Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well after a few blunders with posting this:

This little gem hatched back in August. I am still working out the exact genetics, but for now I am calling it the Dark Wonder. I should know for sure within a year or two.

Josh Jackson
Central Ohio

Looks similar to the female I bought from Outback Reptiles last year. Import.

She is darker. The flash drowned her out a bit.

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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

How cool would that be combined with a calico?...OMG!!!

That is a SWEET snake!!! Thanks for sharing that beauty!!! V/R Paige
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1.1 cinnamons, 1.1 pastels, .1 mojave, 1. spider, 1.1 super pastel, .3 normals, 1. lesser, .1 black pastel, .1 pinstripe .1 rosy boa, 1.1 gophers, 2.1 kids, 1. hubby and a bunch of other animals

I have two females that are identical to that little one. I will post pics in a few days. I also hate to burst your bubble, but I have bred these ladies now for 4 seasons in a row and even bred their son back to them and nothing. You have a very nice snake but as far as it being genetic it isn't likely. The only reason I say that is because my girls look identical to your baby and I have had both of mine since I imported them 8 years ago as hatchlings. This was one of my dinker projects I had a lot of hope for, but I'm telling you with hypermelanistics dont get your hopes up. Good luck though.
Will Wohlers

ps if you would like pics sooner you can pm me, and I can email them to you. It would just take me a few days to get them loaded up to post online.

ps can we see pics of the parents? Were the parents anything special morph wise?
thanks
Will

Thanks for the personal comment. I've been googling for hypermelanistic balls since August, but the only details have been very vague and like you said often couldn't be reproduced.

-The mother was an adult breeder I got over 4 years ago, and the father was a black pastel. I bred in groups this past year. Two male black pastel males were traded back and form between the female so I don't know which male was the father.
-The clutch was 8 eggs and all hatched. Four were black pastel, two normal, and a pair "dark wonder". I've starting calling them the dark wonder simply because I got tired of calling the weird hatchlings.
-The mother, along with the normal hatchlings, are high yellow normals with normal alien-eye spots The dark wonders though have no alien-eyes and their side-belly transition is speckled/pixelated, with a purplish hue over the entire belly. Their heads were so dark when they were hatching I thought they might be super black pastels.

I obviously would like it to be genetic but lightning does strike twice so I'm not holding my breath. After a couple test crosses I should have my answer. Thanks again I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures. I'll try to take a couple pictures of the mother this weekend.

Josh Jackson
Central Ohio

hmmm Maybe I will put my black back black pastel male to my dark morph . I have an 07 ch female just like yours . Arent they gorgeous in person ?
Thanks for sharing the info .

I wonder if it might be possible that you have stumbled on a new allelic form of cinnamon/black pastel? A very subtle form being carried by your female. Something like the 'special' morph of the lesser/butter/mojave complex. That would explain the two supers that you got when you bred her to a black pastel. The resulting ratio of hatchlings that you got would fit that explaination pretty well.

Just a thought...and maybe something to test in your breeding trials.

Very cool looking snakes.
John