My Cribo....

About 9 months ago I purchased a "blacktail" cribo as a hatchling. Within 6 months his tail had faded to the point where you almost cannot distinguish it from his body. I was pleasantly suprised that it turned out to be a unicolor.

That's disturbing. We need to be very careful what we breed to what.
T.

Generally, by the time they are breeding size, their coloration gives them away, as both spp. normally begin life with black tails. However, a few appear to fall somewhere in between..

Jeff

Yes but what I'm saying is that it appears to me that Rob purchased what he believed to be a hatchling black tail which later turned out to be a unicolor. That tells me that either the breeder did not know what he had for parent animals, or he lied. Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible. Question,...Is it possible for two true blacktail adults to breed and produce a hatchling unicolor? Either way, we need to pay better attention to what we are breeding to what.
T.

I should mention that I didn't purchase him from a breeder, but a local shop in RI that told me he was captive hatched. No need to worry that a breeder misrepresented him.

As I mentioned, I was quite happy with the outcome considering I paid next to nothing for a unicolor. I just wished I had purchased the other one they had at the same time.

Captive hatched by who?

If it was from a pet shop, it is likely impossible find a record.

I would think that pet shop would know who they got it from.

"Captive Bred" does not mean that they got it from the breeder. They probably got it from a jobber or dealer. 99% of pet shop herps are "ananonymous". Even if they could track down the dealer/jobber, chances are that they would not know who bred it. And of course, it is not uncommon for someone to by a snake, decide to get rid of it, and take it to the local pet shop. Even if the pet shop DID care, most likely the conversation would go something like "Will you buy this captive bred Cribo?", "Sure, where did you get it", "Some herp show". End of conversation. While sometimes it is possible to track lineages from pet shop snakes, it is certainly not common.