Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I finally got a successful breeding this year with the
hypomelanistic female Northwestern Carpet Python (Morelia spilota
variegata) that I produced along with her normally pigmented
siblings from my July 1998 clutch. She deposited her clutch of
eleven eggs sometime between midnight and dawn this past Monday,
May 10th. So far, all eleven of these eggs look good. They're
currently in a tray inside one of my Neodesha incubators. In
addition to this clutch, I also have clutches already incubating
from my Diamond Pythons (Morelia spilota spilota), my Brisbane
Coastal Carpet Pythons (Morelia spilota mcdowelli), and my true
Children's Pythons (Antaresia childreni). It looks like it's
shaping up to be a productive year for me with more yet to come.
There's a fairly good chance I'll have hatchling Irian Jayans
(Morelia spilota "harrisoni" and Jungle Carpets (Morelia spilota
cheynei) again this Summer as well as some boa taxa a bit later.

My preference, of course, would have been to breed my CB98
hypomelanistic female Northwestern back to her sire. Alas, that
was not possible since he died (apparently of old age) after
breeding her mother again during the Winter of 1999-2000. So,
my only option was to breed her to a brother. I attempted this
in the Winter of 2001-2002 and again in the Winter of 2002-2003,
neither of which resulted in a clutch. This time, however, I
guess she was finally ready to go. I also attempted a breeding
to a sibling male with an apparently hypoxanthic CB00 female that
I produced from the old male's final Winter 1999-2000 breeding
to their mother as well as a sibling breeding with a normally
pigmented sister from the original 1998 clutch. At this point,
I'm still not certain whether either of these females are gravid,
but it's possible -- especially if they retained sperm, delaying
the actual fertilization, which is not all uncommon by the way.

Now comes the agony of waiting out the incubation period, as
I eagerly anticipate hatchlings from my first 2nd-generation
clutch of Northwestern Carpet Pythons. Whether or not these two
color morphs will ultimately prove to be the result of heritable
genetic mutations (simple recessive, co-dominant, or complex) or
simply interesting phenotypic variations remains to be seen.
Even if they are genetically heritable, it could take yet another
sucessive generation breeding to confirm unless they happened to
be co-dominant rather than simple recesssive or complex. No
matter how long it make take to know for certain, this is a very
intriguing bloodline that produces some impressive looking carpet
pythons that are a pleasure. Stay tuned. See you in Daytona!

Mitch Hiers
Hiers Herpetoculture -- http://www.hiersherp.com
P.O. Box 1507
Moultrie, GA 31776-1507

Home Phone: (229) 782-5363
Serpentarium: (229) 782-5383
mailto:mitch@hiersherp.com

Sowega Serpentarium -- http://www.sowegaserp.com
Predatory Pets -- http://www.predatorypets.com
Fair Dinkum Reptiles -- http://www.fairdinkumreptiles.com

F.A.R.T.S. (Federated Amphibian & Reptile Traders of the
Southeast) -- a "virtual herp society" & private forum --
http://www.hiersherp.com/farts.htm

"Big Herp Sites" -- http://www.hiersherp.com/bigherp.htm

Hiers Herpetoculture

np
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With a new baby at home (0.1 CB04 Home sapiens herperii born
02/07/2004), needless to say we've been extremely busy around
the Hiers household over the past three months. Nevertheless,
I do hope to get some decent quality, close up, high-resolution
photos taken of several of my snakes before too much longer.
(My wife does most of the photography of our own hatchling!)
Depending on how much table-top space I may have after figuring
up what babies I plan to bring, I may consider bringing a few of
my adult snakes to display at the NRBE in Daytona this year.
Table rentals there are so expensive that I only get two each
year, so space will be tight with my anticipated CB04 production.

Actually, I'll probably wait until the CB98 hypomelanistic
that just dropped her clutch gets some weight back on her before
trying to get some good shots of her. They're always so thin for
a while after a recent oviposition. Even though she only laid
eleven eggs, they are fairly good-sized eggs. Considering her
appetite prior to the breeding season though, I expect that
she'll bounce back rather quickly. I'll get some shots of her
then. Meanwhile, I'll try to start getting some shots of some
of my other adult animals as soon as I can squeeze in the time.

My plan for the photo gallery section of my website is to
build a separate page for each subspecies with decent quality
photos, natural history info, and husbandry info. I see too
many poorly designed websites out there with pages crammed full
of mediocre photos that take far too long to load -- especially
considering that approximately 60% of the U.S. population's
internet users are still browsing via dial-up connections at
home. The percentage is even higher if you're looking at those
who live in the predominantly rural areas like I do. While I do
have a high-speed connection at work, I still have dial-up at
home. At any rate, I'm going to make every effort to find time
to get the photos section of my website completed by this Fall,
and it WILL be done right. Thanks to all for the congratulations
on my breeding results so far this year. Please stay tuned!

Mitch Hiers
Hiers Herpetoculture -- http://www.hiersherp.com
Link

Mitch,

Exactly how long have you been promising to put photos of these snakes up on the internet? I do believe it has been about six years. In this time, someone who was born on the same day that these snakes hatched could be posting pics of them today. Other than you, I've never heard of anyone else who has even seen these snakes. Have you ever taken them to display them anywhere? I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but I really wonder if they even exist. Believe me, I do hope that they do exist, and I also hope that you have a real morph on your hands. I'm just going with the evidence in front of me.

Jake

The entire 1998 clutch, including the CB98 female that
appears to exhibit a form of hypomelanism, were on display
at my vendor booth in August of 1998 at the NRBE in Orlando.
They were also on display at two other shows in 1998 -- a
Dixie Reptile Show in Birmingham, AL and the GHS expo in
Atlanta, GA. I had some of the CB98 clutch on display again
as yearlings at the 1999 NRBE in Orlando, FL. If I remember
correctly, that was the year that Aussie herper John Cann
stopped by my NRBE booth and remarked that they strongly
resembled specimens he had seen around Darwin in the NT.

It has taken three consecutive years of breeding trials,
but the CB98 hypomelanistic female has finally produced her own
clutch and those eggs are incubating. So far, all 11 eggs
look healthy. If they hatch, then I will probably have the
hatchlings on display at my NRBE booth in Daytona Beach this
August. Depending on my overall production and whether or not
it looks like I can spare the table space, I might even bring
a couple of my adult breeders to display at the NRBE as well.
I do not plan to offer for sale any of the animals from this
bloodline until I know for certain whether or not these color
variants are the result of genetically heritable mutations.

While I used to do as many as 5 or 6 shows each year,
ever since I brought my website on-line in 2000 I typically
only do 1 or 2 herp shows per year. This is a part-time
endeavor for me and certainly not my primary source of income.
Since I have a variety of other interests besides my herp
collection that also demand a great deal of what time I have
away from my day job, learning how to take high quality photos
of my herps is just not high on my list of priorities. I will
eventually get some photos taken that I consider acceptable
enough to post on my website. When I do, then I will begin
building some photo pages and posting them there. At that time,
I will probably also post an announcement here that will
include a link to the photo gallery section of my website.

The rude tone of your posting is indicative of one of
the reasons that I rarely visit these forums anymore. Besides
not having much time to play around on the forums to begin
with, there always seems to be a number of people who persist
in making asinine statements in their posts about topics of
which they have little or no knowledge. It's one thing to be
lacking in knowledge about something and genuinely seeking to
educate oneself on that topic. It's something else altogether
to be just plain rude and stupid. Ignorance can be cured with
education and patience; there is no cure for stupidity.

Mitch Hiers
Hiers Herpetoculture -- http://www.hiersherp.com
Hiers Herpetoculture

Sorry if you were offended by the "rude" nature of my post, Mitch. However, after being teased on these forums about the prospects of photos of these animals for SIX years, is it really a wonder that someone would question you about them?

I didn't know they'd been on display at so many shows. I've NEVER heard anyone mention seeing them before. I'd love it if anyone who has seen these snakes would comment on them.

Jake

I too have been waiting to see photos of these snakes for a few years now. Does it atually take this friggin' long to post 1 picture of this "new" (now 5-6 years old) morph of carpet python? Like Jake said..I'll believe it when I SEE it. Derek
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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile
sonoranreptile@earthlink.net

NP
Hiers Herpetoculture