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I really thought I had a Alterna with this one but I am pretty darn happy with this guy anyway. He is about 30 inches (I am 6'8" with big hands) and is doing really well for me. I am just curious if his color is normal at this size?? Anyone else have similar colors in their animals?? Pics?

Thanks Jason

I can't add anything helpfull. Just wanted to mention that you had a beautifull snake!
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

Hey Jason. Different Bairdi develope different ways, at different stages of the game. You could have 20 bairdi at the same size and age, and all could be different. Here is a picture of my 2004 Bandera county male that is around 38-40 inchs. There is so much change between now and say, two years down the road. Both of our Bairdi will look a bit different by then. No doubt yours will lose those saddles as time goes on.

Steve

>>I really thought I had a Alterna with this one but I am pretty darn happy with this guy anyway. He is about 30 inches (I am 6'8" with big hands) and is doing really well for me. I am just curious if his color is normal at this size?? Anyone else have similar colors in their animals?? Pics?

Also, check out Byron D.'s 277 Bairdi, that he had posted a few spots down from your post. Here's a link to the picture.

Steve
Link

that looks very much like my 277's... i think my pair has more lateral striping in the lower 2/3 they are about the same size as yours. i'll some photos in the next few days and get them up here.

byron.d

Jason,
The saddles are certainly brighter than is 'usual', but like said, there's really no way to tell right now what to expect. In fact, mine are 5 years old and STILL changing, albeit much more slowly.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

I collected a pair from 277, they are the pair that produced byron d.'s baird's. The female was darker and about 26" when I collected her. She lost most of her pattern within a year. The male was lighter and had a pinkish purple head. He was about 22" when I collected him in 1999. He retained the pink head and most of his pattern until he was over 40" in 2004. By 2005 he had lost most of his pattern but still had some.
The female became a dark snake with extremely bright orange interstitials while the male remained light and had yellow interstitials for about the front 2/3's.
IMHO the 277's rival the Banderas for beauty but the lightest Baird's I have ever seen came from the Davis Mtns. so really I think they are highly variable and you can get nice ones from anywhere.

Thanks everybody. I have 2 others from the same area that are more the typical colored snakes shown on here and the smaller ones I have seen didn't seem to have the orange saddles so I was curious. I have a pair of babies out of my female and they don't have orange saddles yet.

So forgive me but since I have not seen much on the young animals (all I have seen are the hatchlings and adults no in between) should I expect the saddles on my hatchlings to color up to orange and then fade to the silver?? Or do these snakes each take their own road to adult hood like others have mentioned?

These snakes are pretty much totally new to me. Kind of sad that I know more about snakes found outside the US than I do about one of our natives.

Thanks Jason