During our 2011 breeding season we experienced this clutch variance phenomenon once again.  We paired a fire male and a pastel jungle female with hopes of producing hold back fireflies. We hit the odds on 5 eggs, with three fireflies.  Each firefly was unique looking, not resembling any of its siblings.  The first one was a male, who looks more like a traditional firefly, with its stunning pattern and vibrant yellow colouration.

The second was a female who had an amazing faded colour with nice blushed side saddles.

The third was a female who sides looked like they were up in flames.

Did one of the parents have some hidden enhancing gene, or was it the influence of the combination of genes of both parents?  Only future test breeding will assist us in documenting and deciphering this random outcome. Hopefully this journey will also guide us to creating some more astounding ball python morph representations.

Genetic Info: Co-dominant .

What’s Cool About It: A pattern mutation morph that is the building block of some great combos.

Genetic Info: Double Co-dominant (Orange Dream x Fire).

What’s Cool About It: A nice double-enhancing morph maker.

When breeding ball pythons for the best representation of a particular morph or combo, one should first scrutinize the founding stock.  There are good and bad examples of every morph and combo, and when setting breeding goals, it makes sense that the first step is to acquire the best looking animals to try and produce the best looking hatch-lings.

No other ball python morph in this hobby has the credit for the creation of the most combos than the co-dominant pastel jungle morph commonly referred to as pastels. Lets face it, yellow ball pythons morphs are simply breathtaking and you need the infusion of the pastel jungle gene or in its super form, the super pastel, to make yellow snakes.

With the modern price of low to high grade male pastels in the $75 to $150 range, other hobbyist’s jaws drop when we mentioned we paid $1500 for an F3 male back in 2005.  What is an F3, they ask?  Well F3 in a genetic term representing third generation.  In the case of our pastel jungle male, three generations of selectively breeding the most colourful and clean specimens from pastel x pastel resulted in a snake that browned out minimally with age, and retained exceptional colour.  This is one of the founding sires in our collection who has passed on his genes to progress the quality of our collection today.  At shows people have asked us why our bumble bees express such vivid yellow colour and how clean they look with minimal speckling compared to others.  Well its all about selective breeding we say.

In the evolution of breeding animals such as horses, cattle, dogs, cats, fish and reptiles, the finest specimens are due to the passionate efforts of a breeders selective eye.  In the ball python hobby, selective breeding has its role in developing beautiful examples of living art.  Think about it next time you wander at a vendors booth at your next reptile show.

Genetic Info: Double Recessive (Piebald x Axanthic).

What’s Cool About It: These two genes integrated = WOW!

Genetic Info: Double Co-dominant (Pastel x Fire).

What’s Cool About It: The fire gene makes the yellow in the pastel  more vibrant and gets better with each shed.

Being on the border, most breeders would breed their females at 1500 g; she gave us four nice eggs.  Waiting for the eggs to pip was nerve wracking, because both parents were possible hets for the axanthic gene.  The ball python odd gods smiled down upon us, 6 years later, blessing us with our first double recessive morph, the axanthic piebald aka the Lightning Pied. The rest of the clutch consisted of some beautifully patterned 66% possible het for axanthic piebalds.

Glancing in our racks, I notice there are a few females in our collection that are taking their sweet time getting up to size.  They lay patiently to achieve optimum conditioning weight, so that they can make their inaugural breeding debut.  If there is a lesson we learned, nature eventually takes its course.  And when it is their time to go, we believe we will not be disappointed, welcoming the new additions of baby ball pythons.

Sex: Male
ID: 11spstlM05
Weight: 147 g
Hatch Date: July 09, 2011
Comments: Super clean from our best pastel jungle lines.
Price: inquire

** Click on image(s) for a full size version. **

** Click on image(s) for a full size version. **

If you are interested in this animal, please contact us. Please also see our terms of sale for additional information.