here is what I know and what I think.



What I know.

The graphite male was produced by breeding a really light colored and vibrant orange yellowbelly"orangebelly" to a wild adult yb female. She was a dark animal. He was born our second year of breeding ivorys and we kept him, as he was the ugliest of the 3 we produced so we figured we would keep him an sell our nicer ones to our customers. After 2 sheds he started looking different--more speckeled, more attractive. His speckled stabilized by about the 5 shed and he maintained them throughout his life to date. I fully expected him to lose them as he grew to a year old, but he only whitened up and kept all his crazy flecks of silver/gray.

This year he took over his fathers breeding duties and was bred to his mother---another wild raised proven yb female, and 3 of his half sibling sisters(only 2 took) that were a year older than him, a couple of nice looking normal females and an albino female(did not take). He produced Ivorys in every clutch, and slightly more than half of his ivory offspring turned out to be unusual ivories with color and pattern not unlike the super stripe but very muted(fluorescent ivories). He produced these in every clutch he fathered. He also produced a paradox ivory when bred to a normal female.



I honestly think the trait lies in my original orangebelly male, and the reason I say this, is that it has been confirmed that someone else who has got het ivory orangebelly line animals from me has not only produced ivories, but also a graphite ivory. I am confident that person will produce fluorescents when he raises that ivory up and breeds it to any het ivory female. It could be the original wc female that holds the hidden trait to produce graphites, but more breeding will be needed to say that for sure. I am very curious as to what mike will get when he produced ivories from his graphite. He says it is not as extreme as mine, but it may express like pied where does not matter how many flecks, just that there are some. I have also heard that anthony has one as well. All very interesting and fun stuff whatever it is!!

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