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I came home from work today to find this very exciting litter...
I have had several Harlequin litters this year and I have enjoyed all the variation I see in these litters. This is the one I was most excited about... Jeremy lent me one of his female Harlequins to breed to a male Harlequin that I have. She gave me 12 obvious Harlequins, 2 that are iffy, 4 normals that are very pretty and 4 slugs... I would say she did ok for a first time mom...
Here she is>>>

This is a few of the babies...



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Josh Ketchum
Sunshine Boas

think that a harlequin female bred to an albino stripe-line male
will have any harlequin babies?

Do both parents need to be harlequins for the trait to get
passed?

Yes it will. I have had two other Harlequin litters born this year... And one last year. I didn't really know what to expect from all these breedings cause the gene confused me a little bit too... Little is known or at least little has been excepted about the Harlequin gene. My male is very nice... He is almost identical to the mom of todays litter. I am not trying to claim anything here as fact I will just state what I have found from my breeding.
Last year I bred one of my males to a normal fine line female that came from Jeff Ronne. It wasn't the best litter, I got 7 babies and a bunch of slugs... But out of those babies I did get 3 nice harly's... What was a bit confusing is that the normals from this litter looked really good too. Very pastelish... I did the same breeding this year too... Things turned out better...27 babies and 1 slug... Out of this litter there was about 12 babies that had obvious harlequin traits and again a few that were very iffy.
Litter 2 this year was a pastel boa I picked up as a baby at a reptile expo... I bred the same male to this female... The harlequins from this litter were very nice... There was 18 babies... 12 to me were without doubt Harlequin and the rest I sold as normals to a local store...
And then todays.... I think it speaks for itself... All the harlequins I produced from this litter are by far the best I have produced yet... I plan to continue to work with these animals... They are so beautiful... I think there is still a lot of exciting stuff to be seen from these boas...
This is from that litter from last year...

This is from this years pastel female...


Hope this answers some questions...
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Josh Ketchum
Sunshine Boas

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I really like that light colored one and the striper next to it.

How does the harlequin "gene" work? Dominant or polygenic? Since there was not a third visually distinguishable phenotype, would the baby harleys be possible homozygous (super)?
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
21.29 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks for the kind words...
From the breedings I have done I would say that it is dominant.
Harly to Normal produced about half harly all three times...
Harly to Harly was about 2/3 Harly with no visual super...
So I would suspect that 1/3 of the Harlequin babys would be homozygous harlequin. One thing I will say about these animals is that there is a lot of variation even among Harlequins in the same litter. Some have a normal pattern, but have a lot of underlying color... Orange, pink and red seem to be the most common. On the normal patterned animals their saddle is built slightly different this has been a huge factor in helping me distinguish harlequin from normals. Some Harlequins have abberant markings and the colors on these animals are even more brillant. Out of all the harly litters I have produced there have been several babies that I have set aside as possible harly's. After a few sheds I can usually make up my mind.
Check out the saddles on this baby. This is what I am talking about...

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Josh Ketchum
Sunshine Boas

Very nice man.
Brendan

congrats , looks like some really cool babies in that litter

Congrats again Josh. Can't wait to see those in person.

Josh congratulations on that is an awesome litter! I have a 04 holdback female Harley that I acquired about a year ago form Gray Rushin. Any Ideas where I might get a special male for her?

Thanks,
Rick
radboas@cox.net

NP

There are some real special babies in that bunch!

Congratulations!
Rich and John

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Voices in the darkness... scream away my mental health. Can I.. ask a question.. to help save me from myself? Enemies fill up the pages, are they me?... Monday till Sunday in stages, set me free!!! " Diary of a Madman " Ozzy Osbournewww.bahreptiles.bravehost.com

Very nice looking Harleys - definitely an excellent litter!
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Kevin Blumenthal
www.blumenboas.com

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np
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www.topnotchboas.com

Very pretty babies !

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Josh Ketchum
Sunshine Boas