Reptile & Amphibian Forums

These are two I'll be pairing up soon. My first season with mex mex...yippie!

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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

This granite split-band is my favorite. Her brother is pictured in the last photo.

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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Nice, who did you get those from?

I got them in 2006 from John Stephenson (SnakeGuys.com). They parent(s) were collected by Matt Ingraci. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact locality.
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Hi Maria,

Those are nice looking neonates, but your information is erroneous. There is obviously a mix up somewhere because John Stephenson never got any mex mex from me. More importantly, I've never found, caught, or collected any mex mex. The only wild specimens of mex mex I have seen were preserved in a jar of formaldehyde in a museum in TX.

Later,

Matt

Hi Matt,

Thank you VERY much for posting and letting me know this. Before I had a chance to e-mail John to ask about this, I got an e-mail from him (although the return e-mail address was "undeliverable".

Quote:
"Maria, This was a huge mistake on my part. I had gotten a bunch of snakes (over100) from another breeder and I got a few pair mixed up. These snakes were not collected by Matt Ingrasci. I am sorry for the mishap. I got them from Scott Waters.
Thank you John Stephenson "

I just contacted Scott Waters requesting more information. I guess the big question is are these really F1 animals. I'll post if and when I hear more, for anyone who might be interested.

Again, thank you Matt for bringing this to my attention.
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Insignificant detail...but that "smily face" was meant to be a "closed parentheses".
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Now that Matt cleared that up, what they look like is something from the Granite line of mex mex. That line originated in Europe and Mark Bell was one of the first in the USA to breed. Don Shores and several others are now breeding them as well. I'm guessing those snakes came from that line somewhere down the road.
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http://www.hcu-tx.org
http://www.kingsnake.com/mexicana/
http://www.joeforks.com

Joe,

Don Shores and Don Soderberg told me of a man from Germany down in West Texas alterna hunting trying to sell them many years ago.

I think Mark Bell possibly got them from this German (European) guy.

But....I have no information on the locality.

I do believe that this speckled or granite looking mexmex can be duplicated by selectively breeding 'splitband' mexmex for necessary generations.

John Lassiter

His name was Helmut something, and Kamuran Tepedelen brought the first ones into the country over 20 years ago. Helmut was in west Texas for a period back then.
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http://www.hcu-tx.org
http://www.kingsnake.com/mexicana/
http://www.joeforks.com

I knew you would remember Joe.....

Thanks,
John Lassiter

I was thinking the same thing, that's why I asked. They look way to "busy" in pattern to be f1's.

What attracted me to this pair initially, especially to the female neonate, was the underlying speckling within her nuchal stripe and to the moderate speckling within the split-bands.

I understand that the ultra-speckled mex mex were developed by Mark and Kim Bell as well as Dave Barker and both lines may have originated from the same German guy (Helmut)- collected animals? Does anyone have any information about this potential common lineage?

Mike Kochvar shared some photos of some ultra-speckled mex mex he encountered at Mark Bell's table at the Tinley, IL NARBC show in 2006 and they were breathtaking.
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Maria,

Ok, I think I know what happened.

Scott got a pair of mex mex from me maybe 5 or 6 years ago. But the mex mex were produced by Glenn Palanco (sp?) of CA and he didn't have any information regarding the lineage.

It seems John Stephenson ended up with those snakes and bred them to produce your your babies. I believe it was an honest mistake on John's part.

Hope that helps.

Matt

Matt,

John also confirmed with me that he believes that he got the mex mex parents from you via Scott years ago as your post described, but Scott at present does not recall. I'm still waiting for a follow-up e-mail from Scott.

In any event, thank you for investigating this. It would appear in the least, that my pair are not F1's as originally believed to be.

Regards,
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

awesome, very under appreciated snakes IMO, even on this forum!
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http://www.hcu-tx.org
http://www.kingsnake.com/mexicana/
http://www.joeforks.com

I agree, very under appreciated. I love them.
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Maria,
those are beautiful, I love mex mex hopefully I will produce some this year. Thanks for photo's.
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Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Thanks, Michelle. Do you have photos of the ones you're going to breed this year?
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

you are welcome, I will have to get pic's of mine once they come out of hibernation. The male is a lot darker than the female.
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Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

These are way under rated as Joe Forks mentioned.....They are almost as variable as Thayeri.

John Lassiter

Fastastic mex mex, John. I would have loved to get my hands on some of those. Will you be building back up your mex mex collection, as well? If you have any tips on where to get some nice ones, do share .
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Maria

Alaska Reptiles

"Life is like a box of thayeri eggs..."

Maria....I am definitely going to get some Mexmex breeding stock again....I will share all info after I find out for myself if some folks are still breeding what they used to breed......LOL

Thanks for the compliments,
John Lassiter

John, one of the ones I have that will be breeding this year is the female I got from you. Is she in one of these photo's?
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Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Michelle,
I don't think that female is one I posted, but I will look for the picture and post it for you later......

John Lassiter

Now that's what I've been missing!!!!! Good to see good to see Lassiter pics up again!!!!! Welcome back amigo!!!!!

Shalom,

Pat

Beautiful snakes, Maria. I notice that the head patterns ( three "islands" ) resemble those on many thayeri I have seen. Perhaps another indication of how closely the subspecies are related . . .

Tom