Why and when to sell

Once again I fly in the face of convention by trying to sell a bunch of hets before I sell the visual morphs. I've heard the arguments about what constitutes a popular snake, how to maximize your profits before other breeders flood the market. etc. These are all good points made by people who want to earn some $$ in their chosen hobby. Passion + profit = modern success

I get it. But, once I tried to sell an old riding lawn mower that ran fine but by the nature of it's age would require maintenance and a sound mechanical hand. People kept showing up to buy it and asking what was wrong with it. I explained "it's a $100 lawn mower if you can't keep it running you shouldn't buy it." I finally gave up and starting running people off until a guy showed up, asked no questions and said he'd make it work. Good for him.

Back to my snakes, these are adult, captive bred, well documented rat snakes from a species with only a couple of morphs. It's been a passion project of mine for over a decade. If you aren't willing to risk a couple hundred bucks on weird looking, notoriously nippy snakes and handle the feeding/breeding of what you get; then you should stick to ball pythons and corn snakes. I really just want to look around in 20 years and see people with my rat snake morph (or it's subsequent results) saying "check out this cool snake". That's my goal.

One more point: There's the sticky wicket of the fact that these are a white list species in the state of Texas. If it's a "wild-caught, typical" or an animal that can't be told from a "wild-caught, typical" then I'm supposed to have a commercial non-game license and can only sell to another commercial non-game license holders. (FYI: I have been a non-game license holder for almost 15 years at the time of this post) Hence I went through all the trouble of photo documenting these animals for years and specifically tracing their lineage. I am happy to talk with anyone interested in what I've done. I'm happy to get feed back from anyone who knows about these animals and can show me things I have not seen.

That being said, I'm still deeply, disappointed that I have to go to facebook to find people who want to buy these snakes. Oh well. 2018 will be crazy with visual morphs for sale and my next project which is intense documentation about temperament.

Good luck, killer.

Setting up my store!

To reduce confusion about what's for sale I'm going ahead and setting up an online store. I have to warn you, I have not set up an actual commerce portal so the checkout goes no where just yet (but I don't have customers right now, so who cares?) If you want something from the for sale page, email me with the animal ID numbers, any offers you have for multiple animals, and your zipcode. I'll get you a total (delivered) price & my paypal info. If that's all good, we can pick a ship date and get you your snakes.

email --> meshboy2006@gmail.com

Please check out the snakes for sale!

In the mean time, here's a perfectly normal Prairie king snake hatchling I found in the woods the other day. He was on his way to hunt for anything and everything he can subdue and consume because everything in nature eats everything else. Good luck, killer.

might as well update the 2015's too

***To make things run smoother I am setting up my store. Please use the link in the navigation bar to see what's currently for sale.*** October 12, 2017

While I was checking the 2016's I went ahead and updated the 2015's.

2015-01-02 Female (morph) pretty, pretty girl.

2015-01-03 Male (morph) not my favorite example but it counts.

2015-02-03 Male (morph) if you like the grey version this guy will be gorgeous

2015-02-04 Female (morph?) See notes at the top of this post!

2015-03-02 Female (typical) If you look back at the 2014 snakes many of them have a lemon yellow ground color. I think this one will be more like pumpkin orange. See notes at the top of this post!

2015-05-01 Female (typical) Another one that's more orange. (I'm interested to see how the colors change over time if you go back and look at the original progenitors of this morph there was at least one dark orange snake) See notes at the top of this post!

2016 hatchlings - September update

***To make things run smoother I am setting up my store. Please use the link in the navigation bar to see what's currently for sale.*** October 12, 2017

***September 13th update: I got pics of a couple of the snakes that where in shed. See below.

2016-01-03 Female (morph) this gal has a kink in her spine (notice it on the lower left of this pic?) but her pattern is starting to fade; she has good grey & orange colors so she might make a good snake. We'll see.

2016-02-01 Male (morph) This guy qualifies as a morph based on the broken eye stripe & broken pattern. I'm not impressed with the colors. His ventral spots are uniformly dark. Maybe my eye stripe hypothesis is full of crap. We'll see.

2016-02-02 Male (morph) grey & yellow colors, broken patterns. This guy will make a nice grown up.

2016-02-04 Female (typical) This one has morph colors but the pattern isn't really broken. I'm calling it a typical.

2016-02-05 Male (typical) This guy was in shed when I took the first pics but here he is!! Nice.

2016-02-07 Female (morph) she was also in shed when I first took pics but here's an updated look at her.

2016-03-02 Female (morph) Show this one to your rat snake loving buddies and ask them to name the species.

2016-03-03 Male (morph) Here's another one to confuse your pals. Feel free to tell them it's a copper-mouth rattle moccasin or some such crap.

2016-04-01 Female (super freaking typical) This is the snake with weirdly crisp coloration. I know I'm missing something simple about what's going on here but I can't put my finger on it. This isn't axanthic is it?... I don't know what will happen but this snake is a good feeder and a pussy cat to handle so it goes on my "give it one more year" list.

2016-05-01 Female (typical) This little gal didn't want to eat last year and I had to force feed it through the winter. This spring it took off feeding no problem but you'll notice it's half the size of it's siblings. It has typical patterning & colors so I should probably stick this one in the freezer but I put so much work into it that I'll give it another year.

2016-05-03 Male (morph) This is a weird looking snake that I'm calling a morph. Instead of broken patterns it has odd light spots in the center of the first half of its ventral markings. I'm keeping it one more year to see what happens, too.

2016-05-04 Male (morph) This will be a good looking snake when he's grown! 

2016-05-05 Male (typical) This guy is pretty good looking but so was I at that age.

2016-06-03 Female (typical) This one is going to be nice & orange.

I will be selling some of these babies over the next few months as I figure out a new breeding plan for next year.

I will also have this year's babies for sale next spring/early summer once they've proven to be hardy, healthy snakes and their colors/patterns start to pop.

House cleaning! Time to get rid of some snakes

***To make things run smoother I am setting up my store. Please use the link in the navigation bar to see what's currently for sale.*** October 12, 2017

So I decided to sell some snakes, went to take new pics and sure enough most of them are in shed. Oh well, I'll get better pics as the weeks go on. (New pics are up see below!)

2006-01-01 M (HET) This guy is right at 6 ft long and eating med-large rats once-twice per week.

2006-01-01 F (HET) She's about 5 feet lays 16-18 eggs at a time and has double clutched on me the last 2 years (second clutch was 6-8 eggs). Like long walks on the beach, jazz & small-medium rats...as many as you want to throw her.

2013-01-03 F (HET) This gal was in shed when I originally took pics but here she is in all her glory. She laid (9) good eggs with 2014-01-01 M and hatched 1/4 morphs. Eating weened/pup rats.

2013-03-01 F (HET) This gal was also in shed but here's an updated pic. She did not lay this year but bred successfully last year with her brother. Eating weened/pup rats.

2014-01-01 M (HET) Here's a nice yellow boy. This was his first year breeding but he got 9 healthy babies from 2013-01-03 F. Eating pup/fuzzy rats.

 2014-01-02 F(HET) This gal hatched (6) healthy babies this year with her brother 2014-01-08 M (1/3 were morphs) Eating pup/fuzzy rats.

2014-01-03 F (Possible HET) This gal only laid 3 good eggs this year and none were morphs. She should be HET but I haven't proven it so she's cheap (and lemon yellow). Eating pup/fuzzy rats

2014-01-04 M (HET) This guy gave us 1/4 morphs with 2013-01-03 F. Eating pup/fuzzy rats.

2014-01-08 M (HET) He bred with 2014-01-02 F and gave us 1/4 morphs. Eating pup/fuzzy rats.

You can go back to previous posts and see pics of the shedding snakes from a few months ago and obviously I'll work deals for buying multiple snakes at once.

For those who don't just want happy healthy amazing looking Texas ratsnakes with wonderful yellow & orange coloration, you'll just have to wait until next spring when I start selling 2016 & 2017 morphs.

quick note: I have worked in purchasing for 20 years and know a terrible salesman when I see one. I'm a terrible salesman. But I have a good product for someone who wants it. These are interesting animals you can't get anywhere else and despite my non-existent web traffic, with a few phone calls/emails next spring I'll be feeding about 20 fewer animals. If you are serious please contact me at meshboy2006@gmail.com

Time to sell some snakes

I've received a few emails over the last year asking if I wanted to sell some snakes and, although I wanted to, I wasn't sure how to proceed responsibly. I have sold/traded more than a few animals in my day but it was always an iffy proposition with no responsible/legal way to ship the animals or get paid. I've also been on the wrong side of some bad deals. "Back in the day" I bought some snakes that were both misidentified species and sexes. It was a huge waste of time and my hard earned $$$. Twice, I bought (or was given) snakes that came in with mites an infected my entire collection! What a nightmare! The point is: I refuse to do this to other people. I would like to begin dispersing my animals to reputable breeders and responsible collectors but I need to be sure I do it right. So, I contacted some experienced breeders who have given me advice and I've registered with some legitimate, respectable sources to handle shipping. Now I feel like I'm finally able to get started. In the next week or two I'll be posting a list & pics of happy, healthy, proven breeding het adults that I need to get rid of. If this works well, I'll follow up with some typical/het young snakes that I think will be good looking animals you'll want in your collections. Finally, next spring I'll begin selling baby morphs from this year's hatchlings. I want to make sure they are all good feeders (some of my baby morphs have been reluctant feeders and I'm not passing that problem on to you).

I am planning to post some pics, descriptions, & prices in the next few days along with contact info. I'm also making plans to attend the the NARBC show in Arlington for at least one day in September so if you're in the area and want to see some snakes, let me know.

2016 hatchling 1 year update

I've spent a great deal more time analyzing this year's hatchlings and I now think that I know what defines my morph. So, let's review some of last year's snakes (in no particular order) to test what we've learned:

(if this is your first visit, you might want to read earlier posts to figure out what I'm talking about)

16-02-07

This 2016 hatchling photo is pretty bad but you can see the broken eye stripe and severely distorted dorsal pattern which should indicate my cadmium morph.

Same snake, one year later and the dorsal pattern is gun metal grey instead of charcoal black and the ground color is very yellow with a silver wash. This is my cadmium morph.

This one had a fairly solid stripe through the eye and a mostly regular dorsal pattern. Many of the dorsal spots are washed out in the center but on the surface this looks like a typical rat snake.

One year later and the ground color is very yellowish but here's a trick. If you look at the white appearing between the scales along the back you realize that it forms two longitudinal stripes from head to tail that appear to be hidden under the scales and other colors.  This is an indicator of a typical rat snake!

16-02-01

2016; solid stripe through the eye but the dorsal pattern is questionable. IMHO, it's not broken up enough. Should be a typical rat snake.

There's those hidden white stripes again. Based on the weird ground color, I don't doubt this animal will be cool looking but I'm putting this in the typical yellow/orange range. We'll know how yellow in another year.

16-01-01

Now, here's a little guy with a good example of a broken pattern. See how the dorsal markings look like jaguar spots? They are irregularly shaped, washed out in the center and often alternating along the axial line of the body? This will be a morph.

That's what I'm talking about. Morph city!

16-04-01

This little guy caught my eye when it hatched. The dorsal markings are oddly defined. Nice crisp dark outlines; fading slightly at their centers. The ground color is weirdly uniform. It looks cartoonish. If you stare at nature for very long you realize that most of it is fairly pixelated. This is why distant objects fade to blue in the atmosphere and caterpillars seem fuzzy. Our eyes are only designed to see so much detail so when something stands out as being sharply defined we tend to notice it.

year 1: the colors have changed but the contrast stays the same. You can barely make out the white longitudinal striping. I know that this is a typical rat snake but if you look closely at the scales you'll find that a normal snake's has many tiny specs of color on each scale. This snake has noticeably fewer. What a neat aberration. I wish I could get a good pic of this.

16-05-05

Typical, normal, boring rat snake. Oh how I long for the unique and freaky fashions of the recessive types.

other than a light ground color and a nice prevalent longitudinal white stripe, who cares?

16-05-04

If you've been paying attention than you'll see that this snake might be something cool.

Hey! Look at that! The dorsal pattern is fading out already, there's a nice silvery color filling in between them. The only note is that the longitudinal white stripe is pretty clear on this animal. Maybe I'm making too much of the white stripe.

16-05-03

Perfect example of the "jaguar spot" comment I made earlier. Specifically look at the contrast between light and dark on the tail andcompare it to the middle of the body.

Every time I see one like this I go back and look at the pics I've posted of typical rat snakes. Consider that we're one mis-folded protein away from a zombie apocalypse and then think about how lucky you have to be to get this shift in patterns and colors.

16-05-01

:eyeroll: Another boring, stupid, boring, normal, boring, everyday snake just like the ones that get in to your attic and eat the squirrels.

I spend my hard earned $$ to feed this run-of-the-mill animal and then come home after a long day at work to clean its cage!  Why, I ask you?

16-01-03

Hey now! Here's a keeper!

compare the solid dorsal markings on this animal to the ones from the previous snake. These are deeply concave. They look like thick X's or hour glasses. The previous snake's dorsal markings are weakly concave and look like more like saddles.

16-06-03

Lots of nice colors and contrasts on this one but...solid eye strip and uniform dorsal markings. If you've been paying attention, you know what I think of this one.

Let me be the first to say that this is a gorgeous yellow phase Texas rat snake. In this pic, you can see the grey color on the center line and tips of the yellow scales, you can make out the longitudinal white stripes, and (my personal favorite trait) there is a copper color appearing on the nose. The neck & tail have developed more bright orange while the center of the body is much lighter. Even the eyes have a striking quality.

16-03-02

Broken head stripes: check

Broken dorsal patterns: check

Lets see how this plays out.

Well, what do you know. I think I've figured out what I'm talking about, finally.

Over the next 2-3 years these snakes will get more colorful, and uniquely patterned. Sometime around 7-10 years old they will get darker and less vibrant. Such is the way of reptilian coloration. 

morph update

So, now that I've compiled some data, compared animals and done some google searches it occurs to me that I have a couple things going on with my snakes.

To start, here's a pic of a typical Texas ratsnake caught right outside my house a few weeks ago. This is what they look like around here. (Notice how it's not biting me and crapping everywhere? Maybe they aren't all nippy or maybe I'm special.)

In other parts of the state the dark ground color (the color between the spots) is more yellow or orange. I am getting quite a few of these yellow phase/orange phase animals. This is probably the result of the original male from my breeding program who was the unusually yellow offspring of two typical yellow phase animals. But, for it to carry on it should be something that was recessive in the original typical NE TX female and has now been passed on to many of the babies. They frequently vary from lemon yellow to pumpkin orange.

note: I sold this orange snake a couple years ago.

regardless, these yellow/orange snakes are identifiable as being typical because they still show a consistent, typical pattern of spots along the dorsal surface (back).

The defining attribute for identifying my morph as hatchlings seems to be the breaking up of the stripe running through the eye and a consistently broken pattern on the dorsal surface (back)

what I'm looking for in my morph now a severely broken pattern that fades out with either a silver or yellowish color washing over everything.

So, the problem becomes what to do with all the yellow/orange phase snakes? Well, I guess, when it cools off this fall I will have to sell some snakes.

Final note: I have noticed that some of these snakes are typical, high strung, aggressive rat snakes and others are cuddly little bunny rabbits (by comparison) I need to note this trait for my breeding tree to see how the offspring compare.

2017 Hatching updates

2017 babies are hatching!

As this year's babies hatch I'll be documenting/photographing them and comparing them to last year's babies. The next few weeks will be chock full of fun. A quick side note: someone finally explained white balance to me so the pics should be better and the colors more accurate.