Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...what the heck did I just hatch out? Here's the history: father was proven het VPI axanthic, mother was - to my knowledge - perfectly normal. This was their first pairing, and she laid seven eggs, one of which hatched yesterday, the other six haven't pipped. Today is day 57 of incubation at 88 degrees.

When this first one pipped, I noticed very pail yellow eye stripes and neck stripe, and when she came out, she had very pail grey almost axanthic sides with the pale yellow stripe down her back. She doesn't look full axanthic, and I know there isn't a "half axanthic", but if there were, that's what she would look like.

So, what do you guys think? Is it a really pale normal? Problems with the incubation? Did the female have some weird coallelic gene which expresses the axanthic in the het form? or does it get even weirder? Please know that I understand the astronomical odds of this being anything but a pretty normal or a fluke. I don't want to be "that guy" who always thinks he has a morph, but weirder stuff has happened to me while breeding snakes.

I took pics of her next to a normal ball that I hatched out last week for contrast. My camera just doesn't do justice to the subtle tones of this thing. I can't wait for the others to hatch out. I figure if they all come out like this, it CAN'T be genetic, but if only one other does, it just might be worth tinkering with.

nate.

Here are some better pics, but they don't have the other ball for contrast.

nate.

Color/pigment is the last stage of embryonic development and sometimes babies are born before this is completed.......and after a few days the snakes begin to appear to be more and more normal. It is possible that this is the case with this snake. It is definitely not axanthic as it has a lot of visible yellow pigment in it.

I'd wait a few weeks and see if it looks the same then.....it could be just a lighter sibling..

Jared H
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~ ASK ME ABOUT MY BALLS ~

het axanthic to a normal right?

so some will be het and some won't, right

so I guess you can take a guess which ones are het for axanthic now?

some hets have color hints,,.het ghosts are brighter here usually and have an orange-r tint to them even......

so maybe it's just a het axanthic?
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Hey Nate,
I work with the Snake Keeper line of Axanthics, I have hatched out several Het males that look Axanthic in the egg and even when they come out....they all had a very slight kinda lime green tint to them. After the first shed they all turned a kind of bronze color. Your baby looks just like the ones that I get, and will most likely change color after it's first shed. It will look like a different snake (color) and will most likely have the same bronze color as mine. The first two that I hatched had me all excited for about 10 days, I even had them marked as "Green Axanthics" at first.

CARL AIKEN-SNAKES