March 6: Amazon Tree Boas with Mike Heinrich and Kathy Love

On Sunday, March 6, at 10 PM Eastern Time, Mike Heinrich and Kathy Love will join us to discuss the Amazon Tree Boa as well as the program currently being used by breeders to establish known pedigrees on their snakes. To hear Mike Heinrich say it, there is no other snake on the planet that can compete with an Amazon Tree Boa for beauty, color or personality. For him, they are the "it" snake. If you've had the chance to meet or speak with him, you'll know he wants to make that the "it" snake for you, too! Kathy is best know to us as the Corn Snake Queen. Having been in the reptile community since her youth, Kathy carved a niche for herself as one of the leaders of the Corn Snake world. She is finding that same excitement she had at the begining of her Corn Snake project in the Amazons. The initial breedings to figure out genetics, the building of excitement for a species, are an exciting venture for a seasoned breeder. Kathy and Mike are also working closely with Charles Pritzel on the ATB Registry, which is a pedigree system for tracking family lines for snakes currently owned.

ATB Registry is an online pedigree system. A pedigree is a recorded family tree, a permanent record that you can go back and reference any time. A family tree is extremely valuable in tracing inherited characteristics, discovering new genes, figuring out where new genes originated, avoiding unwanted inbreeding or hybridization, and eliminating bad or unwanted genes. Having a common family tree allows breeders to do something they cannot do with private records: cooperate with each other on a huge scale, across collections, across continents, and through generations. It empowers us all to improve our favorite species, and helps to legitimize our hobby.

This year, like last, we'll be bringing you our guests in live streaming audio, with a text-based chat room running simultaneously so you can ask questions and discuss the interview with other listeners. New this year, we'll be streaming over the Animal Wise Network, a popular, successful 24/7 channel featuring original content and interviews about animals and animal issues. To listen and participate, just log into the kingsnake.com chat room, then click "Listen now" in the upper left-hand corner. Learn more about how listening to streaming interviews here.