Pituophis newbie question

I am not sure the morphs are better or worse .. though it has been observed in some snakes that albinos are more flighty and nervous ... my own personal experience .. the normal gophers I have are just as tractable as my hybinos ... now there is a difference between WC (normal) and any CBB of normal or morphs.

Alan, thank you for the breeder recommendations. I have Cherryville Farms' website bookmarked, and "liked" Envy Reptiles' Facebook page. John and Jason are also both members of the Pituophis Enthusiast Facebook group, so I'll keep an eye on their posts to see what may be available.

Todd, thank you for the reply. I wonder if morphs tend to be more mellow because they are certainly captive bred (i.e. I doubt there would be many wild caught albinos up for sale)? The more I hear about (and look at photos of) gopher snakes, the more I think my next snake will be one.

Alan, I have heard comments from king snake keepers that albino california king snakes can be more likely to bite than other forms of the same subspecies (though the one I have handled was very tractable, which may just go to show that snakes are individuals). I don't recall hearing that about any other species' albinos.

Tim, I can tell you that my experience with bulls is that they are pretty tractable temperament wise if handled frequently from a young age. They can get rather large, I have a male that is eight years old and slightly over 7 feet. He is regularly handled by myself as well as my kids and has not bitten or threatened anybody as an adult. All of the other bulls I have kept seemed to stay in the 6-61/2 foot range, though its probably worth mentioning that I had a friend that had one (male) reach eight feet. My experience is females can be a little testier than males. They can be cannibalistic so if you attempt to breed them always supervise and separate them after mating occurs.

As far as gophers I've kept both Sonorans and Applegate San Diego's in years past. I found Sonorans to be less nervous but either would make a great pet. I personally think the Sonoran is hands down one of the nicest looking of the pituophis.

As far as morphs being more or less aggressive I can only verify albinos seem more prone to biting than other morphs. This is across the board with many snakes in my experience and is most likely attributed to the poor eyesight common with albinos in general regardless of the species.

I'd be interested in others opinions on that as it is an interesting theory/observation .. me personally find my amelinistic corns, albino balls, kahl albino boas, and hybino (hypo/albino) sonoran gophers to all be very tractable and no more likely to bite than the normals of each of those types. But .. just my observation .. though I did read that albino Great Plains Rats tend to be more nervous and therefore nippy as young.

Thank you for the comment on bull snakes, Michael. I had not known the behavorial difference between females and males. Is that common for any other snake species? And thank you for the advice that bull snakes can be cannibalistic to potential mates (I have often heard that of king snakes and occasionally of milksnakes). At the moment I have no plans to breed snakes, but I would not absolutely rule it out as a future possibility.

Interesting speculation on albinos and a possible link between poor eyesight and biting in snakes. [I had a classmate in college who was albino, and had very poor eyesight; I seem to recall that he was legally blind, though he wore thick glasses which corrected to 20/200 or so]. Like Alan, I too would be interested hear the experiences of others with albino morphs of various species of snake, and any link to behavior.

Tim, I can only verify the behavior of species I have kept. It seems in my experience that female aggression is more common in some species than others. I've noticed it in bulls, carpet pythons, some boas (commons, "red tails", garden/amazon tree boas, and emeralds), White lip pythons, bloods, and green trees with a strong degree of consistency. However, some of those animals are known to be aggressive in general and most people who breed whether hobby or otherwise keep more females than males and this was certainly true in my case. My observation with all those species is males settle down faster and are more pleasant in demeanor. However, this perception could be skewed by the ratio difference of males to females kept and or interacted with. The exception to that would be bulls and carpets which I've interacted most closely with over the years as I have always enjoyed these species more than the others resulting in longer periods of interaction with these species.

I've noticed no real difference in others I've kept such as various corns, milks, kings, gophers, hog nose, ball pythons, bloods, rosy boas, dumerills boas, sand boas, childrens & spotted pythons, as well as a few odd species here and there. The reason for this could be less real interaction with the animals as many of these where maintained simply as breeding stock with interaction limited to husbandry purposes. It would be interesting to see what others here have found with regards to aggression level differences between sexes with species they have or currently keep.