Had some rather unexpected hatchlings appear in a clutch late last week and posted them here
Rather unexpected - bald heads and clear bellies but I thought I would get a thread in my own forum as well. I contacted the original breeder of the creamsicles and he has confirmed that there may have been a bloodred (diffused) corn in the background of the male I used. This has put my breeding projects ahead of schedule by a huge leap. I bred this male creamsicle to his daughter (from a pure great plains ratsnake) to establish whether she was het hypo -
I didn't get any hypos, but was really suspicious when I saw these hatchlings appear
the rootbeers - showing reduced head pattern, diffused side pattern and clear belly suggestive of bloodred
and some intensely orange clutchmates
with clear bellies
showing reduced head pattern - kind of miky color - they are quite blue now - pictures taken at about 4 days post hatch
though some have remnants of pattern typical of het diffused
and the center clear zone on the belly of a couple of the rootbeers associated with het diffused
and the best of the rootbeers - I am happy to be able to keep this guy around!!
I will be breeding the mother of these to a bloodred male next year to prove her out, but she has a reduced head and belly pattern that I attributed to the great plains ratsnake parent. Now it appears very probable that she is het blood (diffused) and I have my BloodOranges and BloodBeers a generation or two before I expected to get them.
Can hardly wait for these guys to shed - most of them are already eating,
thanks for looking,
mary v.
