Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had originally bought this male:

thinking I would find the perfect female and get the project started. Well, it took more time than I thought. I finally found this female:

but could never get her to eat. I then went out and bought another female, het for melanistic, and she pounds f/t rodents like clockwork.

Back to the point, the nice female finally ate for me, about 4 months later, I got her to eat a live pink scented with a worm snake??

Tonight she ate her 2nd pink. I am a happy camper. Now I need a melanistic male. LOL Even though they can be problems, I like the variables.

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Shane@SSuperiorSSerpents.com
http://www.ssuperiorsserpents.com/

Nice looking snakes!

I'm lucky. My one and only thayeri has always eaten like a champ. I'm glad I didn't get one of the difficult ones!
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1.2 Peruvian rainbow boas (Amaru, Asiru, Kulipsa)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
1.3.1 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Chakar, Hari, Saksak)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (Mora)
2.4.4 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Those are stunning Shane! glad you got it feeding man.

Well, there are definitely melanistic thayeri, but they aren't "het" for the trait per se because it isn't a simple recessive gene that can be 100% duplicated at will like other genetic traits, but rather a variation of normal wild phenotype. Your getting the one individual FROM the clutch that had melanistics in it, along with another one that IS expressing melanism will greatly increase your odds of producing solid black melanistic offspring, but there can still be variation of all sorts in that given clutch too.

Good luck with that project man!, I think melanistic thayeri are awesome, and I can't understand why there aren't more seen in the hobby. Heck, I have seen those in OLD kingsnake books, so it is surprising why there are so few seen. I guess the high-oranges and yellows took more of a "center-stage" in past years.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Beautiful snakes! Congratulations on getting the stubborn female to eat. I had a hatchling this year that seemed completely uninterested in eating. I had written her off, but one night after three months I left a small pink with a piece of bearded dragon shed on its nose. Next morning there was a beautiful lump in the snake. It does take patience. Now, with any luck you'll have some beautiful hatchlings in a few years.

Those are both very pretty but that female is eye popping! I hope she keeps those intense colors as much as possible for you Shane.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra