Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Snapped a few photos of a melanistic thayeri shed that show the underlying tri-color pattern fairly well, thought I'd share a couple for those interested.

Milksnake phase melanistic...

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Mike

I had a trio of melanistic thayri years ago and noticed the same thing. Interestingly the trio and all the melanistic offspring all showed a milk snake phase pattern in the shed...never a leonis pattern.

I haven't held one in my hand, but I hear melanistic leonis patterned examples do show up. Personally I think the milksnake phase normal offspring from these things are more attractive than the leonis. From this point on, or at least until I can find a quality melanistic male, I expect to pair this female up with several different milksnake phase males... with one exception. That being one of her offspring males from 2005, which unfortunately is leonis.
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Mike

Check with Russ Bates. He has an adult melanistic male for sale.
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0.1 Amelanistic Corn
0.1 Tarahumara Mtn. King
1.2 Thayeri
0.1 Gray Banded King
0.2 Kunasir Island Rats
0.1 White Oak Gray Rat
0.1 Baird's Rat
0.1 Everglades Rat
1.2 Trans Pecos Rats

or two again. I always thought the black iridescent sheen over the underling pattern was awesome. Last time I had them you couldn’t give them away, it was very depressing. Where’s the snake now that it shed?
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

The female that shed belongs to is still in the cooler, the shed was from last fall. I had it pressed between books over the winter to get it flat enough for good pics. Difficult thing to photograph, I took about 100 shots with different offset lighting to get the pattern to show up as well as it does.

I agree they're an awesome looking creature, with their sleek head shape I like 'em better than a nice MBK. I keep hearing they were a dime a dozen not long ago and just hearing that is depressing. I remember them being fairly common and dirt cheap, shoulda made the move from triangulum and getula back when I first developed interest in mexicana and stocked up, I passed up some mighty nice jet black ones. By the time I got around to it, it seemed a fantastic looking snake had nearly slipped away. It's easy to understand though, many of the offspring quite frankly, aren't all that attractive compared to the super refined examples we have to enjoy now. It's hard to justify feeding and caring for a bunch of babies most folks don't want anything to do with.
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Mike

Oh how I want one.
Thanks for teasing me....lol..
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Michelle

And ohhh... how I want MORE!

You're welcome for the tease. I hope you work wonders with that male Ken was kind enough to loan you!
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Mike