever seen.

I am no expert but if you pick out a new "normal" brongersmai from a clutch produced from what most people would call "really red" adults, I would venture to guess your chances of that particular baby turning out the same color are less than 50% and probably closer to 20%. The parents themselves were most likely the extremes of the variation within their clutch(s) and they will produce similar variation. Red bloods is almost a misnomer as they are every shade between brown to red with some being tan to even yellowish. Almost all have some amount of brown, usually on the dorsum, even if the sides are reddish. I have bought many individuals from the same clutches of different bloodlines from parents who were both say 9 to 10 on a "red" scale and proved this out to myself. I would be surprised if their is a line out there yet where most of the babies come out 9-10's. If there is, show me and I will buy the whole clutch to verify this. The other thing is, the red coloration in photos seems to be enhanced more than most other snake colors just by the nature of digital cameras not to mention intentional enhancement. Also putting them on a blue background enhances the red a lot. I see this in my own photos so I am not accusing anyone but my point is be skeptical when you see a bunch of newborns that look red right out of the egg. I have never seen this in real life.

Good point, never really looked at it that way.But every Marter blood I've seen has been 9-10's.Maybe its just luck of the people who are posting them who got lucky or maybe he just has a kick ass pair.And thats not even there true colors yet as I've only seen them from 1-3 years old.Every clutch has its hold backs though.

A couple excellent points Mike. Yes, Brongersmai will often take a better picture than the animal actually looks in person. More than once I have purchased a Blood that appeared a nice red/orange in a pic,only to be disappionted when I opened the shipping box. I currently have 5 hold backs,from a clutch of 18 that are 2 years old, and 4 are showing great potential to be colored as the parents, who were exceptionally nice red Bloods. Some of the others I have seen from the same clutch look nice as well,but that's back to the picture point again. It will be interesting to see just how they all turn out.

Just wanted to add my picture was not touched up in any way and he is 10x better looking and Redder in person.
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Tim Rash
www.nocturnal-creations.com

Kitchi, I think you were just a little harsh. There are a lot more people working with red adults now then ever. As they start to breed them all back to each other and go for red color you will start to see way more constancy in the red color start to show up.. How do you think they were able to produce the cherry booms, buy selective breeding for color. Bloods and shorttails are way behind other snakes as far as how many people are working with C.B. adults. On this fourm alone their was a lot of success this year and in the past with a lot of supper nice bloods and shorttails.. Just my 2 cents, hope not to step on any toes.. Later Ryan T.B.C.

i think it is kinda like cal kingsnakes....it isn't like you are just getting one baby from the parents, you are getting 10 - 25 (hopefully) some will look like a mix of the parents, some will look like something the parents came from...of course there is a chance a few will look like neither.

for instance, everyone knows kevin marter produced a clutch of bloods from smokin' red parents...to which both of these animals came from:

the female, which in my opinion, is one of the nicest red bloods i have seen, and to illustrate this point, let's take the following experience for example...

i acquired this male from the bloodline (and yup, that was him under the bloodline banner at daytona):

most "blood people" would agree that he is a looker. a few months ago, i took him and that super nice "normal" marter female to my local herp society show and tell. people thought that the bloodline male was cool, but they gasped when they saw that female... i was expecting the opposite reaction.

but there are several of us who have got babies from that clutch of 04 marter's, and there are some really nice specimens around as far as being red. i don't think it's coincidental.

i also think about my good friend will bird, who has bred jungle carpet pythons for quite a while. his breeding pairs were bought directly from python pete. he bought lots of these python pete jungles' and raised them up, keeping what he thought was the best of the best.

he produces these every year, from the same bloodline, is it coincidental that his go for a premium price compared to most others? i don't think so...people know the bloodlines and what they'll end up with isn't some ordinary jcp.

just my opinion.
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www.redpython.net

vpi Dave and Tracy Barker