I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to post their congratulations, kind words, opinions, thoughts, theories, genetic/scientific experience, personal experience and more! I couldn't have asked for a better response from the community - this was exactly what I was hoping for!

After spending all day on the phone and emails/forum talking about this, we still have NO idea what is going on here LOL! And that's part of the excitement of everything.

Honestly, after the litter was born yesterday, I was EXTREMELY bummed out. We were hoping for Hypo Motleys and not only did we not get any, but we didn't even get any regular Motleys. I was depressed about the litter for about an hour and a half. Then I went to go take photos so that I could post them and share the experience.

As I was taking the photos, I started to see how truly different these babies are!

For those of you who know me, you know that I am generally a very optimistic person. I am always - "The glass is half full! YEA!" Sean on the other hand is the complete opposite, always looking to the worst in things. He could have something really good happen at the same time something not so good happens and he'll focus on the bad rather than the good. He's always - "The glass is half empty. I want to get rid of it!"

I told Sean earlier today - "You know what, I was really bummed out for about an hour and a half. Then I started taking photos and these boas are REALLY cool and now I'm really excited and intrigued by the whole situation. For about an hour and a half, I realized how you feel all the time!!"

Anyways, I digress. For those of you who think that there are some Hypo Motleys in this litter, I still don't think so. Now I could be totally wrong about this but it's just what I think. We have yet to produce a litter of Motleys. However, we do have three Motleys at this time - our male breeder, a young adult female, and a baby female. All three have white, patternless bellies all the way down to the vent. However, after the vent, the underside of the tail has crazy pattern and color. After speaking with other breeders, we believe that this is a Motley trait.

The Hypos in this litter have white bellies until about 2/3rds of the way down the belly and then there are splotches of hypo coloration all over all the way past the vent and onto the tail. There is NO speckling at all but there is color.

The exact amount of coloration on their bellies and exactly where is stops varies from individual to individual, but they ALL have color on their bellies. Any other breeders out there who have Motleys or have produced Motleys that has differing information, please let me know.

Did the Jungle sire these babies through retained sperm? Did the Motley sire these babies and we just had poor odds? Why are they all females? Is it just a coincidence or is parthenogenesis or something else involved here? What's up with the color and pattern on these babies? We just don't know the answer to these questions.

HOWEVER - we may be able to provide the first step towards discovering a little bit of the answer. We have the access and the opportunity to have a paternity test done on the babies and have decided to persue this option!

SO, in possibly as soon as one to two months time from now, we should have the results from a paternity test telling us which male (or neither LOL!) sired which babies! If we can get that established first, then it would help rule out several things.

Also, I can't remember if I have mentioned this already or not, we have a female normal that is currently gravid. She was bred by the Motley and is due at the end of this month. She was also bred by the Jungle last year and produced a very nice litter of Jungles for us. I am very interested to see how her babies turn out.

So, I will keep everyone posted on the development of this project - what the female normal produces, how the paternity test turns out, and of course, photos of these babies as they shed and grow!

Once again, thank you all for the great discussions and kind words below - I love this forum

Here are some new photos I took today...

Thanks,
Celia

Whole group shots...







-----
Celia Chien
Celia Chien Photography

www.ExoticsByNature.com

www.BoaConstrictorMorphs.com
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