Okeetee corns

Soderburg is nice enough to put the "emoryi" tag on those in his price list. But if the next one to sell them fails to mention that...

How come nobody wants to dicuss Okeetee's anymore?

lol

Hi all!

-John Albrecht

This post is two years old.

I'm sure John is aware of that, considering he was participating in the thread two years ago when I started it.

Face it John, we're dinosaurs, guilty of outdated thinking, lol. Best I can tell there's about 6 of us left in the country who give a damn about the locality data on our okeetees. Well, not that bad, but it's close.

Didn't exactly understand why a two year old post was brought to the top without any new information or data.

As far as Locality vs Phase, to each their own. Personally, I would prefer a "Lookeette" considering pictures of the parents are enough proof to prove the lineage. Locality is simply a breeders word the line originated from a particular location, in which their really is not a standard look. They can be drab normals or similiar to the "phase" coloration most think of when hearing Okeetee.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

I'm sure John is aware of that, considering he was participating in the thread two years ago when I started it.

Face it John, we're dinosaurs, guilty of outdated thinking, lol. Best I can tell there's about 6 of us left in the country who give a damn about the locality data on our okeetees. Well, not that bad, but it's close.

Don't have any okeetee's yet but i have a locality collection so i guess you could put me down as number 7 for data on my locales. I understand all the points on the lookeetee and okeetee as well as the phase arguments. I guess there is a little trust that goes into buying locale corns, Documentation allways helps and i try to keep as much as i can. But there is a value to me in knowing that this is an un altered by selective breeding by man corn. That this is what you would find if you came across one in the wild. It is also amazing to see the variance in look of a corn from one locale to another.

Originally Posted by TripleMoonsExotic

This post is two years old.

You wanted to pick up discussion on this forum LOL
Just teasing ya.

Regarding the "look" of true Okeetee's, I don't think anybody is breeding pure locality without trying to produce the best in appearance that they can. No matter where you find a WC cornsnake you have the possibility of finding something that isn't as attractive as you like. So Wild Caughts, even from Okeetee, can look drab sometimes. However, a WC is very valueable to me because of the genetic potential. When I produce locality Okeetees I don't sell the B grade ones as Okeetees. I sell them as normals. So the same rules of enhancing the line apply regardless of whether or not we are talking Lookatees or Okeetees. I'm producing 3rd generation locality Okeetees this year and I expect to have some screamers that compare to anything anyone has out there, with the added bonus of being able to offer "locality" specimens.

One of the reasons I like to have stock that is as "locality" as I can get, is that I want to make sure I have animals that are not het for anything. I may find myself at a later date producing animals that are Lookatees, but I will know precisely what their genetics are, as best as anyone can tell. What I don't want, is to buy something that is sold to me as an Okeetee, and then find when I breed it, that I get sunkissed, hypos or God knows what else that I have to figure out.

So even if someone doesn't appreciate my collection of locality animals, maybe one day someone will appreciate the collection for no other reason than the fact that they will know exactly what they are getting. As it is, there are morphs out there now where I'm not even confident that they do not have some sort of hybridization going on back in their ancestory.

But regardless of all the talk, almost everyone appreciates the beauty of an Okeetee, especially when fortunate enough to have a nicer specimen in hand. I also know of a pretty large number of people that prefer to have locality Okeetees if possible. Some have been disappointed to learn that they didn't have a true Okeetee when they thought that's what they were getting. So for those that care enough to investigate, there are couple/few of us out there that have them.

Right now my collection consists of WC caught by me with the execution of two that where caught in Port St Lucie by David (crazycorn), And of course my three non locale CB corns of varying morphs. My intent is to try and acquire WC locales from the cornsnakes entire range including some naturally occurring hybrids like the Kisatchie or Slowinski's Cornsnake, Mexican Cornsnake, intermontana. Where legally available of course. The best looking corn i have ever seen in the wild was in my backyard when i lived in North Georgia. It was also my first i had ever seen and what got me turned on to wanting to collect them.

I just feel with the rate of selective breeding and producing morphs, and the changing of laws everyday on being able to collect cornsnakes that before long finding a ungeneticly changed or naturally occurring corn will become harder to find. I want to be able to show someone a corn out of my collection and say if you went ----- and found a corn in the wild this is what it would look like. As well as see this how much they vary if you found one ---- or if you found one -----.

All right, I'm stupid to bring this thread back up. But, If it were NOT for the okeetee and other original wild caught snakes, would we not have all the morphs we have today? Please expain to me how any morph could have happened without an Okeetee , Miami,blah, blah, blah. to begin with?