Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How long have the Thayers King Snake (Tri-Color) phase been around? How did they come about? The Mt kingsnake does not get this large, so who did the work? Its a great looking snake.

Dave
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One man with faith equals the majority.
Thomas Jefferson

since the dawn of time, they are one of the original specimens.
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Todd Hughes

They were first bred in captivity between 1976 and 79. They were first produced in the southwest by two different breeders. (r & r)

Also, Mt. Kings, pyros and zonatas, both get larger then Thayeri. Both in the four and a half foot range. I have never seen a thayeri(pure) that large.

You may be confusing Ruthvens kings with Thayeri, as they are a larger bulkier snake. Cheers

One of the awesome things about Thayeri is that you can breed a pair and get 7-8 different looking babies out of every clutch. You really don't know what you're going to get until the eggs hatch. Kind of like opening Christmas presents. The variation in this single species is just simply amazing!

As one of the founders of this group of kings is, they are not bred true, no they are not hybrids so to speak, but they were out bred by locality. By a lot.

Individuals from north of Galeana were bred to individuals from Dr. Arroyo. Which is a very long ways and many different mountain ranges(populations) apart

In the field there were much like alterna, with alterna phase(leonis) and wide banded(blairs and milksnake) But all the different colors came from outbreeding them. And yes, even locals have a good amount of varity, just not reflective of whats in captivity, at all. Cheers

I've heard so many different accounts of the field status of these animals that it makes my head spin. A common element seems to be that leonis phase animals are associated with or more commmon in more arid habitats. Was that your experience?
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

hahahahahahaha that is funny, only because that is not my experience at all.

Whats even funnier is, my experience is also silly.

I am first and foremost a field collector. So most that I have found were in the field. I have seen a few live ones a few dors on the road and some of my friends found more on the road(I was sleeping waiting for the next day)

So here it is, I rarely found milksnake phase in the field. In fact, only one and she was gravid. All but that one were either leonis or normal, medium wide red, and a total black one. On the road, there were more milksnake types, in fact, most were.

As are as habitat types, that becomes a odd thing. As thayeri come from oak woodland type habitats, at lower elevations, you get alterna types, and yes, they can look leonis(half bands instead of full bands) These occur on the western and southern ranges from where thayeri occur

So again it becomes a name is a name. I have not seen a milksnake type at lower alterna type habitats.

But you see all types in the oakwoodland habitats.

One funny locality is on the eastern drainage, here the milksnake types go fairly low, but there are no alterna on the eastern low elevation hills(arid). Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm a thinking person could go nuts hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Ok, your right, if you look at thayeri as a whole it will give you a headacke. Cheers

Would it be fair to say that the higher elivations get more rain fall?
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson