This has been quite a year for us. We have been fortunate to have some great litters since the last time I posted. After we had our Salmon Hypo het Sharp litter 6/15, we had…
1) 6/24/09 “Class Reptilia” Triple het Sharp Snowglow x “Boa Basement” Triple het Sharp Snowglow- We had a small litter where we MISSED on Snowglows and Snows, but got some really nice Sunglows, Ghosts, Sharps, Hypos, and normals.
2) 6/25/09 “Brock” Harlequin Orange Tail motLEY (Hotley) x Sharp Albino- We had a fairly large litter of Motley het Sharps and Hypo het Sharps. (See below)
3) 7/1/09 “Stone” Jungle x “Ronne” line Super Hypo/Salmon Monstertail- We has some really nice Hypo Jungles with missing saddles from a modestly-sized litter. They have bellies on them, but appear active and healthy. (1st Pic)
AND lastly…
4) 7/5/09 “VPI” VPI line T Positive x “Stone” Jungle- We had a beautiful litter of Jungle het VPI T Positives- some with nice aberrant patterns. This is another litter we were really hoping to pull through. There are not too many of these around and I never picked one up when they were first produced (I figured I would make some one day). (2nd and 3rd Pic)
5) TBA “Boa Basement” Triple het Sharp Snowglow x “Class Reptilia” Triple het Sharp Snowglow
6) TBA “Stone” Jungle x “Class Reptilia” Ronne line Pastel Ghost (a.k.a. Ivory Ghost)
I have been unable to post pics of recent litters, as I am back in school working on my Masters in Biology during the summer months and away from the colony. My trusty partner has been taking care of things since I have been MIA. Being a teacher, I would normally have time during the summer to do snake tasks around family excursions. I have attached the only not-so-great pics we have to give you all an idea what I have been missing (I have not even seen the last two litters).
And as for HYPO MOTLEYS…
One last thing before I get back to writing about restrictive blood flow in the renal system causing hypertension (and the barrage of hypertensive drug therapies), I feel the Hypo Motley pattern of inheritance needs to be laid to rest. The Hypo and Motley gene appear to reside on the same gene locus, or at least behave in such a manner. From the two litters I have had this season and all I have heard, the Hypo Motley can only contribute the Hypo gene (or allele) OR the Motley gene (or allele) to its offspring. Our last Hypo Motley x Sharp breeding produced 29 babies with ONLY Motley het Sharps and Hypo het Sharps (no Hypo Mots or normals). This means it is impossible to make Super Hypo Motleys, unless some other freak genetic anomaly occurs (which it has). This is another long winded topic- and is not terribly uncommon. I will make sure to ask my Molecular Genetics professor his thoughts on the matter during the next couple of weeks.
Again Good Luck to everyone this season,
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Ron Michelotti
Class Reptilia
www.classreptilia.com
