The really strange world of ball python breeding, really really strange
 

The 2004 season was really good to me and I just want to be clear that I am in no way complaining about it, but how weird is it that I bred all my animals at the same time and I started hatching eggs in June and have eggs hatching now, almost the end of the year? Just weird stuff. My last clutch of the season is hypo x het hypo and it looks like they should be out around the weekend. I will post pics when they get around to it.

I produced from about 85% of the females that I bred this year and produced all 3 of the visual morphs that I tried to produce. So I am very pleased with the results. I am just getting ready to start the 2005 season and it will hopefully be even better. We have some great potential for pastels, super pastels, pastels het ghost, ghost/hypo, albinos and hets, hets for our new line of silver hypo, possibly proving what may be a yellow belly out, pos het and het pieds, pos het caramels and some other weird unproven stuff.

If nothing else it should prove to be one really interesting year. E

Do you have pictures of the Silver Hypo up somewhere?

Yeah, I'd love to see this silver hypo.
Sounds like you should have some very fun things ahead!

There are pics of him on my site under the new strain of hypo section on the ball python page. As a hatchling he was a deep silver and bright yellow, the yellow being very different then other ghosts lines in hatchlings as I have other established lines. I displayed him at the Chicago NARBC show and consulted several big ball brains such as RDR, NERD, McCain, Sharp and others and the consensus is that he is likely a simple recessive hypo that is unique from existing lines.

He is not as dramatic as an adult as he was as a hatchling but my premise here is a simple one. Imagine if you will making pastel ghosts and other combos with a hypo that as a baby is that highly contrasted as opposed to some you will see that are almost unicolor with some pattern. I am confident he will make HOT pastel ghosts. I will let you know for sure after he produces hets this year and in 2 years produces baby hypos.

I named the line the silver hypo because I think it is arrogant to name it after yourself and I wanted something in the name that would distinguish him from existing lines as you can breed an "orange" ghost and a "yellow" or "butterscotch" together and get babies of differing coloration. If you think about how variable the coloration of normal ball pythons is it makes perfect sense that the same hypo gene would vary in appearance based on the pigment that exists in the animal that is being removed. So a darker normal would be orange while a lighter normal would be yellow. Logical, right? My boy is such a different contrasted look to him and still has so much contrast at his size that I really think he will offer much to so many projects. E

Are you aware of Alvaro Garcia's "Silver Ghost"? He is working on proving it but it looks like an axanthic ghost all wrapped up in one. I see confusion between the names if both lines prove (which I'm hoping for anyway of course).

If he does have an axanthic hypo then it would be a true ghost. I am calling mine a silver hypo because it is a hypo and as babies they are silver. I understand why you be concerned about it but I had no idea but am going to stick with my name at least for now. Thanks though. Evan

His is wild caught so presumably not likely a double recessive homozygous mutant genetic "true ghost". It just looks like what you would expect one to even as an adult. Hopefully it's a single gene causing both the axanthic and ghostly appearance and can be reproduced so we can all have one some day!

From what you are describing it sounds like either a desert ghost or one the many animals that look anery or axanthic from a pigment change through shed. I have seen normals turn into hypos and axanthics from a shed. Until he proves his animal out I still will stay on my name. I've seen too many wild caughts not pan out to think otherwise. My strong surity in my animals genes is from raising it from a hatchling. We will see though. Do you have a pic you can post?

I think Alvaro wouldn't mind if I link to some photos he already has on the web:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...762&uid=610088

My understanding is that he has had this guy for several years and he hasn't changed so hopefully he is the real genetic thing.

On the other hand I got an imported female that might have been one of those one shed changer. She quickly changed appearances as she grew (stopped shedding clear and started picking up more dark pigment). I don't have a good feel for what the change pattern is with those changers so I yet hold out hope that she might be something genetic, just different. She has been off on a breeding loan for nearly a year now (stopped feeding too soon last year) so I don't know if she stabilized at a nearly normal look or something still pretty odd:

http://snakemorphs.home.comcast.net/f01gafr.htm

I looked at his pics and in the head close up especially I very clearly see brown pigment. My hypo has no brown and no black. Just silver and yellow. I am not a great photographer but anyone that has seen it can tell you that it is quite different from hypos that are currently out there.