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Category Archives: Breeding

X-Ray of Gravid Ball Python

  By Tom | August 11, 2015 - 1:10 am | , ,
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  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 →

Newly Hatched – June 26th, 2015

  By Tom | June 26, 2015 - 2:20 pm |
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Newly Hatched – June 26th, 2015

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 →

Mojave and Mystic Ball Pythons, Telling the Difference.

  By Tom | May 27, 2015 - 3:48 pm |
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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 →

Genetics 102: Dominant genes and the Punnet square.

  By Tom | November 14, 2014 - 8:26 pm |
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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 →

Super Pinstripe Project

  By Tom | September 26, 2012 - 3:48 am |
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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 →

Surprise clutch

  By Tom | July 15, 2012 - 8:34 am |
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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 →

Easter Eggs! First clutch of 2012

  By Tom | April 8, 2012 - 1:04 pm | ,
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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 →

Ovulating Female

  By Tom | February 24, 2012 - 3:10 am |
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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

Genetics 101: Recessive genes, and the Punnet square.

  By Tom | September 6, 2010 - 7:21 pm |
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What can I get if I cross a …. The first thing a breeder wants to know, before setting up breeding groups, is the possible outcome of any pairing of snakes. To do this you first need to know if the traits you are trying to duplicate are dominant or recessive. The Punnett square is a diagram that is used to predict an outcome of a particular cross or breeding experiment. It is named after Reginald C. Punnett, who devised … Continue reading →