Have you lost your mind? No? Okay. Let’s talk ball python breeding, then. This page will go over the basics of breeding, setting up an incubator, your egg tub, and everything in between. It is by no means a comprehensive “this is the only way to breed” file; it is simply a way to help someone who is new to breeding get their feet wet. There’s tons of ways to do it right, after all. The Necessities 32 to 41 … Continue reading
The Wobble Affected Genes: Spider Champagne Hidden Gene Woma Woma Super Sable Power Ball (Super Spotnose) The wobble is a neurological issue exhibited by several different morphs (see above) and is characterized by periodic equilibrium loss – in other words: these snakes sometimes ‘shake’ their heads, corkscrew, and/or sometimes turn upside down when they ought not to, and it’s not uncommon for them to lay in weird positions. This particular neurological issue is NOT lessened by ‘outcrossing breeding’ (many other … Continue reading
I’ve wanted a Superfly for a long time. This boy is beautiful! The Superfly ball python, is a mixture of a Super Pastel, and a Fire genes. Continue reading
Shaun had one of his gravid ball pythons x-rayed the other day. I’m not sure of the circumstance, but the photo is very nice to have. Here she is, with 6 very obvious eggs. Click the photo to pull up an enlarged version. My first inclination was that x-rays are not safe, especially to a gravid (pregnant) animal, but then again, the minimal amount amount of x-rays used in today’s x-ray setups isn’t dangerous unless you are exposed regularly … Continue reading
This clutch is all out today, except for one little mystic who is still hanging from his/her egg by it’s umbilicus. I’m going to fix him(her?) up shortly, and take a video doing so. This is NWR’s second clutch of the season, and my first. The pairing was a female Mojave to a male Mystic Potion. We have in this photo: 0.1 (0 males, 1 female) Super Mojave 1.1 Mystic Potions 1.1 Mojaves (bottom left) 1.2 Mystics (top row) We … Continue reading
In most breeding projects you’ll likely get clutches containing mixtures of different morphs. When shooting for Mystic Potions, it’s likely you will get clutches with both Mystics and Mojaves in them. We had troubles telling some of them apart our first year breeding them both, so we thought this could help others. How do you tell them apart? Sometimes it’s difficult from the top side. This photo shows a belly shot of both the Mojave and Mystic morphs, to make … Continue reading
We covered recessive genes and what a Punnet square is, in Genetics 101: Recessive genes. If we want to use the Punnet square on dominant genes, it’s very similar. For right now, we are not going to make any distinction between dominant, co-domiant, or incomplete dominant. We will touch on the differences at the end of this article. Let’s start with a dominant trait, like Mojave in Ball pythons — Which happens to be a co-dominant trait as well. The … Continue reading
The Pinstripe is a dominant morph, not a co-dominant, because it does not have a super form, that looks different than the regular Pinstripe. To be more specific, to get a Pinstripe, the pinstripe gene must be passed down from either the sire or the dame. In theory, if BOTH, the sire and dame, pass the pinstripe gene, there should be a super pinstripe. To this day, people have tried, and there has never been a pinstripe to pinstripe mating … Continue reading
More ball python eggs showed up last night. While I am close to done for the season, I have 10 girls I’m still watching for eggs. Clutch #12-016! (16th clutch of the year) Pinstripe to Pinstripe, 4 healthy eggs! Most people do not breed Pinstripe to Pinstripe. Pinstripe is a dominant trait that has no visible “super” form. Meaning, if I have a hatchling that carries the gene twice (once from mom, and once from dad) it will look just … Continue reading
Candling a good egg, around the time it was laid, should reveal something like this: An unfertilized egg, will show no red blood veins.
Easter, April 8th, 2012. First clutch of the year. Four big eggs, produced by a Normal female and Mojave Male pairing. The eggs together weighed 475 grams. That is 1/2 the weight of Mamma after laying them. Georgia (mamma) is a smaller female, and her weight after laying, is 975 grams. The eggs have all been candled and are good. They are expected to hatch June 3rd. The outcome, by odds, would result in 2 (50%) Normal, and 2 (50%) … Continue reading
This female Mojave is ovulating. The photo does NOT do it justice. She looks like she’s just eaten a jumbo rat, yet she hasn’t eaten anything in about 3 weeks. The section starting a little over 1/2 way down, is bulging, and stretched out tight. Her entire body is tightened, and if I move her around about all that