>>I am fascinated with the Calico beauty snakes and was wondering if someone can give me general information on these snakes. How do they get their patterning and color? I know they are Chinese beauties with a morph right? How does this occurr? Do you get them from breeding normal Chinese beauties or can you only get them from calico parents. They are probably going to be my next purchase (which will be in a year at least) and that is only if I get another snake so I was also wondering about what price range do these snakes go for? Thank you for your help.
>>-----
>>Belle
Calicos are from a mutant gene. You can only get the morph from parents carrying the gene, like you would from an amelanistic snake. There are different types of calicos too, like snakes with lots of orange or snakes with lots of black. My calico female came from a light colored mother and a father with a lot of black, unrelated. I think she has a good combination of colors...
Their colors actually get more intense as they get older. I will probably breed my '03 female back to her calico-het father in 2006. She is already going on four ft. and will be close to her maximum length by then. They will produce 50% calicos, according to the odds, and 50% hets.
The price on calicos is variable, of course. At the time I bought my first, they were $1000. Only one person had them at that time, about 5-6 yrs. ago. Hets were going for $500/ea. A couple years later I bought a het for only $250 from a friend. It depends on who you know sometimes. While the market may support one price, someone else might sell for a lot less. It pays to shop around, as far as I'm concerned. Right now I'm not sure what they are going for.
About a year ago I saw a calico taeniurus for $700. Last spring I saw a het for about $300, I believe. I suspect the market has dropped quite a bit and I doubt you could get more than $600 tops for a nice one. That means hets might be around $300/ea, but I'm not up-to-date on that. I'm not a business and just sell my extras to get rid of them, so I might be happy to get what a Mandarin is getting in a couple years. I usually give pretty good deals to friends too. Who knows what'll be happening two yrs. from now.
Good luck....TC
Ratsnake Haven
-----
Ratsnake Haven: Calico and hypo Chinese beauty snakes, Mandarin ratsnakes, Chinese twin-spotted ratsnakes, South Korean Dione's ratsnake, Great Plains ratsnakes and corns 
