Nuevo leon (aka Thayeri) questions

Die hard kingsnake lover/parent here, looking to fill my life with baby kingsnakes in several years with a pair of new pets (first and foremost) who look very different from each other and babies will be a surprise!

Nuevo leons seem to fit the bill to a tee, but I’ve never had one before and have a few questions! First - are they facultatively nocturnal? I.e., will they actively hunt during the day if you don’t cook their cage and don’t overfeed like some other kings? Second - I was under the impression that you could get all 4 morphs in a single clutch, but the sibships I’ve seen here at MorphMarket seem highly skewed toward a single flavor. Is this from selective breeding and the variation I seek has been bred out? If so, any suggestions how to best find a few handsome sexed Nuevos with the most genetic variation?

I used to have one, he was amazing.
Bioactive set up, he was VERY active, always out and about being nosey! Ate anything too!

As for morphs? I don’t think you’ll get all out as they’re different types not morphs as far as I was aware when asking about the one I had.
I had a Neuvo Leon- grey and red.

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So when I had some leonis they were like a lot of the other species from that general region where they would be most active shortly before and after lights out but would eat during the day without hesitation.

As far as the 2nd part, this was a confusing point for me as well because they are THE variable kingsnake but in our recent chat with John Lassiter who has bred a lot of leonis he says you can get a range of phenotypes out of a clutch even if you pair pheno-similar parents you won’t necessarily get similar offspring. We kind of related them to Amazon Tree Boa litters where you can get just about anything from two similar or opposite spectrum parents.

The episode we did with John recently is here or on any of the major podcast platforms - Stream Colubrid Legend John Lassiter by The Herpetoculture Network | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Leonis are some of my favorite kings and I really wish I hadn’t parted with mine!

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Wow! That podcast was great. It covered a lot of ground on stuff I wanna hear and I quite enjoyed the conservation. I’ve bookmarked it for further consumption/digestion as I progress at snakes’ pace along this protracted tantalizing journey. Thank you. :wink:

It makes sense that they tend toward crepuscular (dawnish + duskish) activity, given their natural ranges. That certainly works for me, who gains tremendous joy watching majestic, yet oh so irresistibly cute, creatures slither and flick their tongues as they explore the potential for some goodies about.

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When we had our boy, he was active all day.
Always being nosey I’d say. and would take food at any time too which was awesome. We always saw him :blush:

Also assuming you know they will eat multiple times a week not just once also?

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How fun! I imagine some of that may be due to your nuevo’s individual personality and want to temper my expectations. Your first post reignited my interest for a bioactive set up, but I have humidity and drainage concerns as well as impaction risks and issues with lighting and heating sources - but I suppose that’s a different topic.

Yes, I’m aware that you can feed kings more frequent smaller meals. I personally prefer to vary the feeding schedule more akin to what opportunistic feeders experience in the real world.

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