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The Proof is in the Pudding

Yani45 Aug 01, 2010 10:50 AM

I've been posting random updates from my patternless annectans project over the course of the last four years, but for those who are new and/or haven't been following along, I'll recount the history of the project a bit...

In June of 2006, I was fortunate enough to encounter what I have called a patternless San Diego Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer annectans, in the wild. Although there is some striping to it, it is very different from other striped annectans, and I wanted to distinguish my line from other stripers... (If anyone has a better suggestion for what to call this morph, I'm all ears.)

Needless to say, I collected the subadult male, named him "Sancho", and bred him to several females. In the spring of 2007, he was bred to wild-caught females from the same area, as well as some albino Applegate females. He proved to be virile- siring several healthy clutches of babies- all of which were normal in appearance.

In 2008, he sired a few more clutches and produced one aberrant baby... I'm not sure what to think of this little girl, but I'm raising her up to breed to the patternless...

In the spring of 2010, the F1 babies born in the fall of 2007 were ready to breed. I bred single het females back to the patternless, and double het patternless albino siblings to each other. My hope was the trait would prove to be a simple recessive trait...

Last week, my first clutch from a single het female hatched. Out of the two egg clutch, I got a little male het, and this little female patternless!!

I've got a few more small clutches due to hatch in a the next couple weeks. With any luck, I'll produce some patternless albinos!

Replies (11)

Pit_fan Aug 01, 2010 11:49 AM

Wow! Really like that middle one (aberrant). Amazing to me, the genetic code in reptiles and how it can be manipulated to produce such stunning variation.

monklet Aug 01, 2010 12:16 PM

Highly awesome!!! Thanks for the detailed update.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

RossCA Aug 01, 2010 01:03 PM

That's awesome, man! My fingers are crossed for you to get some albino patternless. If not, you're just around the corner from producing them. Patternless is the best way to describe this snake because the blotches are absent and not arranged in a striped fashion. I'm sure you are aware the stripes you see are apart of the overall pattern of a S.D. gopher anyway. I'm sure this will prove to be a very popular morph. I want one some day.
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alstotton Aug 01, 2010 03:17 PM

EXCELLENT News John!!

Congrats I know this project has been a labour of love and the Results are lookin good thus far.

RGDS.....AL

Ryan_Sikola Aug 01, 2010 11:58 PM

I'm really happy for you man, I've followed this project for a couple years and know how frustrated you seemed at the expo.

CONGRATS!

Jeremy Pierce Aug 02, 2010 11:35 AM

That is a fantastic looking animal. Well done!

Jason Nelson Aug 02, 2010 08:44 PM

Congrates Bro.

That is sick! It will be cool to see some morphs added to that trait.

Keep the good work.

KenRoshak Aug 02, 2010 09:50 PM

Simply stunning! I've enjoyed the pics of your patternless annectans on your website and it's great to see this trait carried on. I'm sure a patternless albino will be an absolute jaw-dropper! I look forward to the future!
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net

PaulJH Aug 03, 2010 01:12 PM

First, excellent job! Keep them coming!

Second, my two cents on the naming question, though as a science nerd not a herp breeder.

I'm big on "truth in advertising", and like to know about the genetics/development side of things. I like names that hint at the mechanism (e.g. anerythristic, hypomelanistic, Tyrosinase-/+, etc.) and am less of a fan of names that feel like an advertising agency came up with them (e.g. sunglow, candy cane, clown, etc.)

Basically - whatever name you pick, keep it simple and descriptive. Including something to distinguish it from other similar lines might be as simple as throwing a "Sancho" or your name into the label. These snakes are attractive enough that a flashy name would be totally unnecessary!!

reako45 Aug 04, 2010 11:59 AM

Awesome! Congrats! Finally did it! I remember talking to you about @ the Anaheim show a couple of years ago. Great to see your diligence pay off!

reako45

ShaunRoberson Aug 04, 2010 08:54 PM

Yeah very sharp looking and indeed different than any "striped" SDs I've seen. Most of those still have pretty bold markings and only partial striping/speckling, whereas this is a very faded look.

PS Pituophis

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