Yes, I'm going there: any updates on the scaleless gene yet?

I wanted to update this thread. I just heard back from Daniel at Constrictor Addiction about him supposedly buying the scaleless from BHB and having it die (the rumor that was started somehow). He was actually pretty mad that I would even suggest something so ridiculous, and said that's the sort of thing that has been hurting this project since the beginning. People who aren't invested in the project in any way who are continually spreading rumors with absolutely no evidence, for no reason other than to try to lower the price so that they can buy into it. No truth behind it whatsoever, and all I've managed to accomplish is make him angry lol.

Winston at WHS just posted pictures of his scaleless head female who laid 5 eggs, so a good chance he'll be having a full scaleless come out. Florida reptile ranch also has a clutch of 6 eggs from a SH x SH and will hopefully pop out a fully scaleless baby or two. As I mentioned before, no one had females up to size until now, so we should see some out in a couple months.

Females take a while to grow and I'm not sure how many other breeders will have a girl up to size this year, but if the odds are in our favor we should really see this thing take off in a few months. If there are any issues with the project we should know soon enough, but as of now it's still going strong. Personally I'm beyond excited about it, I can't wait to see some scaleless combos. Winston did a pastel SH x pastel SH, I'm interested to see how the color holds up once the scales are gone.

Thanks for the update, Nick. That's great news, I'm eager to see what happens this year.

Awesome!

It would help curb the rumors if the owner of the Scaleless would/could post more up to date pics of him. You know, be a bit more transparent about things...but oh well.

Originally Posted by ClarkT

Awesome!

It would help curb the rumors if the owner of the Scaleless would/could post more up to date pics of him. You know, be a bit more transparent about things...but oh well.

If he did there probably wouldn't have been any rumors to begin with . I don't think anyone saw or heard about it for almost a year and then he randomly showed up with it at Daytona. How you can have a snake so amazing and not want to post pics of it every day I don't know...he's either incredibly lazy or has superhuman willpower lol.

The lack of pics/info on him seems quite detrimental to the project, for sure. It makes me wonder how many more people would have bought into had there been more transparency/information/openness about it. Hopefully we'll see other scaleless babies soon, and there won't be all the secrecy.

On their Facebook page WHS Reptiles has announced that they have produced a healthy scaleless clutch. The pairing was WHS Pastel Scaleless Head bred to another WHS Pastel Scaleless head, producing:
1.0 Pastel Scaleless
0.1 Super Pastel Scaleless
1.1 Scaleless Heads
0.1 Pastel

Yes, I saw that! So now we have two confirmed scaleless lines, BHB and WHS. I believe they are two independent lines anyway. I've attached their photo and their post.

I meant to come update this but have been too busy. He also posted a FAQ which I think is good, I'll post it when I have a minute. I'm really happy that he got both a male and female out so that (hopefully) any concerns about females having issues will be put to rest.

A couple other people should have some out soon as well.

Looks like Nick didn't find time to share the FAQ that WHS posted, so I'll post it in screenshot and text format. I've formatted it to make it easier to read but I attached a direct screenshot as well. Very cool.

Pastel Scaleless Ball Python pre first shed
A few answers to common questions-

Do they have "heat pits"?
- Yes, the heat receptors are under the skin. What most of us are used to seeing is the supralabial scale pits or "heat pits" which are holes in the scales used to expose the skin underneath in the first place.

Why do they have skin curls around their nostrils?
- I honestly don't know but all of my other scaleless species have the same little curls or "crusts" around the nostrils and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Some times its more visible than others depending on how close they are to shedding.

What is the line on the stomach?
- That is the embryonic fissure. It is where the embryo "seals up" after the initial start of gastrulation invaginates what then becomes the blastula, blastocyst, zygote and eventually then embryo where the cluster of cells "seals back up" and goes on to develop into a hatchling. All Ball Pythons have it, you just can't see it under their scales. The small part you do see on scaled Ball Pythons is the umbilicus fissure where the embryo receives its nutrients from the yolk during incubation. It is the last portion of the fissure to "seal up" and as you can see from the photos the scaleless seem to absorb yolk and close the fissure just fine.

Is the the coolest thing you have ever hatched?
- YYYYEEESSS!!!

Will there be pictures of the super pastel coming soon?
- YES!

Because his scaleless photos do not have a watermark, I won't crosspost them here in full size - but recent updates indicate that they seem to be normal in almost every way, including that the pastel scaleless is having its first shed. Pretty exciting stuff.

Alright, I'll admit it. That's cool!