Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I'm very interested in the smaller pythons, and I was wondering if you can breed a children's to a spotted and come out with babies resembling each of the parents. Ultimately, would it be worth it, or would it just be hard to sell the babies? Thanks,

-Mack

Despite how seemingly closely related the childrens, spotted, stimsons, and anthil pythons appear, I don't think that they interbreed easily. I know of a few people who have attempted it, but I have never heard of or seen any hybrid offspring. I'd be curious to here from anyone who has.

Moreover, why would you want to?

I heard that most "spotted" or "children's" pythons in the US are actually a mix of the two.

I wouldn't bother breeding them together. You will take the bold pattern of the spotted python and cross it with the dimished pattern of a children's python (also known as the faded python) and get some muddy-looking pythons.

I'm partial to bold spotted pythons and patternless children's pythons myself and interbreeding them on purpose seems counter-productive to me.

when the complex was first discovered all 4 species were origionally described as childrens pythons and all were imported as such. it was not until later that it was discovered that their was actually differant family members involved. and coincidentally(sp) all were interbred in the beginning. all 4 can and have been bred together. with the hardest cross involving the anthill(smallest) with i believe the stimpsons(i think the largest) but all have been done. much of the us blood line PROBALY has some blood from the other family members present since a ban on all aussie animals has caused a shortage of freash blood and since in the beginning all were interbred it only makes sence that this would be the case.
adam

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hybrid breeders association
1.1 sinacorns
1.1 kenyan sand boas
1.1 mbk
1.3 ghost corns
1.0 snow corns
1.0 albino corns
1.0 jurassic milk
0.1 bloodred
0.1 striped albino corn
0.1 childrens python
0.1 albino nelsons
0.1 anery motley
0.1 albino banded cal king
0.1 normal corn het hypo,anery

This light female is from VPI's bloodline of childrens pythons. My buddy owns the parents to this girl. He aquired the parents directly from VPI years ago. I dont think most childrens typically fade this much or look this blonde so she is a nice example, but they are called the "faded python" so......
I also have another pair from the same parents but from a later clutch that Im raising so I can breed the male to both females.

The dark male is very likely a spotted x childrens cross. I dont know for sure because I picked him up at a show and there was no known history for him. He clearly portrays the coloration of a spotted but the pattern of a childrens.

I breed these two together and suprisingly half the clutch was light like mom and half was dark like dad.

I do not have any available for sale so please refrain from asking. But I suspect I may get eggs again soon.....???.....
I'll be sure to keep you all informed when more babies come.
Brendan Saffron

These snakes especially the childrens pythons are so variable in terms of pattern. Without specific scalation differences, why would you asume that your male is a hybrid? It looks just like a dark childrens to me. Without a history, I wouldn't assume hybrid. Like I said above, I have heard rumors that they were interbred back in the day, but I know several people who have tried the cross unsuccessfully. Also if you read much of the australian literature, and papers by Hosier, they do not have any recorded hybrid breedings.

I'm not saying it can't happen, or it never did happen. But I'd like to see a little evidence before I go passing off dark chilrens, or light spotteds, or big anthills as hybrids.

You have a cool thing going on with those light babies. How bout some updated pics!?

I agree that its not fail safe to assume that my dark male is a hypbrid without knowing its history. It could very well be a dark Childrens. However, because its no secret that much of the Antaresia that were imported before discontinuation in the early 80's were breed together for many years before being recognized as multiple species, I have good reason to speculate that hes not a pure bloodline. There are many cross breeds on the market today (children x spotted being one of the most common). It doesnt help that no new blood has been imported into the US since the 80s except to zoos occasionaly. Im not an expert on the matter. I can only hope that my light colored childrens from VPI's line are really pure blooded. Thats assuming that the original imports they have were not crosses themselves in nature. But I think its pretty safe to say if you have VPI's line you have a very likely pure blood line. If even at least for the fact that we can be guarenteed theyre not selling hybrid offspring. Alot of the childrens on the market today are indeed hybrids although not necessarily intentional, its mostly because there is so little pure blood in the country to work with.
The color and pattern of VPI's line speak for themselves. When you think about it--how many light colored childrens have [you] seen? People get excited and want to speculate that theyre something special when in reality theyre likely just realy nice normal (pure) childrens. Keeping in mind first that they came from a reputable source that deals with pure blood animals and also the fact that childrens are also called the faded python. Hence the nice fading.
When I sell the offspring from the dark male x VPI female I wont be calling them pure blood childrens because I cant guarentee it since I dont know the history of the male. But when I breed the VPIs together I can sell them as pure blood line based on VPIs reputation.

Anyway, good discussion mate. I need to go to bed.
If you want to know more about it I suggest contacting VPI. Ive spoken to them before about this.