Albino Garter snake FOUND IN NW OREGON!

[ConcinusMan]

Nevermind what it looks like. I'm more interested in preserving the gene and seeing if it can be used in combination with other genes to produce something in the future that isn't "hideous"

Imagine a snake like my red stripe girl, or flicker... but albino. I know you wouldn't like that stefan, but I certainly would.

[Stefan-A]

Just saying that I'd first and foremost consider it a senseless loss of a snake's life.

[Spankenstyne]

Imo nobody offered him $2,000 or even the $600, he's trying to play Richard for more money.

Appealing to Richard's sense of compassion for these snakes with comments about just letting it die when he clearly knows how badly Richard wants to see it live. When he didn't bite with a better offer after the $2,000 but "oh darn they forgot to leave contact info" then didn't bite on the "a guy offered me $600" comment he eventually comes back with the "gee nobody will even give me $200 for it, guess I'll let it die"...

I hate to say it because I believe your heart was in the right place but Richard you hurt your bargaining position by telling him off the hop how rare and valuable you believe it to be. He probably thinks you're some big rich breeder trying to lowball him out of a one of a kind animal & sadly he's just seeing dollar signs. Imo make him your final offer and be done with him.
It sucks but at the end of the day it's his decision and sadly it looks like it will be the senseless loss of a snake's life. Who knows after not hearing from you for a while he might realize it's his only offer

[ConcinusMan]

I never indicated to him that the snake was valuable in the realm of what he's asking. I did tell him it's the only albino of it's species (T. ordinoides) that I know of and I'd like to see it well cared for and produce offspring.

I already told him that $100 is the final offer and he's lucky there's any offer at all with the attitude that the snake is just money. That's when he said "well i guess its gunna die then if no one will put up 200 sorry man"

Anyway, I'm not quite ready to completely wash my hands of the whole thing. Let's see how he responds to the latest emails I sent.

[JungleTrunk]

I had an albino garter snake that my cat brought to me on my porch about a year ago that looked JUST LIKE this one except it was sub adult size. It was in bad shape, very thin and it's intestines were falling out and dried up (from my cat) and it ended up dying. I thought it was just something someone released and nothing too special, I just felt bad for the little guy. I live in NW Oregon so it could of very well been the same. There are probably more out there. It could very well NOT been a Native NW too. There are LOTS of people around here who release things into the wild that don't belong like the creek I went for a swim in then realized someone released aligators in it... aligators in oregon.. come on. People release non native animals in the wild all the time so I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just saying...

[JungleTrunk]

I wouldn't breed this as a Native species until you know FOR SURE it is. You could really mess up the lines if you do and it's not. I can't say it enough, there are a lot of people who release non native species and do weird stuff here.

[guidofatherof5]

Richard,
what is the status of this snake? Has the guy been taking care of it?

[Thamnophis Man]

Who the hell would even pay any kind of money like that if they don't even know the health that it is in? Even if I wanted it as bad as $600 or $2000, I wouldn't give him anything over $100 unless it was Scott, Jeff, or Don, or any of the other well known breeders. He sounds like the type of person that would take your money and if the snake shown up dead or anything he would just take the money and run.

[ConcinusMan]

I wouldn't breed this as a Native species until you know FOR SURE it is. You could really mess up the lines if you do and it's not. I can't say it enough, there are a lot of people who release non native species and do weird stuff here.

It is a subadult. I'm sure it is a northwestern (T. ordinoides). Both the scales and the coloration tell me it's not any non-native albino commonly available for sale and it has 6 upper labials on one side, 7 on the other which is pretty common for northwesterns. It was found reasonably far out in the countryside. Northwesterns will not breed with other species, at least not with any native garter species found in it's range so no worries there. He's local so if I were to buy it (not going to happen) there would be no "showing up dead" or any of that going on.

Richard,
what is the status of this snake? Has the guy been taking care of it?

It is apparently still alive and that's all I know. I wouldn't know if he's taking proper care of it..

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, JungleTrunk