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It has taken me over 10 years to establish and captive breed my "green line"eastern milks and I finally got eggs today!I have found gravid females before but never bred them myself until now....For those of you interested,here is a pic from the local.Jeff

>>It has taken me over 10 years to establish and captive breed my "green line"eastern milks and I finally got eggs today!I have found gravid females before but never bred them myself until now....For those of you interested,here is a pic from the local.Jeff
>>
Hi Jeff,

Are you saying this is the first clutch you've ever gotten from green X green? did the wild-caught gravid greens produce green babies? More info!

terry

It has actually taken me about 15(!?!)years to FINALLY accumulate enough of each sex and in the proper condition to perform "routine"breeding trials.These are RARE in the wild,and even worse than most eastern milks that notoriously are finicky eaters and prone to blistering as wc adults.I have hatched one clutch(that I swapped out to Carl B--and they didnt go for him)and Carl lost a clutch of eggs for some other unknown reason.The hatchlings are HUGE,and go through similar color changes as regular easterns.I find working with the small ones MUCH easier than the adults.This female ate only ONCE(mole) since found last summer(she is around 4')and laid 8 eggs of which 6 look good.The bigger specimens seem to show more of the "green"/"hypo"tinting than the young,but working with them this long I can start to notice subtle differences.I will be paying ALOT of attention to these eggs as I have also found an anerythristic from this spot.This project lost alot of momentum last year when my collection was stolen and these were all sold off as "normal"easterns....some people dont know what they have....these are some REALLY nice "easterns".Jeff

To the point though is the green animal in the original post a parent to the eggs produced?

That one in the original pic IS NOT related,only from the same locale.I am not able to access all my pics from this computer but this male exhibits alot of the same qualities(though not to the extent)of this other male.This "partial-hypo"thing in my opinion has to be somehow related to that faded out green one.I am hoping breeding trials will confirm my suspicions.Sadly,that other snake is no longer a captive,being released.ARGH!Jeff

>>This "partial-hypo"thing in my opinion has to be somehow related to that faded out green one
>>

jeff,

is the green one faded, or just green blotches?

and why do you think there'd be a relationship between a snake that's variated to green instead of red/brown, and a snake with a light patch on its head with no such color change?

td

Terry,what seems to happen is that in patches the scales develop some kind of "HYPO"thing,so much so that at first I thought it was a "piebalding"effect.It occurs MOSTLY with larger adults,but the typical browning look develops some kind of SHEEN that makes the brown appear GREEN.It makes the tan/cream areas WHITE,and it only seems to occur in patches and its NOT scar material.I have also noticed a MUCH cleaner pattern now in the spring on these and wonder if it may not be related to hormone production.....but realize that these patches do stay(though less noticable)all year.I think you know how special this locale is(and why I dont publish it!)so I am still thinking most anything is possible genetically.
Check out the BIG ONE around the outside pail in this pic.Notice the green and white,that is NOT enhanced one bit,even a BAD pic,lol.Realize this pic is a few years old and this catch represents 2 people's effort for a week and most were released....But it only touches on the variation as in this bucket was the anerythristic,and many brightly colored ones is shed.I continue to try and be open minded about these things and gather other opinions,you know how I respect yours.I cant wait to see how these hatch out!Jeff

I recall getting pics of Big Green from Carl but haven't seen anything to suggest that the partial hypo thing you're seeing in any way resembles it other than coming from the same locality. Then again my take might be a function of photo quality! LOL

Patches of scales that are faded out to a "hypo"that make the color change--black to brown,tan to white,brown to green.....I found the male in a shed cycle and to look at his head he looked "piebald"but only on shedding did a pattern reveal itself.If I can get my camera back from my girl I will take more pics....but that may mean she has to stop sending me naked pics,lol.Priorities,J

I love the Greenie pic.

Take care

jason