Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought this female in a group that I purchased from a friend. When I took her out of the bag I was very impressed by her. She is a massive female and that is what I saw first. The more I look at her, the less she looks like my other adult females. Am I seeing things or IS she something special? Everyone's opinion would be appreciated.

Here is another picture!

... and the belly shot!

very diluted pattern, shes gorgeous! I wish I had her!

The belly looks typical of normal Westerns but her dorsal coloring and patterns are atypical of most normals. She's definitely an interesting color and she's got some interesting dorsal striping/banding. It's hard to say whether any of this can be attributed to heritable Mendelian genetic traits or not, you'll just have to do some breeding to find out. Nice looking girl though!
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

It really is only "special" if the person with the money in their hand finds it special and is willing to pay for it.

Otherwise, it's a neat pattern, but there isn't any really marketable here.
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society online store
http://www.cafepress.com/vaherpsociety

"The irrational fear of snakes is the only excuse a grown man has... to act like a complete sissy" - Colchicine

Posted by: Colchicine at Sun Sep 12 18:34:51 2010

"It really is only "special" if the person with the money in their hand finds it special and is willing to pay for it.

Otherwise, it's a neat pattern, but there isn't any really marketable here"
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I am sure there was one or two people who said the same about condas when they first got shown off... LOL...

To the OP... That snake is beautiful... Looks very much like some of the tiger/banded hogs...

You only need to put her next to a normal to see that she is much more than a normal. It is these variations that lead to new color or pattern morphs, if selectively bred. What I see happening with hognose today is young snakes being sold as normal, that are actually surplus hets from breeding projects. You can't tell, with any certainty, what will hatch out, as we now have a genetic potpurri.

Wendell

From what everyone is saying it IS different than the run of the mill normal. I received 4 adult females and 1 adult male all possible het hypo and pink pastel. I will breed this group together this year and see if I get anything cool. I will pay special attention to the clutch from this female and see if the hatchlings look different. She has a cool pattern and a strange color to her. I appreciate everyone's thoughts on her and keep them coming.