Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I was looking back in my reptiles magazine archives and i saw the issue from 2005 or whatever on ball python morphs. It says two womas make a pearl.

That seems like a really easy combination. Womas have gone down emensly in price in the past few years, yet there are not any Pearls. In fact, that issue of reptile's was the only time i ever heard of pearls.

So, does that mean that that animal was a freak or it is really hard to get them? Do the babies have a really high mortality rate like the albino carpet pythons?

Pearls have a "failure to thrive" issue.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

I thought it was another hidden gene issue?....

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.............WHY?

LOL......

I don't think there is a hidden gene involved. It sounds like any two womas can produce a pearl (25% chance per egg for the homozygous woma = pearl) but it's just that the pearls don't survive (i.e. a homozygous lethal gene).

As Randy said, the breedings done so far, and the animals produced seem to point in the direction of Homozygous Lethal, though I remember something from I believe 2007's breeding season that a Pearl had been produced with Lesser(RDR) Platty bloodlines mixxed that was doing well. Have not heard anything since then though, so it might just have been too early of a conclusion.

I figured it was a high mortality rate. So what is the big deal w/ womas then? I'm sure they look good with pastels, but other than that, shouldn't that have made there value plummet?

Nope...it's just like a spider, pinstripe, and others that don't have a super form.
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

So than what is the big deal with them? They are just reduced pattern. It's cool, but its nothing worth $300 a piece.

If you go the the NERD website you can see all the Beautiful Woma combinations. Kevin aka Satan would probably be the best person to give insight on the Woma mutation. If I recall correctly there is also a possiblity of a hidden gene associated with the Woma or atleast Kevins line of woma that when crossed with other morph create some stunning designer morphs.
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Joshua A. Mills
2.1 Pastels
1.0 Yellow Belly
0.7 Normals not including the babies
And many more to come

Matt,

I think I understand what you were trying to say, as far as treating them as a dominant (Pinstripe, Spider, etc) but they are not. They are a homozygous lethal at this point, with co-dominant inheritance. A true dominant would have the heterozygous and homozygous forms being indistinguishable in the macroscopic world. For the Woma Balls, the "Super" (homozygous individuals) are not only lucy, but also lethal, and therefore are not dominant.

-Dan

After re-reading the post Matt was replying to I think he was trying to say that from a value standpoint other morphs without a visibly different homozygous on the market still prove valuable just for the base morph and combos. But you are certainly right to point out that genetically they are not at all the same and I would have beat you to it if I had time earlier.

It sounds like BHB has proven the pinstripe to be the first completely dominant mutation. On Reptile Radio he mentioned having a pinstripe male that produced a large number of pinstripe only offspring but didn't stand out as different looking from the heterozygous pinstripes we are used to.

Spider might well also be homozygous lethal like woma, we just don't have enough info about spider X spider breedings or the breedings of those 33% chance homozygous spiders to be sure. I'm thinking the not having a public proven homozygous spider this long after the morph was first marketed is a strong indication that it is homozygous lethal but there are still other possibilities. Regardless of still not knowing how to classify spider I have to say it's been an incredible success both by it's self and in lots of combos even without a "super" spider.

There are a number of other new morphs where we haven’t had time to find out yet if there will be a super and hence exactly which dominant type to classify the mutation. The likes of champagne and desert are certainly nice enough to be well valued without relying on a promise of a super which may or may not be just around the corner.