Thank you all for the warm welcome. Most of my adults I raised from babies. I have Easterns bred by 1)Chuck Elliott, 2)Jimmy Mabe (who I have never met or spoken to), 3)Steve Fuller, 4)Hans Koenig, 5)Greg Maxwell (some bred by Howie Sherman), 6)Robert Seib, 7) East Bay Vivarium (apparently bred by Robert Seib), and a few bred by myself. I hope to enlarge my breeding stock, although to most of you that sounds crazy. I don't think I will ever keep more than thirty snakes, so, as time goes on, I will sell some of my adults and replace them with animals that are more enriched in some of the characteristics I value.
Dean, much of what you said I agree with. It is sad to watch the red belly color slowly get covered up with black. This seems to continue until the snake is full size. For those of you who have not experienced this, it is a given. Hatchlings show red color farther down their body than adults. As Dean also said, the color also gets deeper red with age, which to some degree makes up for the lesser area. Many easterns have a creamier red color, only slightly red or pink in some individuals. I have even seen some which are more tan to brown. The extent of coloring and the ablolute color clearly varies from individual to individual.
I believe I can look at a baby and tell roughly how much of the color will be covered up as an adult. If you examine their scales carefully, you can see parts which are red but appear to look as if they were lightly "airbrushed" with black color. These areas will be covered up with black in the adult. Only areas with none of the black airbrush effect will be solid red. Also, many red throat easterns show red only along the edges of most of the belly scales and an "arrow" of black runs directly up the middle of the belly. You can see the beginning of this phenomenon in babies as small patches of black in the dead center of belly scales.
Robert.
