CAUTION: THERE WILL BE DEAD SNAKE PHOTOS IN THIS THREAD.
I've written about my dinker project, the Osmosis, on here before, but I figured it was time to clean up the timeline a bit, as the previous thread occurred over several years (original thread here:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=292608). Since some folks thought I sold this project when my car died last fall, I wanted to create a dedicated thread not only for everyone to keep track of a potential new gene with me, but also to assure you all that I haven't given up on this project given that updates have been slow.
In July 2010, I purchased the founding female from a fellow in Texas. At the time I was a graduate student, so forking out $150 + shipping was a bit painful for me (but well worth it now). She's been a finicky feeder from the start, only eating about 20 food items a year, and I've struggled to keep her at 1500 grams. I've let her make the decision about breeding because of it, so progress proving out the gene has been a little slow. That, and a few accidents have gotten in the way too.
Clutch records for founding Osmosis female:
2010 - unknown pairing by original owner. Clutch of 5 eggs lost due to the clutch being dropped.
2011 - didn't breed, couldn't get her weight up
2012 - Osmosis x 100% het pied male. 5 eggs. Incubator malfunction made 4 eggs die at pipping. 5th baby survived, but didn't thrive. He's currently in the care by a friend of mine because he may not be suitable for breeding. Still alive today, but small. I chose to breed her to a het pied male because she had strong railroad tracks, and I wanted to rule out that she was simply a spectacular het for pied.
2013 - Osmosis x calico. 4 eggs. 2.1 calicos 1.0 normal. Paired her to a calico to rule out arroyo/rio. Calico babies did not have the forced dorsal stripe the arroyo imposes on calico. 2.0 calicos look like a combination gene. 1.0 normal I'm confident is at the very least a heterozygous Osmosis. 0.1 calico is high-white, so influence of the Osmosis gene is difficult to discern.
2014 - rejected all males, didn't breed
2015 - rejected her sons, didn't breed
I'm fairly confident I am working with, at the very least, a dominant trait. Even given the incubator malfunctions of the first clutch, all babies showed highly reduced patterning, dorsal striping, and almost a complete lack of alien heads. In the second clutch, the two male calicos are
extremely dark and reduced pattern. The male 'normal' has railroad stripes down the belly, a dorsal stripe, and a reduced pattern. The female calico is a high-white individual, so she's the only offspring I'm unsure has the gene.
Given that all offspring (except for the female calico, of which I am unsure) have displayed a similar pattern to my founding female, I suspect my founding female may be the super form. If this was simply a dominant gene, I would expect only 50% of offspring to exhibit the reduced pattern, dorsal striping, lack of alien heads, and railroad belly tracks. Of 9 offspring, a minimum of 8 (and possibly all 9) have displayed these traits.
My plan for 2015 is to attempt breed the founding female back to her sons. If she does not pair with her sons, I will breed her to (probably) a disco yellowbelly possible het ghost male.
Her son and daughter calicos are locked today. I will be rotating the female calico among her three brothers (2 calicos and 1 'normal') until she ovulates.
I will be attaching photos to the next posts in chronological order. The first four photos are:
1. Founding Osmosis female.
2. First pairing in 2012: Osmosis x spectacular 100% het pied male
3. 2012 clutch results: incubator malfunction killed 4 of 5 eggs at pipping. Last baby did not thrive. He's still alive, under the care of a friend, but probably not breedable.
4. Surviving 2012 baby
Hybrid Mode
