Last winter I purchased an 07 'most likely' male Sinaloan.

It had been advertised as a former pet that had been traded towards ball pythons and had switched hands a few times before making its way to my door. It was labeled as a Clown phase and had an odd pattern that I thought could be used to create some interesting F2's when mixed with my splotched female, and the price was right, so I went for it.

Googling "clown phase" sinaloan resulted in no information, so I asked here and was quickly smacked with the "hybrid" label instead of just being told "not sure" or "don't know" - though, that didn't stop me from continuing to dig around to find the origin of my newly acquired snake. However, in defense of those who posted hybrid, Clown is a term that gets affixed to many hybrids - so I understand jumping the gun when names like that are used.

While visiting Reptmart's site, looking to pick up a couple yearlings of the oddly elusive Sinaloan milk snake, I came across this:



which is Reptmart's stock photo for a Clown phase Sinaloan - which incidentally looks nearly identical to my snake:



So of course I sent an inquiry to learn anything I could about this morph. Luckily enough Kim Bell sent me a quick response and explained that they had pioneered this pattern mutation and had labeled it Clown due to the excessive white around the mouth and the oddly more visibly red tongue.



Although there's no proof that my snake is from the Bell's - there's enough anecdotal evidence to believe this is 100% sinaloae, including the cautiously inquisitive personality that no other snake I know has (including my nelsoni), and that allows me to sleep soundly at night.

However, when probed, my 'most likely' male turned out to be a girl. And while this put the kibosh on my splotched pairing it allowed me the opportunity to see what would happen when paired with my Seib line VP male or my normal male:

VP


08 normal male


My VP male showed no interest in her the first two times they were put together, but the normal male locked up with her almost as soon as they were put together. They were introduced several more times that week resulting in six good eggs laid on 7/8.

They were incubated at around 79 degrees and the first of the eggs hatched out on 9/16:




There's a slight aberrant pattern and a lot of white on the nose of this one (also the smallest of the clutch)


9/17 hatchling:




Again, more white on the nose then usual, and an interesting triangle - but a pretty standard pattern


9/20 hatchling:




A more distinct triangle on the snout, but still a pretty standard pattern.


9/22 hatchling 1:





However, here there's way more of the female's aberrant pattern visible in this one (and she's a spastic biter as well). Not sure if there's some co-dominance happening here (like with the VP Sinaloans).


9/22 hatchling 2:





Again, more of the mom's pattern.


9/23 hatchling:




Here, this one show's the opposite in pattern. Leaning more towards bullseye than the moms. The normal male does not show any bullseye patterning.


And the week after mom laid the VP male became very interested and mated at least twice. And I now have three good eggs from that mating cooking. Can't wait to see what comes out of that one.


I leave you with a parting pic of mom:

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