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cloudy day... not at bright looking as usual. Illinois bullsnake.

not AS bright as normal. (maybe I'm not too bright...)

Any background info? Is that Ill. "strain" or pure Ill.? Any recent pics of those Minn. bulls?

When I got these about eight years ago, I wasn't as into locale-specific info as I was just looking for good animals. They are from John Meltzer, het for albino, and sold to me as Illinois bullsnakes. From what I've seen, it looks reasonable, and I'm sure that if I were to get ahold of John, he could provide more specific data.
I've got Hog Island boas, Texas bulls, New Jersey pines, Stillwater bulls, Kingsville bulls, Minnesota bulls, Kunasir Island ratsnakes, Ohio eastern fox snakes etc... I also have Miami "phase" corns and the Colorado "phase" hypo bulls, "San Diego" gophers,; maybe I'm too trusting, but unless I see an obvious discrepancy, I sell them as they were sold to me. I sell nothing as "locale specific", but only as they were described to me by the people that I obtained my animals from. I take no offense if they turn me down because of that. I also try to pick from people that have good reputations as well as good animals. I'll post some Minnesota pics soon...

Locality smokality, that is an awesome animal. One I personally think would be an awesome cross into the Stillwater hypo strain. The move now is to outcross Stillwater to reds however as Stillwaters are generally yellow I think yours IL stock would be the better choise. Can you imagine the super yellow color from that cross?

BTW agree 100% on your take on stock. Unless the founder stock was catpured by myself or a close associate, I don't sell anything as locality either.

I most certainly wasn't grilling you or implying in any way that you are being untruthful here. I was just curious. I have never seen Illinois Bulls that resembled that and I sure as heck never heard of any albinos coming out of that area. Perhaps Meltzer could shed some light for you. I think you may have a "strain" of Illinois, but not an actual "Illinois Prairie" bull. That is a beaut' though. Thanks in advance for posting the Minnesotas. I always enjoyed your pics of them. I've always enjoyed the darker bulls from the northern parts of their range.

That bull is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for posting it!!!!!

Very coincidental that the albino bulls from Illinois were mentioned in this thread, as I was talking to John about this very thing not too long ago, so I thought I would share the info.

The albino Illinois bulls are not pure Illinois bulls. Meltzer took a wild caught Kankakee Illinois female, as well as a wild caught Minnesota female bull, and outcrossed them with a TX. albino bull from the Abilene TX. zoo.

The babies were then sold as Kankakee X albino bulls and Minnesota X albnino bulls. They were never sold as pure het or pure albino Kankakees or Minnesotas and only labeled as what was previously mentioned.

Hope this clears up some confusion, if any, to the story.

Zhaa.......do you have any more pics of your pits to share? Again....that is a killer animal!

Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1

thanks for the info... I guess the only confusion was on my part, as greyhound's instincts were right on the mark. I wasn't trying to be defensive or misleading and I apologise if I came across as either. I hope that this has not implicated John in any way as this is my own fault and posted the circumstances to the best of my recollection. Nice to know the rest of the story... thanks.

Yearling son of "not quite Illinois bullsnake".

Oh no Zhaa! I didn't think you were being defensive, misleading, or anything of the sort!!!!!!! You have nothing to apologize for my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only thought about telling the story about these bulls cause it was fresh on my mind from a very recent conversation I had with John about these snakes and your post reminded me of it. You did and said nothing wrong!

Very nice snake there as well!!!!!! You are making me jealous!!! Keep posting as many pics as you can!!!!!!!!!

Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1