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Just a pic of my Rock female hooked up with a Burm....Let the Hybrid hate mail begin! LOL!!

Congradulations. Can you please email me at David_Beauchemin@highendherps.com I will help you with your incubation if you get viable eggs out of this and I'd like to discuss a few things with you concerning this project. Hybrid eggs can be very different than either species in terms of duration of incubation and individual embrionic development.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

With P. sebae being a long period incubation species, and P. bivittatus being a short period, what incubation period have you seen with their hybrid eggs assuming you are using 90 F. Sebae typically runs 78 to 82 days, with bivittatus typically running 56 to 60. Have you seen development differences other than incubation period?

Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Yes, I have experienced different development periods in many individuals within each clutch. In other words some hatch at about 60 days and others a week later and even others a couple more weeks still. I theorize that having two different species as genetic contributors that few babies have the identical ratio of each/both species and those having a higher percentage of african rock require a longer incubation period. And vice versa. In early years I learned this little fact in a very traumatic way when I pipped the entire clutch at 48 hours after first hatchling only to discover that a large percentage of the clutch was still severely underdeveloped.

Another interesting little tidbit I discovered just last year with one clutch is that not all the hybrid babies develop an egg tooth. Curious as to why fully developed babies died in their eggs with no signs of cuts in their eggs I felt for egg teeth and found none. So many babies are unable to pip their own eggs when it comes time to emerge. This coupled with the above makes for much frustration in not knowing just when to assist the young in hatching.

Hope this answers your question
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

curious as to how many of the rock/burmese hybrids have been raised up to juveniles or adults. If so, did any show physiological or developmental issues. If the egg tooth was missing in some, it would be interesting to see if any other genetic abnormalities will show in these hybrids. Very interesting about the incubation period ranges within the same clutch. Thanks,

Kelly

Yes, it is a very interesting experience for me too. I was not expecting the babies within each clutch to develop at different rates. The first couple years when I pipped the eggs in the second day after first hatching and I found fully formed dead babies in some eggs and severely underdeveloped yet living babies in other eggs I was thinking it was just abnormalities and "egg death", similar to "still born" boas. It was not until the third year that it finally became apparent to me that some babies were developing faster than others and that in effect all the viable eggs did in fact contain healthy babies just in different developmental stages. Until this realization I had just come to accept that in late stages of incubation that a large percentage of the yet to hatch babies would simply die within their eggs and that many of the rest would be abnormally undersized. Once I put it together that they were developing at different rates it all made sudden sense. But with this little fact coupled with the fact that many of the offspring lack an egg tooth is a "damned if they do and damned if they don't" situation when it comes time to get the "to term" hatchlings out. Looking at the eggs one cannot tell which contain fully developed babies that lack egg tooths that need to emerge and breathe air and which contain underdeveloped late stage embrios that need to remain in the eggs. I want to experiment with an ultrasound this year and see if I can get better results than just trying to guess based on dimples and the pliability of shells.

To answer your other question, I have raised a good number of F1, F2 and F3 hybrids. Fecundity is greatly improved with F2 breedings and I have yet to breed F3 offspring but should learn more next year when these mature and are bred. I have never had a single deformity with hybrids, curiously enough, like misshapen eyes, missing eyes, kinks, overbites or underbites. They are always symetrical and properly proportioned and robust. But one thing that is curious, I often have a percentage of hatchlings that will die within the first 2 months of hatching for no apparent reason. Even when feeding well and otherwise "normal". And no necropsy has revealed the cause. I hope to find out one day what causes this. But anything that survives beyond two months lives on to have a full, rich, normal life.

One thing that is noticeably different about hybrids is that the albino forms retain and even increase the orange. This was a very pleasing unexpected surprise.

I hope this answers some of your questions and thoughts on these amazing snakes.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Here are a couple of pictures that demonstrate how the albino rock/burm hybrids' orange actually increases with time, age and size. The first picture was taken when this animal was only 1 day old. Not knowing at the time if she would in fact live very long it was imperative to me to get pictures immediately. The second picture was taken just about a week ago with an albino granite that we produced (owned now by Derek). In this picture she is approximately 9 months old, about 6 feet long. Even an untrained eye can see that there is much more orange where there once was no orange at all. That being between her tiger like stiped pattern. These changes have taken place slowly and were/are more visible with each shed. The albino granite gives comparative perspective with an "average albino" that tend to fade with size and age. This male albino granite is the same age as the hybrid.

This female will be bred to an entirely unrelated male hybrid 100% double het for albino and labyrinth in approximately 1 1/2 years.

All opinions are welcome on this one of a kind snake. We respect even severe anti-hybrid views and take into account all feedback we get. We feel it is all equally relevant in gaining an accurate assessment of this market.

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Thank you for sharing that.
Danny Conner

You're more than welcome. Do y'all keep or breed hybrids?
Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

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Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com