Anyone breeding really wild types?

[gardenmum]

I have seen pics of normals that were definitely not wild caughts that had pretty obvious striping look on them. So, in my opinion, that would not be an indicator of being wild caught.

Even with the wild caught ones, if you notice, the one I first pictured has that striping look but the smaller one does not and at this point still does not show any sign of it. Yet, as I said, I have seen CB X CB ones that have when they matured.

 

[Standard]

I'll be breeding this pair again this year, probably for the last time. The female is my first cornsnake, a '95 wildcaught. The male zigzag is an F1 from a pair of wc normals w/ partial zigzag. I got 22 hatchlings last year, none with any zigzag pattern. I've never kept any of her babies over the years so don't know how they turn out. I do plan on keeping at least one this year, just because.

Susan-- if she can still produce 22 babies a year, why retire her? She's obviously still pretty fertile!

 

[Vinman]

Hi

Any corn C.B. or W.C. can have the lines. The ones from S. Ga. on up north tend to be more common with the trait of having the lite striping, you see it more as the snake gets older. Rember the corns in the wild, even though they are nocturnal and mostly live under the ground, in most of their range, when they occasionally come out to the surface in the day time it is those bright colored corns that have a greater chance of being picked off . It is the animals with the duller and darker that blend into the ground cover. They have a greater chance of survival in the wild.

 

[ratman]

Dark corns and others...

I think we should remember there is natural variation of ground color, light to dark, and that there is variation in the pattern also. A herper I know working with KY corns turns up a wide variety from nice looking to very dark. Many of my ratsnakes are of the western subspecies. Here's a yearling female from the Western Gulf Coast Plains that shows a great deal of dark pigmentation...

This yearling male is from the same w/c stock, but is much lighter...

In captivity we tend to breed out the darker pigmentations and the striping that often goes along with that. It seems to be pretty natural in the wild and one of the reasons folks often don't want w/c snakes, imho.

These characteristics seem to be pretty prevalent for Kisatchee corns too, whereas the eastern corns tend to be much brighter colored. :wavey:

TC

 

[Susan]

Susan-- if she can still produce 22 babies a year, why retire her? She's obviously still pretty fertile!

She's given me 236 hatchlings, double clutching every year except her first and in 2001 when I gave her a break. She even laid a third clutch of slugs in 1999. After this year, I think she has definately earned her retirement.