A few recent ball python clutches

[Jmugleston]

Pastel lesser x Super pastel clutch

Mojave x Wildtype

Super pastel x Calico

Calico x Wildtype

Pied x Het. pied

 

[Aarantula]

They look awesome!!! Excuse my ignorance (I don't know much about snakes) but why does that last one have a pink body and colored head???

 

[Bigboy]

They look awesome!!! Excuse my ignorance (I don't know much about snakes) but why does that last one have a pink body and colored head???

It is expressing the gene for being "piebald". It is an example of extreme inbreeding depression and for some reason is highly desirable trait in the american reptile trade. Ball pythons are the poster child for genetic manipulation in snakes and new "morphs" are created year by year.

 

[Jmugleston]

It is expressing the gene for being "piebald". It is an example of extreme inbreeding depression and for some reason is highly desirable trait in the american reptile trade. Ball pythons are the poster child for genetic manipulation in snakes and new "morphs" are created year by year.

It isn't just the reptile trade that selects for desirable phenotypes. The cattle, chicken, and pigs you eat, the vegetables you consume, your companion pets (dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.), and well...most likely you represent an individual from an isolated population that selected based on what the breeders or parents (in the case of humans) were desirable traits.
And Australians are exempt from this group of selective breeders. Check out all the blue tongue morphs (striped, melanistic, albino, and more), carpet python morphs (albino darwins), scrubs (albino) and more. People have been selective breeding for many years. Darwin even used one of the opening chapters to his book to cover all the selective breeding by humans. Yes initially lines may be crossed. Even if you breed only the wildtype morph you're dealing with a population bottleneck in captivity so eventually heterozygosity will be reduced. It may be for the better or for the worse. In some cases the homozygotes are deleterious and the offspring dies (super jaguar carpet pythons) in many other cases the animals are perfectly healthy. Most won't survive in the wild, but pieds have been found on multiple occasions in Africa showing that this gene isn't an automatic death sentence.


To answer the question above without throwing terms with negative connotation out there, the pied gene was one that was originally imported from the wild. To date more than a dozen snakes expressing this trait have been found. The mutation is identified by having patches of white taking up to 90% of the snakes pattern. They are highly prized in the hobby due to their stunning appearance. They appear to have no health issues or problems that can be attributed to inbreeding.

 

[mlflorea]

The Super pastel x Calico is such a beautiful snake!

 

[Aarantula]

Thanks for the replies! Very informative! Could you post more pics of the Pieballed out of the egg? Looks awesome! !!

 

[Jmugleston]

Thanks for the replies! Very informative! Could you post more pics of the Pieballed out of the egg? Looks awesome! !!

I will. I have some recent clutches that just hatched so I'll try to get pics of them up this weekend.

J.