Above here is our currently unnamed new ball python. He is a pinstripe male. For those of you not in the "know", ball pythons are the smallest of the African pythons, averaging 3'-4' at maturity. They are largely terrestrial are are referred to as "ball" pythons due to their natural defense strategy of curling up into a ball when threatened. They are also referred to as "royal" pythons due to a legend that Cleopatra wore one around her arm as jewelry. This is not at all unbelievable.
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| Super King, a normal ball python |
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We got Super King about a year ago, and as you can see above she was initially quite small. She is now approximately 3.5'-4' long, and as thick around as your arm. We're fairly certain Super King is female, based on the rapidity and extent of her growth, plus her diminutive anal spurs. Males and females both have these spurs, but males are generally larger and used for holding females during mating. These are vestigial remnants of their hind limbs; among snakes only boas and pythons retain these tiny "legs".
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| Super King now. |
Our hope is to eventually breed the new male and Super King. If you look at the two of them you'll notice how drastically different their patterns are. In the reptile trade, reptiles are often bred for size, temperament, pattern, and most of all color. These different varieties are usually referred to as "morphs", and can range from "basic" morphs, which are usually the result of a single Mendelian allelic difference - for instance, normal albinism, which in ball pythons is recessive, to "designer" morphs, which mix a number of these single gene differences and possibly even more complex line breeding to get something truly complex and beautiful. An example in ball pythons are the genes spider, which makes the ball python pattern thin and webbed like a spider's web, and pastel, which makes the yellows brighter and the browns paler. When combined, you get the so called "bumblebee"
python.
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| Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com |
Both spider and pastel are dominant traits. Pastel is specifically co-dominant, which means if it is mixed with another allele - even itself, effects of both genes are expressed, creating what is known as "Super Pastels" when a snake has two pastel genes, and "killer bees" for a snake which has two pastel genes as well as the spider gene.
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| Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com |
As noted, our new male is Pinstripe. Pinstripe is a simple dominant gene; possessing two Pinstripe genes is no different than one, except to the extent that it makes it better for breeding since a snake with two pinstripe genes will produce all pinstriped offspring when bred to a normal, whereas one with only one such gene will produce only 50% pinstripe offspring. The effect of Pinstripe is dual; it lightens the background brown a bit almost like a pastel, but subtler, and it reduces the dark brown patterning to a series of lines running parallel and perpendicular to the spine. It is somewhat similar to spider, but where spider just reduces the pattern in a more chaotic, webbed way, pinstripe creates more orderly stripes and lines. It was also discovered after spider, and is generally considered more valuable, if only due to rarity.
Lindsay and I have decided, as noted, to try and breed Super King and our newcomer, with the eventual goal of using any proceeds from such a breed to purchase more ball pythons of interesting morphs for breeding so we can create our own "designer morphs". We are not specifically hoping to support ourselves on this endeavor, although if ten years down the line we have expanded to the point that we can do so, nothing could be cooler - and indeed some of the rarer morphs can sell for upwards of several thousand dollars, so it is not completely ridiculous that one might do so even with relatively few pythons if one has a good, reliable, and variable breeding stock.
Our hope is to use any proceeds from the initial breeding to purchase what is known as a Mojave - a subtle pattern and color change, and then later a Mystic, a quite similar pattern and color change which is a different allele of the same gene. When a snake has both the Mystic and Mojave genes, the resulting designer morph is known as "Mystic Potion", and is quite stunning.
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| Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com |
