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is it common to end up with a totally black bellied western hognose hatchling?

>>is it common to end up with a totally black bellied western hognose hatchling?

Yes, black bellies are not that uncommon depending on the parents. What traits do your hatchling's parents exhibit?

I hatched out two clutches from two separate pairings of different mothers but the same father. One clutch was produced from a solid black bellied female and a homo Pink Pastel male with a speckled belly and had about 50% all black bellies, the other half speckled. This same female was bred to a different male last year who is also black bellied and produced all black bellied young.

The 2nd clutch was produced from a speckled belly WT Female and the same homo Pink Pastel male which delivered all speckled bellies.

I'm assuming right now it might be a heritable genetic trait, possibly co-dominant from my current studies of the few clutches I've hatched out so far. I would be interested in knowing if anybody else has studied and tried proving this out or not. Surely some of the big time breeders might have a better understanding of this than I do.

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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

my female is pretty normal with no outstanding characteristics or morphs though very large. she was sold to me as a normal adult two years ago,this being her first clutch for me. the male wasnt mine so im not sure about him. my het albino male wasnt ready to breed this year so a nice pet shop owner let me use his normal(?) male.

We have done a study here in West Texas over the last ten years recording phenotypes of Western hognoses. Most of the Westerns with black ventrals had origins in Eastern-central New Mexico. Generally, the snakes from this area also had twin-spotted dorsal patterning as opposed to the heavy saddles in the populations East of Lubbock and the mixed patterns in the Lubbock vicinity. The Eastern-central NM population also exhibits a lighter background coloration ranging from tan to yellow and has darker spots ranging in color from rust red to nearly black.
So to answer your question, the black ventral is not uncommon. However, I think it is a very cool trait, especially when it is paired with the lighter, reduced patterned dorsals.

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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes
http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/hognose.htm

That is very interesting information. Thanks so much for that Kevin!
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

here is a pic of him.