concinnus, cannibalism

[ConcinusMan]

I think this particular female may just not be quite "normal" for concinnus

Seems to be the case in many CB (many generations removed from wild) concinnus. Many are only vaguely like wild concinnus, at least as far as appearances go.

[JSI]

I don’t know why you feel a need to continue to add your negative opinion on these animals that you feel are somehow genetically inferior because they have “Too much red”.

These snakes are F3, so they are not far removed from the wild as you seem to think. It is a very good thing the breeder and good friend of mine is not a member of this forum, he would not take your bashing his stock lightly. He has worked with thamnophis sirtalis concinnus and thamnophis sirtalis infernalis for many years and has not line bred these animals for their colours. He also produces many drymarchon corais couperi, drymarchon corais corais as well as morelia viridis.

I think maybe you should consider other factors you might not be aware of before you jump to such rash conclusions?? How much do I feed them? As with most of my animals I prefer to grow them slowly rather than stuff them so they reach a good size quickly. Over the years I have found that power feeding at a young age has very negative consequence on a snakes total longevity. The result of this is that most if not all of my snakes have a very healthy appetite and excellent feeding response. In my opinion I would consider this a much bigger factor resulting in the event that transpired as these snakes had lived together for more than a year with no incidences.

So please ConcinnusMan, refrain from undermining these animals a third time.

Jeremy

[ConcinusMan]

Whoa, calm down. A third time? first time I was only kidding and said so. Their was no third time. This last time I was only suggesting that if snakes are selectively bred for their color, it's only logical that there could be unseen traits that are being selected unknowingly, such as behaviors. I have never seen wild concinnus that are as red as those. I've been all over Oregon and WA and they are always orange so I just figured they are probably bred for the high red since CB snakes are the only snakes I've ever seen like that. Forgive me if that assumption is incorrect.

I do have to agree with you about the push for fast growth. My last pair of concinnus did reach about 4 feet, but they took their time to get that big (about 15 years) and lived a very long time (18, and 21 years) I would never force an unnatural growth rate. I believe it shortens their lives.

[drache]

I think abnormal behavior can pop up any time - it's random
there is almost always an exception to any rule
I would be careful to ascribe it to any particular factor
some critters are just "different"