My amazing dinkers! Caution: Dead snake photos. NEW ADDITIONS TO THE PROJECT!

Haha, yeah, I did. I finally got around to pestering Dan Wolfe (at Shadera's good-natured insistence), and he and I are both a little confused by the calicos. He does think the "normal" I produced is a "dead ringer for an Arroyo," so that's exciting. He also thinks that something else may be going on in the male het pied I bred Osmosis to next year. I bred him to a het pied female this year and have four eggs cooking. We'll see what hatches out. I may have to breed him to a normal female next year to see if his pattern passes to his offspring independent of whatever the Osmosis thing is. If I prove him as a het pied this year, maybe it's the pied playing with the pattern? I've seen some pretty amazing het pieds (not to mention leopards). Projects are fun!

Here are some post shed photos. I also uploaded a video! Sorry for the lawn mowers in the background halfway through, seems like there's always something trying to annoy me when I'm doing something moderately important.

http://youtu.be/hf_P0yNGLfM

Some smokin calicos, congrats!

Looking good. Can't wait to see that high color calico once it gets some size on it.

Congrats Vanessa on some great looking (and diverse) calicos!!

Wow, forgot that I haven't updated this thread in a while. I really need to get myself a light box, I tried taking photos today and they all came out off color. These photos are already about three months old, but you can see how nicely the calicos are coming out!

First photo is of the bright (Osmosis) calico female. The second photo is her next to one of her much darker brothers. The third photo is of the other dark male (Osmosis) calicos (taken today). The last photo is of the "normal" Osmosis male that I hatched out (photo taken today). He's getting big enough that I think he'll be able to breed this year! He's already pushing 400 grams, but no sperm plugs yet.

What's fascinating is that the railroad tracks from Mom seem to be heritable, along with her pattern (albeit the pattern is muted, hoping to prove a super this year). The railroad tracks do not appear in the calicos though, but calico does tend to wash details out on other morphs. At the very least, these are some spectacular calicos... perhaps the Osmosis gene is playing with the calico? Who knows, I'll need to do some more breeding to really figure this out. Still, it's all in good fun! Here are some belly shots!

Photo 1: Belly shot of mom (founding Osmosis).
Photo 2: Belly shot of this year's Osmosis male.
Photo 3: Belly shot of bright female (Osmosis) calico.