I have been noticing the trends of Thayeri aficionados for a few years now. It is almost funny to watch as trends go full circle (or sorta). Back in the late 80’s (1980’s for you young-ins) and very early 90’s Black Thayeri were all the rage, then they lost favor as lighter (white and yellowish) Leonis Phase were selectively bred. Then some of the red’s and oranges became available – MSP at first then growing numbers of orange Leonis. Tim and a few others did a fantastic job selectively breeding for clean bright color. Then thin saddles, split saddles, and low black were in. Now, the rage seems to be back to the lighter white and yellow Thayeri with the addition that the colors are cleaner with less gray. Black Thayeri are suddenly impossible to find when you couldn’t give them away a few years ago. With the addition of a wild caught female into Tim’s mix a few years ago, we now have “retro” lines gaining popularity.
It’s kind of cool that a little Kingsnake can have it’s looks manipulated so much in so little time without a myriad of mutations like the Cornsnakes have had. It’s all from people breeding for certain things they like. Now it will be interesting to see where it all goes, combining different attributes, low black, aberrant patterns, clean colors, wild head patterns, etc. I still think the very bright orange colors are the most difficult to maintain (or achieve) but I too like the clean lighter colors. Now for an aberrant spotted clean white, with no black, deep brick “split” bands/spots, and a cool head pattern; oh yah, with a melanistic sister with the same pattern showing through in the right light (LOL).
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles
