Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone

First of all, I really like how enthusiastic everyone is with the animals they work with and what other individuals share with the forums. So I figure I'd join the fun. I’ve been taking some pictures of my animal’s activities this spring and I would like to share with everyone here.

First is some naughty action by my VR orange reduced black male and my Applegate yellow female. This pair has produced numerous beautiful hatchlings for me in the past and I hope they will produce more this year. I really like how these guys compliment each other. The nice contrast of deep orange and yellow plus the thick and reduced black borders sets them apart and proves how variable these guys can be.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . . from the same activity 3 years ago produced this beauty.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . My stud VR orange milksnake phase male they gave me this! Her first clutch was 14 eggs which blew me away. Her mother (the yellow Applegate female) is a very prolific breeder and a ferocious feeder and she has also taken those nice characteristics. I hope she passes them along to her hatchlings. She actually scared a little bit during laying because she laid 8 very nice looking eggs and then stopped for a day. I thought I would have to take her to the vet for egg binding but she later laid the other 6. Some of later eggs look infertile but not too slimy so I opted to put them in the incubator just in case. I'm really glad she passed the eggs and is back to her hungry self again.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . . and a couple of times this spring she was hooking up with this VR orange milksnake stud too! But you won’t see me complaining. Like the other male, he also produces some nice babies. He even gave me a look on how he does it!

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . . I would have a talk show episode and try to find out who the father is. Hehe. She laid 17 total eggs (one looks infertile) which was sweet! She even looks like she would double clutch again as usual. I remember one year that I didn't try to breed her again for a second clutch to give her rest but she produced eggs anyway. Not surprisingly they were infertile that time.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . . She produced this baby with him. In this hatchling picture, she shows the very nice orange colors of her father and the thick borders of her mother. She still looks awesome and I would say she has also has an okeetee look to her also becasue of those characteristics. She's a very good feeder from the start and I would not be suprised if she would give me a nice clutch of eggs on her first try also. Hope she'll be up to it in '07.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

. . . some of these little guys again in 2 months! Wish me luck and I hope you guys enjoyed the pics. Thanks and take care.

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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

Great posts and pics of your thayeri collection.
Welcome to the forum,
Uncloudy

Hi

Thanks. Btw, your animal looks like my first thayeri that I bought in '97. Just classic looking. Take care
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

I not only enjoyed the pics but also enjoyed the story. You just forgot one thing. "And they all lived happily ever after". LOL. Thanks again for sharing Jonel.

.....Jonel's nestbox pics Chris, that is the orchid moss I was telling you about that I use. Really nice, clean stuff.

Hi vichris

LOL. ok. "We all lived happily ever after." hehe. Btw, look for sphagnum moss in gardening supliers on line. I dont remember where I bought mine but they come in small bales that expands when moistened. I bought a 5 kg compressed bale 2 years ago and i just reached the half way point this year. Hope it helped. Take care.
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

.....and the interesting posts. Nice to see new photos of the parents to my 2 females from you from '03, your Appelgate yellow female and VR orange milksnake male. Good action shot of them hooked up, not sure I needed to see that lol... but what the heck?!! Seriously, that is a great pic for those who haven't ever seen it happening.

My 2 '03 females from that pair are doing exceptionally well, your #1 yellow leonis female and #3 milksnake phase female. The yellow leonis girl looks just like her mother now, almost a carbon copy. The ground color on both of them has stayed exceptionally clean and free of speckling. Both are very healthy and vigorous females and like their mother, as you mentioned, they both have always been very strong feeders and are stout, robust young females.

I should have bought a few more of your babies last year, they are all terrific thayeri! Top notch bloodlines and you obviously do it all right. Thanks again for the great posts, good to see you pop in here once in a while.

Mike

Hi Mike

Nice to hear from you! I'm glad to hear the females are doing well and looking good. Do you have pics? I'd love to see them. I find some enjoyment on how the animals I sent out in previous years turned out. Some of them is really nice and I sometimes get a funny feeling when letting them go. But we all know that we can't keep them all. Btw, I always check out the forums everyday so I'm around but just don't post much. Again, glad to hear that the females are doing well for you. Keep in touch and take care.
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

Always good to touch base with you as well Jonel. Likewise, I am always here in the forums, pokin' around and keeping tabs on what's happening with everyone but most of the time just too busy to sit here and post. Snakes keep ya kinda busy, don't they?! Incredibly interesting and rewarding though, can't think of much else I would rather do than work with these animals... other than a killer mountainbike ride on an awesome, life-threatining singletrack up in the hills somewhere! Love that stuff. My bikes are a bit too clean after sitting in the garage all winter, really need to get back out there and ride.

I hope all your breeding projects are going well for you this year. I am satisfied with my results here so far, my greeri girls are doing much better than expected.

My new e-mail for all my kingsnake buddies is mexicanamak@gmail.com , expect new pics of your '03 girls here sometime soon coming from this address. It may be a couple weeks, my digi-cam left here last night on it's way to San Diego with my sweetie for a week of work out there.

I think you will like how '03 female #1 turned out, she is a lot like momma. I would really like to get my hands on a couple more babies from your Appelgate female this year, be sure to let me know when those babies hatch out. Bob isn't doing much at all with thayeri these days and I would like to add a couple more from his bloodlines. Sure wish I could bump into another breeder working with his animals for a little Appelgate thayeri diversity. Some of his thayeri were pretty darn nice!

Talk to ya soon.....

Hi Mike

Cool! I'm looking forward on seeing them again. I'm usually really busy these days and my spring herping/activities have suffered also. Hopefully I can road cruise a bit in the summer months. Good Luck on the greeri and I'll let you know when I see some of those little heads poking out. Btw, what else do you have going this year? Talk to you soon. Tnx.
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

.....3 Blair's phase alterna females busy this year, a light phase that has laid 10, a dark phase that is opaque now and looks like she is about to explode, and another younger dark phase that is running a little behind the other two. First year for both dark phase, the younger was reluctant to accept the male at first but she finally gave in after a late post brumation shed. I also bred an '02 melanistic thayeri female(first time for her also) to a very nice white leonis male. Not the perfect match possibly, but he was all I had mature enough for her that was interested and both were more than ready to go. She laid 14 total with several infertile, I should at least get a handfull of babies from them and it will be interesting to see what comes from those two.

Gonna show you the alterna males with two of the females, here is the dark pair caught in the act earlier this spring.....

Think I will catch any grief over posting alterna pics in the mexicana forum? I would hope not, I would think most of us are alterna lovers too. At least I know several of my friends are.

Here's the light phase pair...

Hi Mike

Wow. Those are nice looking blairs. Any locality info on them ? or generics. Either way you'll not gonna get any grief on showing us nice animals. And hey, they are somewhat related to mexicana anyways. Atleast that's what the old timers used to say. Take care bro.
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

Jonel,

Thanks for the compliment, I like them a lot myself. Alterna are actually responsible for spiking my interest enough to get serious. Naturally, I transitioned to more of a focus on mexicana with mex mex, greeri and thayeri all included. Thayeri drive me crazy and all others pale somewhat in comparison, but I just can't let any of the others go yet. Imagine that!

The five breeding alterna adults I have consist of a generic pair and a Pandale Dirt trio. I mixed them up this year so any offspring this year will all be generic. Couldn't help it... I have a special interest in exceptionally nice dark Blair's, and that generic dark male I bought early this year is so darn nice I had to breed both dark females with him to see what they produce together. And... the generic light female that I bought with this dark male seemed to be a great match for the light Pandale male.

Probably a good thing I'm talkin' about all this in the mexicana forum..... I might get beat up over there with the serious Gray Banded guys! I do hope to go locality specific with alterna at some point and my eye is on the Black Gap animals that David Doherty and Dan Johnson have worked with over the years. Some really amazing patterns and natural morphs coming from the Black Gap area.

Talk to ya later Jonel.
OK..... here is a mexicana pic to keep me honest in here. Or is it?

It had better be a mexicana damnit! We don't tolerate no regular or mixed race kingsnakes. LOL Just kidding Mike. That's a great looking greeri Mike(I think?). LOL

...I was hinting at the fact that the rumor mill suggests greeri may be elevated to species status at some point. It will be interesting to see what happens with the mexicana complex in the next 20 years.

No problem here.
Incredible pic of your light phase alterna pair, you can't find nicer light phases than that. AWESOME!
Great pics,
Uncloudy

Thanks Uncloudy, I'm glad you agree and I wish they would move the Gray Banded forum in as a sub-forum under the General Kingsnake title. They seem kinda lonely out there all by themselves and they are a significant part of the whole group, they no longer need to be singled out completely like they are. Would be nice for alterna enthusiasts to be able to click on their favorite under the General Kingsnake forum like all the others. They should be right there next to the Mexicana.

Thanks for the compliment on the snakes also! I appreciate it a lot, but I do have to disagree. There are WAY nicer Blair's out there than those, you're just being too kind! They should make a few good lookin' babies though, eh?!!

Alright, another mexicana pic for the sake of honesty. Or..... IS IT!?!!

Jonel,
That is a great pairing.....
I really like the orange on the reduced black male. I also like the washed out saddles on the female.
You gotta share some pics of their offspring this year.....
Great looking Thayeri....and I am glad you chimed in here....
John Lassiter

John

Thanks. I'll make sure I post some picks of the babies that hatch out. I'm excited to see them myself. I'll try to post more too. Thanks again and take care.
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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com