Is my lesser special?

[Mike.P]

Just thought I'd ask for some opinions... My new lesser male has absolutely amazing colors. No yellow in him whatsoever. Just very light browns, tans, and creams. Everyone I've shown him to so far is pretty amazed by him. Had him with me yesterday when I went to go look at some snakes, and the breeder actually offered to buy him from me. So I'm curious, anything special about him, or did I just luck out with a very high quality lesser? Oh and a follow up question... I can't decide what to get to breed him to in the future. Torn between another lesser, or a spinner.

Any thoughts?

[Mike Cavanaugh]

do you have any better pictures? Looks like normal lesser so far.

[marshall]

I would not go with another lesser. If you want a white snake go with a mojave. The lesser/mojave is just as white as a Super Lesser. The reason I say mojave is for breeding. The lesser makes a white snake when breed with many of the morphs in the BEL complex: lesser, mojave, Special, mystic and phantom. The mojave does not, it tends to make a snake with pattern and color. Look at the mystic potion and the Crystal. Plus with the Super lesser you have the chance for bug eyes.

[Emilio]

I would not go with another lesser. If you want a white snake go with a mojave. The lesser/mojave is just as white as a Super Lesser. The reason I say mojave is for breeding. The lesser makes a white snake when breed with many of the morphs in the BEL complex: lesser, mojave, Special, mystic and phantom. The mojave does not, it tends to make a snake with pattern and color. Look at the mystic potion and the Crystal. Plus with the Super lesser you have the chance for bug eyes.

I use to believe I could avoid the bug eye issue now I have some doubt I recently saw a het-russo lesser bel in daytona and it too had the bug eye problem.

After this up coming season I will share some more info as I'm going to be breeding my Super mojo to four lesser females.

[Daniel Tuttle]

I agree go with the mojave. Thats what I am doing too!

[Adam Chandler]

Lesser Platinums, like many BP morphs, vary in the appearance with their colors and patterns. Some can have more yellow and some a lighter cream.

I'd like to see a full body shot but from the picture you posted yours looks like a great example of the Lesser morph, it must come from a good line. The colors of yours looks similar to me to the line I have.

As for what to bred him to, personally I'm partial to Lesser Bee's and King Pins.

[Mike.P]

Thanks for the input everyone. Here's a couple of more pics... I"ll start looking into the Mojaves, hadn't really considered them. What are your thoughts on something like a Savannah then? Another one I found last night was a BEL that resulted from a Lesser/Mojave x SGR Lesser for a decent price. Kinda thinking about that one as well.

[Mike.P]

Ahhhh I'm just so excited to have him. lol. Can't wait to see what he can do! Plus he's just an awesome snake in general. Super docile and mellow. Likes to be held. Absolutely ANNIHILATES food. I've fed him three times so far, each time he strikes within ten seconds.

So great!

[MrBig]

He is just a lesser, but a great one at that. I think fire was an awesome idea, spinner isn't a bad idea either but why not both. Lesser makes everything better, congrats.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Any animal is special if it's special to you! (Sorry, I had to ... I just had to. )

Re: the lesser x lesser versus lesser x mojave issue, I did the lesser x mojave breeding specifically to avoid bug-eyes. I can say that out of four BELs, not a one has bug eyes ... However, I have noticed that one of them is cross-eyed.

I think that blue-eyed leucistic snakes tend towards having weird eye issues. Leucistic TX rats, super lessers, and I know I've seen lucy Burms for sale with odd looking eyes. I'm planning on bringing my cross-eyed BEL into my school to have the ophthalmologists take a look at her, and actually trying to get ahold of a bug-eyed lucy TX rat snake, too, for them to take a gander at. I'm curious as to why this happens -- seems like it might have something to do with the pigmentation of the eye, but I don't know why then we don't see these things in albino snakes as well.