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I found something recently, might have been on another forum about het pied black pines. Does anyone have any info on them? Are they real? About eight years ago I had heard of a guy with a trio of "supposed" piebalds but had heard that he passed away and no one knew where the animals wound up.

amiemac9,
Yes, there ARE definately piebald black pines out there and they ARE the real thing. I should know, I gave the strain a head start 15 years ago. They originated from a fellow named Henry Cohen in Buffalo New York. He had two wild-caught black pines from Mobile County Alabama, and every now and then they would throw a hatchling with varying amounts of missing pigment on the head and labials. The bellies would always be a transluscent lavender, and as they matured some would turn a purplish brown, while others would turn this quite indescribable, almost navy looking color.The areas of missing pigment would then turn a porcelain white. In 1988 a fellow by the name of Bill Dewhirst from Rochester NY, ( where I'm from) bred two normal looking animals purchased from Mr. Cohen in 1986, and produced two piebalds. Before they reached maturity he traded them off, and they ended up somewhere in south Fla; lost now to the years. Approximately a year later, I bought the het adults and three piebalds from him. In 1993 I got the indigo snake bug, and to purchase these, sold the babies, and the adults,( a stupid move in retrospect)to Louie Porras at ZooHerp.He in turn sold them to Joe Robson,who used to run Living Jewels out of New Jersey, who unfortunately passed away two or three years later. I managed to breed a pair that Bill had held back for himself , but later gave to me. This was in '94. Those babies ended up, one at the Memphis Zoo with Steve Reichling, three in Los Angeles(?) with a one Chris Jackson, and the rest were sold to a local guy who did'nt breed snakes at all and ended up killing them through neglect. Wheeew! Long story, I know but I thought I would set the record straight. Oops I did also sell a pair to a guy in Arizona whose name escapes me now. So, yes, they are REAL, LEGIT, PURE, and LOCALITY animals. I saw them a couple years ago advertised by a guy who lives in Maryland, so yeah, they are still out there, and I'm glad. I've been wanting to set the record straight on these guys for quite some time. I hope no one has crossed them with another type of pine, or worse yet, a king or a corn. Anyone who has these please contact me. Hope that this helps you.
Cheers,
Mike Collalto
Rochester NY

That was great. I didn't know much about them, actually hadn't thought much of them until I was reading the Fauna classifieds. someone (I'd have to look up the post again to see who it was) had 100% het pieds listed as critters that he owned. I first heard of them in '95, maybe '96 a guy I worked with saw them at a NY reptile show, that must've been when Joe Robson owned them. I wished I had gone to that show, I probably would've bought them. Thanks again for the information.