First Blacktail Cribo

[lmtrej]

I recently got my first Drymarchon, a blacktail cribo or Drymarchon melanurus melanurus through John Michels at Black Pearl Reptiles. I can't say enough good things about Black Pearl, John was extremely quick to respond to any questions I had throughout the entire process and I look forward to doing business with him again.

On to the snake. This is a male 2012 hatchling produced not by John but through a friend of his from John's "clean line". If he looks anything like his parents he should look like a nice "text book" Blacktail as an adult. He was in shed when I got him 2 weeks ago but has since eaten twice for me (small mouse fuzzies) since shedding. He's very curious and seems to almost take in and be aware of what's going on around him in the two short handling sessions I've had.

Here are two quick cell phone pictures I took, I'll update more once he has settled.





Thanks for looking and feel free to share pictures of your own Drymarchon!

[wwmjkd]

very cool snake. cribos have that stark demarcation in color with good specimens that is just really interesting. I just received a pair of indigos and cannot believe how I overlooked drys for so long. it's also a nice change of pace to keep a species where any eventual goal of breeding is framed by selective line breeding and preservation, rather than a frenetic race to create new combination morphs. not to slight royals since I'm as guilty as anyone of propagating that mentality, but I really appreciate the difference in these species. it's a good bet that I'll have a few cribos as well down the line when I can afford the space.

[lmtrej]

Thanks for the kind words, I like him quite a bit already. Very nice indigo, a pair of couperi and a pair of rubidus are at the very top of my list but it'll be sometime before either of those purchases are made.

How long have you had your pair? Have you tried feeding anything other than rodents?

[wwmjkd]

Thanks for the kind words, I like him quite a bit already. Very nice indigo, a pair of couperi and a pair of rubidus are at the very top of my list but it'll be sometime before either of those purchases are made.

How long have you had your pair? Have you tried feeding anything other than rodents?

I'm still a complete novice with drys. I think it was July or August when I put down a deposit on the indigos, started on the permit, and began reading about them in earnest around June or July, but they only just arrived early last week. fortunately they were well started on rodents so I haven't had occasion to feed anything else.

[lmtrej]

Well I'm right there with you. Once he gets some size to him i'm excited to start varying his diet. From what i've read rodents, fish, frogs, snakes, chicks, chicken necks, and quail eggs are all readily excepted. I even recall reading on fauna I believe where somone fed 1/2 of a big mac to their adult male eastern, although i'll be sticking to a more traditional diet.

Make sure to keep us updated as yours grow.

[Mike41793]

Very cool looking! I cant wait to see them when they start to grow. I also love the look indigos have. Do either of you have any links to where you read about either of them? I dont plan to get one right now but would love to read some about them.

[lmtrej]

Mike here a few resources that I've found to be helpful.

Your uncle skippy told me to look up Robert Harper, here is his site which has some great info:

http://userpent.net/Drymarchon.html

Black Pearl's Drymarchon caresheet:

http://www.blackpearlreptiles.com/Bl...are_Sheet.html

Besides these i've gone through forum after forum and read every post I could find about Drymarchon. Fauna and Bush league breeders club have a good number of posts from what I remember. Unfortunately it seems most Indigo forums are rarely updated.

Also Skiploder was kind enough to send me a powerpoint of his on Drymarchon. I'm sure he'd send it to you or with his permission I'd be happy to forward it to you.

Once you start looking into these guys I don't think you can make it more than a year without taking the plunge yourself.

[Skiploder]

very cool snake. cribos have that stark demarcation in color with good specimens that is just really interesting. I just received a pair of indigos and cannot believe how I overlooked drys for so long. it's also a nice change of pace to keep a species where any eventual goal of breeding is framed by selective line breeding and preservation, rather than a frenetic race to create new combination morphs. not to slight royals since I'm as guilty as anyone of propagating that mentality, but I really appreciate the difference in these species. it's a good bet that I'll have a few cribos as well down the line when I can afford the space.

When we began linebreeding light tailed locality black tails with locality "unicolors" we started down an odd path. Now we are breeding flecked animals to flecked animals and non-flecked animals to non-flecked animals and outright calling them "lines". What's the purpose? Well, to me it's morph breeding on a smaller scale. We're still breeding for aesthetic traits................

No disrespect to the OP, but I'm curious as to what locality a "clean line" is. Or is that a reference to someone linebreeding or breeding animals with certain physical (read: color) traits to like animals?

Melanurus have an amazing variance in color, be it body or tail throughout their range with some animals showing marked differences less than 20 miles from each other. For decades, we in the States have been breeding them without respect to locality. Now we are breeding them for color. I don't know what's better...........................or maybe it doesn't matter. I have always had an issue with breeders of any species associating quality with color aesthetics. I think Aussie keepers have it right when they breed locality animals to like locality animals.

There are some people who are importing newer animals and know which areas they are getting their animals from. The problem is that naming the country (ie Peru in the case of YTs) is not adequate enough for truly identifiying locality - especially when regional variances are so wide.

[lmtrej]

No disrespect taken what so ever Skiploder, nearly every post from you is an opportunity to learn. As best as I can tell John's animals have no locality information and his pairings are based purely on like appearances (color, mottling etc.) Perhaps I should email him as this is just speculation on my part, however I've seen no indications towards the contrary. Personally this is ok with me, his stock is genetically varied and his animals are healthy. Where I do have a problem with this type of breeding is when it leads to generation after generation of inbreeding animals in pursuit of a goal which eventually compromises there genetic variability and health of the animals.

At this point all of my animals are pets. Each species that I have I keep because something about them captivates me, whether it be their appearance, behavior, specific husbandry needs, or some other factor. Eventually when this does lead me into breeding the animals which fascinate me I would like to be able breed true locality animals.

Do you know of any sources for locality BTs Skip?

[Skiploder]

No disrespect taken what so ever Skiploder, nearly every post from you is an opportunity to learn. As best as I can tell John's animals have no locality information and his pairings are based purely on like appearances (color, mottling etc.) Perhaps I should email him as this is just speculation on my part, however I've seen no indications towards the contrary. Personally this is ok with me, his stock is genetically varied and his animals are healthy. Where I do have a problem with this type of breeding is when it leads to generation after generation of inbreeding animals in pursuit of a goal which eventually compromises there genetic variability and health of the animals.

At this point all of my animals are pets. Each species that I have I keep because something about them captivates me, whether it be their appearance, behavior, specific husbandry needs, or some other factor. Eventually when this does lead me into breeding the animals which fascinate me I would like to be able breed true locality animals.

Do you know of any sources for locality BTs Skip?

9 years ago I imported 3 animals from the vicinity of La Gomera, Guatemala. 1 male and two females. According to the collector, all three animals were caught within 30 miles of each other. All had coal black tails.

The male (Mojo) sired a clutch with both females and those babies all had tails of varying colors as adults - from jet black to mahogany. I have been told by cribo "experts" that select grandbabies of those initial pairings could be consider unicolors - what a joke.

To answer your question - most stock available in the US is untraceable. Except for that trio, I could not tell you the localities of any of my other animals. If anyone says they can, make them show you their paperwork for proof.

The question I would have for all dry afficionados is this - if nature allows for a wide variance in tail colorations within localities, why are we striving for more predictable tail colorations? Well, if the answer is to make them more marketable then that answer sucks!

Most of the breeders today will freely admit that tail color variation exists in clutches - so why are we trying to change that? Why are we ASSuming that unicolors are better than blacktails which are better than browntails, when all are locality variations of the same damn snake?

Anyway, enjoy your new baby. He looks clean and healthy. Grown him slow, handle him frequently, keep that cage scrupulously clean and mind your temps this summer. I'm sure he'll bring you pleasure for many years to come.