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is driving me crazy cause I can't keep em all! Whenever I decide to add a pair of snakes to my collection I usually buy about three pair and raise them for a little while before settling on the actual pair I'll keep. This year I was down to one of two males but I think this guy is winning the race. Problem is that I also wanted to keep his sister but given I only maintain 3.3 thayeri I don't really want one pair to be siblings. Anyway here he is.

Hey Tony, that one is super nice, I really like the clean head on him. So now my question is, if you only keep 3.3 Thayeri, what else do you have in your collection?

Adam
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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

in addition to the thayeri and a few odds and ends I'm working with:
3.3 hypo coastal plains milksnakes
2.2 Val Verde county TX Bairds rats
1.1 blotched kings (male is blaze phase female is hi red from Brandon Ozborne)
1.1 Northampton County Virginia eastern kings
1.1 red phase western hogs
1.1 het albino western hogs
1.0 hypo scarlet king
1.1 het scarlet kings

if she's all grown up that is. I may have one to trade.

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

She's a yearlying too. I actually went down tot get some better pics of her but she was in a shed phase so I shot the male for a bit. hear is an older pic from before I read the manual!

I think we all “feel your pain”! I find it is best to make up your mind and move the others out quick (out of sight, out of mind) so feel free to send him to me (LOL).

What does the other male you are considering look like?

With 3.3, I don’t see the problem with maintaining a brother and sister, you have two non-related males (three more if this makes 4.4). What would the problem be? Seems like there is little danger of inbreeding.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

Rick I think I obsess about inbreeding more than most. One pair of sibs wouldn’t be too bad but three of the other four are Vivid stock and two of those are F1 outcrosses to Tim’s w/c female. They came from different clutches but I don’t know if Tim used separate sires that year or not. On top of that I assume that most of these “lines” go back a small number of founding breeders. I wouldn’t be surprised if Applegate stock is in the ancestry of every one of my animals!

>>Rick I think I obsess about inbreeding more than most. One pair of sibs wouldn’t be too bad but three of the other four are Vivid stock and two of those are F1 outcrosses to Tim’s w/c female. They came from different clutches but I don’t know if Tim used separate sires that year or not. On top of that I assume that most of these “lines” go back a small number of founding breeders. I wouldn’t be surprised if Applegate stock is in the ancestry of every one of my animals!

Tony, me thinks thou worry too much.

I say this light heartedly of course and I certainly respect (and agree) with your desire not to inbreed. By your own stated belief though, most of our thayeri have common threads. There is certainly some diversity; especially with the injection of wild stock into the mix, (I think there could be more of this than is common knowledge, but that is another discussion). However, it is probably not practical to obsess about it. Due diligence in not breeding relations is good though.

Obsess about only using robust “alpha” snakes in your breeding programs.

We could easily start a lengthy discussion on aspects of in-breeding. I have many thoughts on the subject as well as personal experience (good and bad) breeding show animals.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

That guy certainly is a looker. I LOVE the green ones. Was he that green as a hatchling, or has he made a color change? Definately a keeper hands down.
Ken

He was yellow as a neonate. The reason I picked him out was becasue of the high triad count, clean head pattern (or lack of) and super clean ground color.

The pone you posted is nice as well.

I was kidding but to a degree I do "obsess" about inbreeding. Still, it’s not like I loose any sleep over it, I just want the greatest possible genetic variability in my collection possible. IMHO that is what makes thayeri variable and how one can produce the greatest number of unique and different specimens.

Inbreeding is an interesting subject and it does get a lot of bad press. For me it’s an issue of balance but given that its pretty safe to assume the gene pool of cb thayeri isn't very deep to start with I simply err on the side of caution.

I like the idea of having very diverse bloodlines too. I have thayeri from 9 different reputable thayeri breeders. I'll soon have another from one more and hopefully 2 or 3 more in the near future.
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Vichris

Vichris Variables