Underrated species

I have noticed a trend within the hobby. If you are in the hobby long enough, you will hear certain species referred to as underrated. What does that mean exactly? I have had this conversation with breeders and keepers before and the same thing comes up every time. There is usually something about a species that makes it underrated or less appreciated within the hobby. “Mainstream” species, like ball pythons, corn snakes, boa constrictors, leopard geckos, crested geckos and species along those lines all have certain things in common. They are usually fairly forgiving with husbandry, docile, are readily available, and they come in a good number of mutations.

Macklots pythons are definitely considered an underrated species. They use to be popular in the early 90s and have lost popularity in once other species took the spotlight in the hobby. I have heard numerous keepers talk about how underrated and awesome macklots are for over a decade. So why aren’t they more popular now?

That doesn’t mean that those mainstream species are bad by any means. Those species are the reason the hobby has gotten as popular as it has. My very first reptile was a normal leopard gecko and it was the animal that started my obsession just like so many other keepers and breeders. I feel like there was a point in my keeping animals, when I wanted to see what else was out there. Me personally, I kept lizards for 5 years before I got my first snake. When I decided to get a snake, I knew I wanted something different from what you see at every pet store. So I researched every possible snake I could find. Kingsnakes, Milk snakes, boas, pythons, odd ball stuff, you name it and I researched as much as I could. Then I came across Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons. The size, color, head structure, semi-arboreal nature, basically everything about this snake made me want one. This was in 2006 so carpets definitely weren’t nearly as popular as they are today. They could absolutely be considered an underrated species at that time. So I ended up buying an adult male from NERD at the Daytona Expo that year and I have had carpets ever since. I still consider carpets kind of underrated but they have definitely gained popularity in the past decade or so.

One of my farm bred ijs. The amount of colors on these guys get overlooked too often. More people are starting to take notice of the potential this subspecies really has. The next decade is going to be insane for ijs or papuan carpets.

I have a few animals that I would consider underrated. Cave dwelling rat snakes, Chinese beauties, Ptyas mucosa, radiated rat snakes, and Phrynonax poecilonotus. These snakes are not as popular for a number of reasons from what I’ve seen. Temperature requirements have been brought up when I talk to people about some of these species. I understand someone not having the room for a particular species. That is honestly a very responsible reason. Others say that some species are too snappy, I can understand that too. I’m not a big fan of that either, but I have also learned how to work snakes with hooks so I can work with more snappy species comfortably. Size can also be a factor. Some of the underrated species can definitely be on the medium to large side. A larger size equals a larger cage and more space. Feeding can also play a part in a species having the underrated label. Look at Spilotes sulphureus or blue beauty snakes. Both are known to eat a lot and defecate a lot. That can definitely keep people from venturing into these species. Lack of mutations can also keep a species from being kept by more keepers. Take Macklots as an example; a granite super zebra carpet python is fairly sought after but a macklots python looks just like that combo and keepers will pass them up consistently. Some species have one or more of these contributing factors to being labeled as underrated and under appreciated.

Cave dwelling rat snakes are definitely an underrated species . They are one of the more popular of the Orthriophis genus. Orthriophis on a whole seem to be overlooked in the hobby here in the states from what I’ve gathered. I would love to see more people working with all of the available subspecies.

I have been in the hobby for almost two decades now if you count me just having a couple pet leopard geckos as a kid. I pretty much jumped head first into the hobby and never looked back. I have seen some trends come and go. I got in when the leopard gecko craze was winding down and pied ball pythons started to appear, then bearded dragons, etc. I have noticed an increase of people wanting to keep the lesser known species. Ptyas comes to mind. So do coachwhips. A lot of larger colubrids are finding their way into collections now. Research and information about these species is growing too. That is exactly what this hobby needs if you ask me. There are so many species now that keepers are giving a shot. Timor pythons, White lipped pythons, Scrubs, Dunns, Ringed pythons, so many species of lizards and the list goes on and on.

Gonyosoma have always been one of my personal favorites when it came to just keeping and observing a species. These unfortunately get imported like mad and are cheap so that is usually a recipe for people to think of them as “cheap” and “we can get those anytime”.. Fortunately, Gonyosoma jansenii are starting to show up more, so hopefully those will be established soon.

I want to leave you with this. There is a good possibility that imports as we know it could stop anytime, especially from Indonesia. This has been a rumor for some time now. So just think about how many species or projects we as a hobby have lost due to nobody wanting to put the effort into the project. Look at Dunns pythons, we almost lost that subspecies in the US hobby forever. Thanks to Ryan Young (Molecular Reptile) and KJ, we now have had two seasons in a row with successful breedings. We as a hobby can do this with so many more species. I myself would love to see the trend of keepers making the decision to keep more “underrated species”.