Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got these beauties from Russ Bates (thanks, Russ!). I tried to get some decent pics, but oh well.

The male is the top pic, he is the neatest green, but the pic doesn't show it. I like his pattern and especially the "winged eyelash" thing.

The female is next, she is more yellow than in the pic, with a cool peace sign head pattern and a nice blush on her neck.

The last pic is the pair, the green of the male almost shows up. Thanks for looking.

glad you are happy with them Mike. The female has a motley pattern down her back. I hatched out two like this and I'm keeping the other one. I've not seen this before in my collection and the saddles are more like circles as they don't extend down the full side of the snake. Should be interesting to see it develop over the years.

Thanks again,
Russ

I like everything about her,Russ!

Here are a couple of pics of the male of the trio of melanistic thayeri I told you about. He's a 2005 and a bit easier to photograph than the girls who are 2006. The females are more solid
black than he is, we'll see if that changes as they mature.

The first pic is him, second pic is side shot showing underlying pattern, and the third shot turned out strange and reveals more pattern than you can see with the naked eye (and a brown snake).

Does that pattern look like pure thayeri? Any thoughts? Thanks...

That pattern looks like no thayeri I've ever seen. I don't think that means it's not, anything could be accomponying the melanistic gene. I have seen a malanistic thayeri at a show once that was clearly a milksnake phase underneath.

my male melanisitc looks like a milk snake phase underneath his black shine.....very neat.

I' not sure what it is but I see a lot of something other than thayeri in that snake Mike. Possibly L.g. nigrita or melanistic Cal King influence. The dorsal striping alone is highly suspect.

You have to be extremely careful right now, folks know that there is a high degree of interest in melanistic thayeri and very few available.
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Mike

The more I look at those pics the more I wonder. I'm going to assume there is something else in the mix and keep them out of my "gene pool".

The melanistic Thayeri I had clearly showed a Leonis pattern in the right light, I actually like that part. But that one is striped. Either it is a brand new striped Thayeri morph that has been hidden by the melanism or it's not pure. The head looks different too but it could be the angle of the pic. My vote, not pure. There was a guy at Daytona last year with melanistic Thayeri x albino Ruthveni crosses, he had albino ones too so had been working with them for awhile.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

I agree. Got to be careful with all of the "designer" hybrids out there...

well those are very interesting. Like the others below me I see something I've not seen in other thayeri before (longitudinal stripes under the black sheen). I have seen and even own a melanistic thayeri that shows a bit of MSP under the black but you have to hold him at a certain angle in the light to see it. That said it could just be an anomoly. The face looks thayeri.

I was just at a pet store today and was admiring a thayeri MSP that was very temtping to purchase however the store also had numerous thayeri crosses for sale too......I passed. Don't get me wrong I'm not a purity freak but if I suspect something I typically avoid it.

As I was talking to a well respected herper last night he made the comment that none of us know for certain that our thayeri collections are pure...and he is right on the money.

IT's a pretty melanistic snake and as I always say.....if you are happy with the deal that is all that matters.

Russ

np
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Dan
www.SerpentsOnline.com

Russ those are really nice, you deserve congrats also.
take care
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Michelle

They are both awesome! I really like the clean, clean sides on #2. Great looking babies. thanks for the pic's.
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Michelle