Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there anyone working with "killer" dark phase blairs animals? Some of the best pictures I have ever seen are of Iraan animals on the alterna page and Sierra Herps site. I know Xmas mts. can be amazing but most of the ones I have seen for sale are rather drab. I am amazed nobody seems to be working with what I consider one of the most beautiful animals on the planet-dark, almost black background with fluorescent orange or red and bright white highlights.

Grayband,

Good luck. When you find someone that is working with that phase animal, make sure you recommend me to him as well. I did talk to Robert Hansen from Sierra herps and he said he will be breeding X Mas mountains this year. I sent another breeder a email asking to be put on his list if his X mas mountains breed this year. GOOD LUCK with a emphasis on the GOOD.

People have always liked the dark phases you describe but until about 3 or 4 years ago the most popular phases seemed to be light Blair's and speckled alternas. That's my impression anyways.

Another thing is the really good dark ones with bright orange often hatch out as medium gray with average orange and they don't get those dark gray/bright orange colors until they are a few years old. Even then some of them go dark, some go light and some stay the same. I suspect the trait can be locked in after a few generations of selective breeding but that would take several years and as I indicated above, widespread popularity of dark phases seems to be a fairly recent trend. To lock in the trait one would likely have to hold back entire clutches until they could see which ones turn dark gray/bright orange and then breed those ones together. That makes it a pretty big project in which one has to be willing to maintain alot of animals.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

That one Dark phase East Sanderson pic that you posted not too long ago is a killer phase alterna.

Here is a pic of the Mother that produced the one Aaron posted a while back.We found her in (07) gravid so we have no idea what the Father looked like.I also held back a male from that clutch that has turned real dark and he is breeding his Mother as we speak.
L8r Shannon

here she is with her son just the other day.
[img]https://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/803sandersons.jpg[/img

woops, here is the other pic.

Very nice Shannon! I definitely like that female.

Chris

Thats a outstanding East Sanderson alterna. They just locked up?

Great looking snake! I especially like the white highlights! I wish my groups would produce animals with those highlights!

That snake is offspring for an East Sanderson project that me and Shannon are working on together. He was a medium to dark snake when he hatched but he got much darker with age and the orange got brighter.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

The type of animal(s) I am hoping to get one day would look like #443 Juno Road on the Alterna page photo by Joe Forks or one of the best animals shown on Sierra Herps site.

If my juno pictured below darkened up she would look just like the one your talking about but I think she will stay light. She is a 2010 so time will tell.

Chris

I just checked out Juno Rd. #443 and it certainly is a killer dark phase.

These ones, Black Gap #101 by Denny Miller and Langtry(US90 Langtry to Pumpville) #214 by John Hollister, are my favorite dark phases.

Here are the pics and the copy and paste links, to make it a little easier:

Black Gap by Denny Miller.
http://www.kingsnake.com/alterna/br/101.jpg

US90 Langtry to Pumpville by John Hollister.
http://www.kingsnake.com/alterna/vv/214.jpg

These pics were both taken from here at kingsnake.com, The Alterna Page, Image Gallery, in case anybody didn't know that already. The link is below.
The Alterna Page Image Gallery

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www.hcu-tx.org/

That Langtry is awesome. That is another locale you do not see much of on the classifieds anymore.

I was going to mention those two as well. They are unbelievable. I'm surprised nobody has developed a project like that over the years. Everything seems to be speckled and fairly drab looking the last 10 years. Also 059 christmas mountains by Tom Boyden, 09 langtry to pumpville by Joe Forks, 558 Black Gap by C. Bentley, and 134 Pandale Dirt by Buzz Ross. If anyone is working with anything like that or has young adults let me know. Thanks a lot.

I tend to agree....sound logic.

This female gave me 6 good eggs last season and should go again for me this year with one of my dark males..

~ Mike Russo

beautiful animal. would like to see the male and future offspring. Is that a locality animal? Thanks for the pic.

She is generic..

Here she is with the male i paired her with last year.. Not sure yet if i am going to use him again this season or switch it up..

~ Mike Russo

Here's my dark trio.

Female 1

Female 2

Male

They're generic - Christmas Mts x Limpia Canyon

I forgot this one. She might be going to a friend of mine, if he still wants her.

What locale is that one? Amazing snakes that you have there man.

Same as the others, Xmas x Limpia.

That first one is diamonds. All are very nice and I love the color contrast.

This is an f1 Howard Draw. Tell me what you think.

ST

that's one of the nicest locality dark phase animals I've seen that is actually in someone's possession.

I just sent you a message. Hopefully it will help you in your search. Good luck.

Didn't get the message. My email is greybanded with an "e", I know it's confusing. Thanks.

Greybanded,

Thats weird. I will try and send you the message again.

Thanks for the nice compliment! Here's a pic of the parents. The dad is the dark one and the mom is the light one. Both were found in the exact same spot on the same cut but a month apart! Unfortunately the dad passed last year but not before siring a few nice babies.

Nice looking snakes Stu. Not too many of Howard Draw's around either, which ads to their appeal a little bit, IMHO. Do you know if any alterna phases have been found there?
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www.hcu-tx.org/

As far as I know there have been no w/c alterna phases from Howard Draw. I've hatched out several intersting "intermediates" but that's about it. Something worth looking for!

River road.

Wow, that one is unreal!