Pied Garters.. Has anyone seen this?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

It might be all he has... Like I said he never posts pics or participates in this online stuff....

[Jeff B]

OK, just to stop the rumors and innuendos before they get out of hand as usual. Here are the facts: most of what Shannon posted is accurate, and Bill is who placed the ad, however there actually has been a line from a less white expressed pied in existence for several years prior to the discovery of this particular high white pied. I will let Scott elaborate on the previous line if he chooses to do so, since I have not worked with it as he has. A couple days after this litter of new pied hets were born Scott and I both aquired groups of the hets from Bill. First on the agenda is to get them up to size and thriving, and hopefully in a couple years it will be proven to be a heritable recessive gene, but no garantee and yes it is a big investment of time and money, but worth the chance IMHO.
Hope that clears some air.

[annulataarethebest]

OK, just to stop the rumors and innuendos before they get out of hand as usual. Here are the facts: most of what Shannon posted is accurate, and Bill is who placed the ad, however there actually has been a line from a less white expressed pied in existence for several years prior to the discovery of this particular high white pied. I will let Scott elaborate on the previous line if he chooses to do so, since I have not worked with it as he has. A couple days after this litter of new pied hets were born Scott and I both aquired groups of the hets from Bill. First on the agenda is to get them up to size and thriving, and hopefully in a couple years it will be proven to be a heritable recessive gene, but no garantee and yes it is a big investment of time and money, but worth the chance IMHO.
Hope that clears some air.

Thanks Jeff. Definitely worth it.
I think I'm going to try as well... If Bill still has some by the time he gets my email.

[annulataarethebest]

I never heard of Bill so of course I'd have to consider that to be a scam before the facts that you presented Shannon. I've been buying and selling reptiles for a decade now and online shopping for snakes always comes down to how good the pictures are. In this case, pictures not so good. Is disappointing to hear that snake died for sure, her stubbed tail reminds me of the water snake I have, amazing either one of those made it to adulthood in the wild really.

Hopefully somebody snags up the babies and makes some more.

For Sale Wild caught piebald garter snake - FaunaClassifieds

[d_virginiana]

Hope you guys get a couple of nice groups of pieds going; I'm probably still going to be drooling over them in a year or two just like I am now... Only hopefully I'll have more money then.

[Jeff B]

Money does make the world go round so to speak, but right now my only concern is to keep this gene alive for the hobby's sake, it would be a shame to not one day see piebald garters as a common place in our hobby.

[ConcinusMan]

Money does make the world go round so to speak, but right now my only concern is to keep this gene alive for the hobby's sake, it would be a shame to not one day see piebald garters as a common place in our hobby.

I find that hard to believe. You said yourself what you had given up to get these hets, (it was a lot) and yet all of you balked at the idea of me paying a few hundred dollars for the one and only albino northwestern known in existence. Saying "I would wait". Wait for what? The next opportunity which may never come?

You did it because if you are successful in producing pied garters, you know they'll be worth a fortune. You didn't make that kind of investment because your "only concern is to keep this gene alive for the hobby's sake". That's bull.

And nobody seems to recognize that this albino northwestern is the key to producing all kinds of new morphs. The potential was there to bring new morphs of this species to the hobby and bring them out of obscurity, and yes, even make money, but the attitude about that was completely different and nobody thought I should pay the guys asking price. I simply wanted to preserve that albino gene for the hobby but nobody even shared that concern. My motivation really was to keep the gene alive. Nobody gave a damn, and discouraged me from even trying to buy it.

Now you come along and pay an arm and a leg for hets from a snake that may or may not be a genetic trait and claim you did it to preserve them for the hobby. That's quite hard to swallow. Personally, I don't care why you did it and don't care if it was to make money. I just find your stated reason hard to swallow. Might be a little easier to believe if your "hobby" wasn't a registered business. Pharmaceutical companies invest millions to find new drugs. They sure as heck don't do it to help people get well. There's only one reason they invest so much and we all know what that reason is.

[snakeman]

Its a shame but it is what it is.Unfortunately not a whole lot of people are into northwesterns.If they can't sell it they are not going to buy it.

I find that hard to believe. You said yourself what you had given up to get these hets, (it was a lot) and yet all of you balked at the idea of me paying a few hundred dollars for the one and only albino northwestern known in existence. Saying "I would wait". Wait for what? The next opportunity which may never come?

You did it because if you are successful in producing pied garters, you know they'll be worth a fortune. You didn't make that kind of investment because your "only concern is to keep this gene alive for the hobby's sake". That's bull.

And nobody seems to recognize that this albino northwestern is the key to producing all kinds of new morphs. The potential was there to bring new morphs of this species to the hobby and bring them out of obscurity, and yes, even make money, but the attitude about that was completely different and nobody thought I should pay the guys asking price. I simply wanted to preserve that albino gene for the hobby but nobody even shared that concern. My motivation really was to keep the gene alive. Nobody gave a damn, and discouraged me from even trying to buy it.

Now you come along and pay an arm and a leg for hets from a snake that may or may not be a genetic trait and claim you did it to preserve them for the hobby. That's quite hard to swallow. Personally, I don't care why you did it and don't care if it was to make money. I just find your stated reason hard to swallow. Might be a little easier to believe if your "hobby" wasn't a registered business. Pharmaceutical companies invest millions to find new drugs. They sure as heck don't do it to help people get well. There's only one reason they invest so much and we all know what that reason is.

[katach]

Its a shame but it is what it is.Unfortunately not a whole lot of people are into northwesterns.If they can't sell it they are not going to buy it.

I LOVE NW. I have 3 adults and 8 babies. I plan on breeding my red-stripe soon with Chantel's red-stripe.

[ConcinusMan]

Its a shame but it is what it is.Unfortunately not a whole lot of people are into northwesterns.If they can't sell it they are not going to buy it.

Well in the hands of breeder that albino could have eventually produced albinos of all different stripe colors and patterns, and since erythristic and melanistic ones are pretty common, also could have produced erythristic albinos, and possibly snows. I guess my point is, where there is no market now, one can create one. Creating the new morphs can change what you are saying "not many people into them" well maybe there would be if there were some new morphs and other striking looking snakes available. I've already seen just since I've joined, an increased interest in this species.

You would spit a brick if you knew what I was offered for miss piggy, and she's just a normal red stripe. Even Jeff made quite a generous offer for her, which I turned down for a better offer. The interest is there, and increasing every day. In fact, I never did fill all the "orders" for people wanting me to get northwesterns for them. Personally I don't understand why they aren't more popular. Atratus are, and they're damn near the same snake. There's an active thread right now about someone asking if they can get them.