Reptile & Amphibian Forums

"I came up with this idea as a joke because I kept seeing so many animals listed that were not even close to what they were supposed to be. So I decided to make a series to help everyone identify the visual Hets and other odd snakes.
Hope you like my Guide"

Welcome to the Hunters Guide...
Here you will find all the details you will need to find the hard to spot Granite

Q. What is a Granite?

Answer...

1. The "Granite" received its name from the granite like speckling on its sides, shown with the RED circles. Granites can have variations of speckling as will be shown later on in the guide.

2. So far the 3 most basic and important traits in a Granite are, The granite speckling (a little, like above or a lot like below) as shown with the RED circles. The Break in the neck stripe as shown with the BLUE circle and the faded head shown with the GREEN arrow. This snake happens to be an excellent example.

3. A trait that I look for in a really great granites is FLAMES shown with the GREEN circles. It seems that most genetic snakes have FLAMES that start on the belly (see the Hunters Guide to the Het Ivory). I shouldn't even be sharing all these secrets with you, but hey what are Guides for lol. Once again take note of the speckling in the RED circles. In the second picture you will see what I mean by the FLAMES starting on the belly, as shown with the GREEN circles. This is another fantastic example of a Granite.

4. Another trait that is desirable to look for. (but not absolutely necessary ) is a completely clear stomach, as shown below. Some granites do have a light pattern off to the sides of the stomach.

VARIATION 1- This particular granite has a super faded head as shown with the BLUE circle. It also has the flames I look for shown in GREEN, and very nice speckling shown in RED. It does have a very weak break in the neck stripe.

VARIATION 2- This is what I like to call a Yellow Granite. They have a very high amount of yellow pigment on the lower sides. Once again note the speckling in RED. The faded head stripe in BLUE and the very small but there break in the neck stripe in GREEN

There are many more variations, but they all follow the same rules.

1. Granite like speckling on the sides of the body
2. Break in the neck stripe
3. Faded head

Two things I look for.
1. Flames that start on the belly (Het Ivory like appearance )
2. Completely clear stomach

I will try to get more pictures of the different variations for you all and post them here.

Hope this helps
The Guide

Website

For clearing that up for me. I had posted asking if my two snakes were "granites" and was told the male in this picture was a granite.

What do you think? According to your description the black dot in the neck stripe would be considered a break in the neck stripe.

Hi,
I would say that is a Granite imo and a nice one at that!

In Red i circled the speckling in Blue i circled the break in the neck for you.

Hope this helps
Jon
Website

I thought she was. Will you be doing more of these guides? I made a copy of these two for my own records. If you ever do a guide showing a Labyrinth ball let me know. That is if you have a standard yet for a Labyrinth ball. Is that a recognized morph?
If it is would this be considered one?

He is 100% het for piebald but he still looks pretty different from other piebald hets.
Do you think he got something else from the "normal" female?

"Stanley" Also see on the neck stripe how the front of it nearest the head looks like a heart shape. Have you ever noticed this on a lot of pied hets or is it very common in other BP's Is that a "marker" trait for Pied hets? I have another pied het that does not really have it but i have seen many pied hets for sale with it. What do you think?

-----
0.5 Normal Ball Pythons (Norma, Nova, Nala, Nimeesha, Nyoka)
1.1 Argentine B/W Tegus (Draco and Drucilla)
0.1 Columbian B/W Tegu (Diablo)
1.0 Black Throat Monitor (Razor)
1.0 Desert Tortoise (Tubbs) from Tortoise Rescue
1.0 Boxer (Shadow)
0.1 Feline (CK)
1.0 Memory of my Redtail Boa (Mo) which passed away after 28 years

that's okay. I think he's pretty darn cute!
He very dark, so he always looks like he's in shed. I'll be breeding him back to the first girl here and see if anything interesting shows up. (probably not, but it's fun anyway)

dad

daughter 1 - this one has a pattern similar to him

daughter 2 I just like the pattern on this one

daughter 3 - looks nothing like him (ended up like mom)

I had more, but I sold them.