SD Gophers Keepers?

Technically, our first snake here was a SD Gopher that was injured and trying to get itself hit on the road. After spending enough time with us to heal, she had become quite tame so we found ourselves - unintentionally - owners of a 4 foot female SD Gopher snake. This was several years ago and 'Trash Compactor' still enjoys her climate controlled viv in our living room. (Dubbed so because she's not very picky when it comes to her food - mice, rats, live, p/k...she'll eat it all!) Until recently, I had never considered that Gopher snakes might also be bred for morphs like other, more commonly kept snakes. A quick check on kingsnake revealed a few morphs available, but not many. While I have no intention of breeding or selling Trash Compactor, it did make me curious if anyone on here was a keeper/breeder of gopher snakes and how that market compares to other colubrids like corns?

Pituophis in general is a popular genus. Except for rare occasions, they come out of the egg ready to devour food yet calm down with little more effort than a corn snake. There are plenty of gopher subspecies available, many with cool locality looks to boot, for the purists. There are also color morphs galore. I currently keep some P. c. sayi and P. m. lodingi(pine) and am pretty smitten with pits. These are the only colubrids I've bred and sold, so I can't compare to corns and such, but mine sell quick.

http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psutwptmfi.jpg

http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psi9l6bkof.jpg

http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psymav1pkw.jpg

http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/z...psomy2uezz.jpg

Wow! Those are some fantastic colors! I didn't realize they had such bright colors. For some reason I was thinking there'd be more shades of brown and grey, but those oranges are out there! I know when it comes to hognoses, there is a lot of emphasis on keeping the subspecies separate and not cross breeding. Does this same emphasis carry over to pits?

Wow John those are some wicked colors!!!!:worship::clap::omfg:

I don't keep Gophers but I love my Bulls.

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/...psrm2g6m63.jpg

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/...psdtpy9a1n.jpg

Ziggy, you and John really have me thinking about Colubrids. :)

But, not until I get everyone in their proper enclosures first! :P

They are pretty snakes.
We seem to have a lot of them around here, but sadly I only find them as road kill.
Saw a fresh kill today, infact. :(

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Originally Posted by SmoothScales

Wow! Those are some fantastic colors! I didn't realize they had such bright colors. For some reason I was thinking there'd be more shades of brown and grey, but those oranges are out there! I know when it comes to hognoses, there is a lot of emphasis on keeping the subspecies separate and not cross breeding. Does this same emphasis carry over to pits?

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Most breeders keep the subspecies separate. Some have undoubtedly been crossed so just be careful who you buy from if you want to work with something specific - there are also natural intergrades where ranges overlap. All of my gophers are sayi(bull snakes) but there are some gorgeous choices in the other subspecies as well.

@ John- Thanks for the knowledge. I didn't even know bulls were the subspecies of gopher snakes. So where do pine snakes fit into this family? Thanks again. I never stop learning. :)

@ Reinz- I started with king snakes who are some really fierce critters but they're kinda small. Bulls are the perfect colubrid to me because they're large but very manageable. They'll eat like pigs (but I don't let them) and the husbandry is a breeze. No real downside to keeping them. :)

Thanks Ziggy, I do like the big'uns. :)

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

@ John- Thanks for the knowledge. I didn't even know bulls were the subspecies of gopher snakes. So where do pine snakes fit into this family? Thanks again. I never stop learning. :)

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Same genus(Pituophis), different species. Gophers(Pituophis catenifer ssp) take up roughly half of the genus.

Some nice looking pituophis on this thread :)

SD Gophers are a passion, for me they are the perfect pituophis.

Here's the newest creation.
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forum...golden-eye.jpg

There was a pit on Kingsnake.com last night that looked like a fashion accessory. White with bold metallic gold markings.
Very striking.

I've been looking some at P. deppi jani (spell??) lately. It comes from cooler areas, and like the black milk, doesn't require so much heat. Pretty too.

Would like to get one in the next year or two.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by distaff

There was a pit on Kingsnake.com last night that looked like a fashion accessory. White with bold metallic gold markings.
Very striking.

I've been looking some at P. deppi jani (spell??) lately. It comes from cooler areas, and like the black milk, doesn't require so much heat. Pretty too.

Would like to get one in the next year or two.

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That sounds interesting, do you have a link?

P deppei jani are just about the nicest looking non morph pit out there, I've been working with them since the 1990's when I imported some from Lloyd Lemke.
Recently I've been working on isolating and reproducing the hypo genes.

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Originally Posted by al stotton

That sounds interesting, do you have a link?

P deppei jani are just about the nicest looking non morph pit out there, I've been working with them since the 1990's when I imported some from Lloyd Lemke.
Recently I've been working on isolating and reproducing the hypo genes.

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http://www.thirdeyeherp.com/mextext.htm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by distaff

http://www.thirdeyeherp.com/mextext.htm

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sorry my bad. I meant a link to the pic you mentioned :)

cheers.......AL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by al stotton

sorry my bad. I meant a link to the pic you mentioned :)

cheers.......AL

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http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.p...=98&de=1141908

Hope the link works.
If not, the listing is up near the top. Look for "Applegate" in the text. Sold by a guy in FL.