Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Everyone! How about a little story?

The tiger ball pythons are very popular and quite possibly one of the prettiest looking "normal" morphs in my opinion. I have been working with my female since I wrangled her out of VPI in 1995.

She bred for me in 1997 and had two male offspring. An example of hindsight = 20/20... I shouldn't have sold them. But the owner of one of the males bred him to a normal female and hatched out two perfect looking tigers.

Of course, I tried to breed her again in the following years but didn't have any luck. She wasn't a terrific eater and preferred live food when she would occasionally eat. In 2000 she decided to start eat pre-killed rats and quickly began to gain weight. So I put her in with my favorite reduced pattern male.

Lots of breeding but no babies! So in 2003 after no interest from my tiger male, I put my best breeder male in with her, my albino (also from VPI.) He is also a reduced pattern and I was hoping that their offspring would be perfect tigers.

The result was five eggs laid in August 2003.

1.4 babies hatched in October 2003. The babies didn't get the "perfect tigers" memo... and did have some black pattern inside their tan blotches. But, they are still very nice little banded babies that I can't wait to raise up and see where this pattern mutation takes me.

Hope you enjoyed my little story. It certainly has been a lot of fun for me to experience. The fun part is just beginning!

Best wishes to everyone in his or her upcoming season!
Hillary Webb
www.captivebredpythons.com

Hey Hillary -

That little one is growing up gorgeous! But, how could he/she not - Beauty is, in my opinion, one of the prettiest snakes ever! Do you have any plans for her this upcoming breeding season? My little reduced pattern guy is growing like a weed. Here he is (and sorry about the bad pics; I just snapped these this morning while the sun was coming through the window):

Drop me a line sometime,
Ashley Madden

What a beauty! You've got email!

Hillary

I have a nice male similar to your female, he's a 50%PossHetAlb. I got lucky with 5 girls this year in the first clutch he sired. His mate was opposite, very busy patterned. The offspring have quite a range of patterns. Next year I'll be breeding him to a high yellow reduced pattern female. The following year, I'll breed some of his girls to a 100%HetAlb, and some back to him. It will be interesting to see if the banded pattern comes back strong in the father/daughter offspring, (and a shock if any albino's come out!). Take care and good luck.
Paul

Thanks for the comments Paul. I think the banded look with albino coloration will be very nice. I know Jolliff has already been creating screaming bandeds with his axanthic and albino lines too. Nice stuff!

Hillary

Very nice!

Where the two tiger grand kids females? I wonder if we will ever find a sex linked mutation.

Hi Randy,
I think they both were females. He only kept one of them and might try to breed it back to the son of my female, her sire. Should be a fun project. It would be interesting if this is a sex linked trait. Females display and males carry?
More thoughts for the old noggin...
Hillary