Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking of getting into breeding thayeri aka variable kingsnakes, but I wanted to ask a few questions first. To start off, it is said that a clutch of eggs will often produce different looking babies. To what extent is this true? Does this mean that I can go out and by a $45 milksnake phase, and a $50 leonis phase, and in a couple of years get babies worth nearly $200, (I've been looking at the mountain kings website a lot lately)? In other words, can a pair of plain, nothing-very-special-about-them parents result in magnificent looking babies, like some of the peach and "volcano" phases that seem so popular? I love the fact that you never really know what will come out of the eggs, it is what has really attracted me to thayeri over gray-bands, durangos, and mex-mex. I'm planning on getting two females and a male, at least one black phase female, maybe the other female leonis, and the male milksnake, or vice versa. Thanks for your help!

-Mack

As a general rule, the better looking your breeder stock, the better looking the babies. I suggest investing the money in a top-notch pair of babies and raising them up to breed. The colors you are seeing like deep rick orange and bright peach have been selectively bred for generations.

I agree, the closer the parents are to what you want the more likely you are to get offspring that look like what you want. Like begets like. However, I am still amazed at the variability of color in the clutches of Thayeri. I had considerable variability in a clutch from two bright orange Thayeri this year and my friend got good color in a clutch of eight from a gray leonis female most people would pass up, three of them were top end BRIGHT orange. Do not be too quick to pass up average Thayeri, especially if they are breed from high color parents. I think it is one of the benefits of breeding them; it is certainly more exciting to see what hatches.

Take care,
Rick