I have a male Extreme Okeetee corn snake, but no info about his lineage. I haven’t found much info about the Okeetee trait online. I have a few questions!
•If I breed him (to a snake without the Okeetee gene), what kind of percentages and appearance would the offspring have?
•I read that Okeetee is line-bred, and not a mutation. So what does this mean for the offspring’s genes and looks?
•Is the Okeetee gene considered “dominant”?
I’m very interested in hybridizing him with my MBK, to create Jungle Corns, but I need to know what Okeetee would do to the genetic makeup of the offspring!
•Would they then inherit the Okeetee gene?
•Would any of the offspring show Okeetee traits?
Okeetee is a line bred look. It’s neither dominant nor recessive. Typically both parents must be okeetees to call the babies okeetee, but sometimes an okeetee will be bred to a non-okeetee in order to start a thick bordered project in another morph (e.g. butter okeetee). Breeding an okeetee to a non-okeetee corn will usually result in babies that are in between the parents’ look, with some looking more like an okeetee and some looking more normal.
Breeding an okeetee to a different species? That, I have no idea! I imagine it would work with relatively the same mechanics - babies would be various blends of the parents’ looks. I see that corn hybrid babies often have quite a variety of looks. I’m not sure if corn and MBK has been done yet, but it would be interesting to see how the solid black passes along.
Thanks so much for your input! Definitely cleared a lot up. With my research, I was getting a lot of mixed info, none of which stated “this or that” for certain.
I believe this baby is a “Black Jungle Corn” (MBK x Corn), found on natureboxpetemporium website. If this is true, then perhaps an Okeetee thrown in would add a little more variation in the color between saddles? Since my boy has such intense yellows and oranges!
Definitely encourages me to try and find out what the offspring would look like! I have a couple more years to go, before my MBK is breeding size.
Isnt a MBK x corn a hybrid? Also corns are food for MBK so the odds of breeding are very slim. Unless there is a different MBK than what I am thinking of.
Also the hybrid would be sterile so you wouldn’t be able to breed the offsprings.
Ah ok. I was under the assumption that majority of hybrids are sterile. I should change would be to could be. Either way, first step would be to make sure the kingsnake doesnt eat the corn snake.
It really depends on how close the species are, genetically. You can cross Pantherophis, Lampropeltis, and Pituophis and get fertile hybrids. However you are correct in the fact that Kings are ophiophagus (snake eaters) so any pairing would have to be closely monitored.
My corn snake is way bigger than my MBK will get. And obviously I’d closely monitor them. Same goes for most snakes being bred. For example, hognoses and bullsnakes. Especially Tarantulas too!
Given MBKs are just CalKings that went south and lost their banding (and that 99% of the MBKs in the hobby are mixed CalKing blood anyway ) it is safe to assume they are fertile
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You will find that the “species definition” rule frequently does not apply with herps (and plants, and fish, and mammals, and… LOL) In the bigger picture it is more a “species suggestion” than a definition
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As Olivia rightly noted, Okeetee now is just a line bred look. Once upon a time it was a true locality, but the Okeetee Hunt Club quit allowing herpers to visit after some bad actor trashed the place so the original bloodline kind of died out
) it is safe to assume they are fertile