Aussie Pythons and Snakes

zobo · #1 31-Jul-06, 08:17 PM

I like to share info/stories etc, so here is the full story so far about my coastals, that way if people are interested they know the full story.

In early 2003 I obtained a yearling male striped coastal from unknown origins from a guy in Brisbane. This male was the best striped male I had seen at that point in time. He was striped from head to tail and even though it was squiggly in parts, it was unbroken and for the most part straight.
In late 2003/04 I found a female mate for this male, also of unknown origins. I bought her as an adult and she had good but thinner striping than that of the male. She also came from Brisbane and a month after getting her she laid 9 eggs! I never inquired to the previous owner who she was bred with, but she produced 7 nice babies. At the time I didn’t take too much notice of the young one’s patterns, but there were some fairly well striped ones, but none as good as my current stock. I sold off this entire clutch as I was really keen to see what my male would produce with his female.
In 2004/05 we had the striped male breed with the striped female and also another female, both producing 12 eggs each. Disaster struck with the incubator that year and we lost all the eggs.
In 2005/06 we struck some luck, but not all smooth sailing. My striped male bred with the striped female and our other ‘normal’ female. The striped pair laid 21 eggs but 2 were slugs and 6 died very late in incubation. The other female laid 12 eggs, with 1 slug. Both clutches were only 1 week apart and both were incubated in the same incubator at a very constant 29.5 degrees, hatching after a normal incubation period of 54 days. The 6 eggs that died late, was put down to excess moisture in the container as a mould grew on the eggs. When these 6 eggs were cut open to inspect the neonates, all were totally striped. When the other ‘normal’ female’s clutch hatched, they were all normal in appearance with only 1 coming out with some light striping, but nothing special.
When the clutch of striped ones hatched, all babies came out very well striped. Even the worst striped one is better than my adult male. As can be seen from the pics, all of the babies are extremely well striped and display very straight stripes. There are also some interesting colour variations in the clutch with 1 in particular looking almost hypo.
So as you can see the breeding results thus far are inconclusive and further breeding is required to determine the genetics behind them, but one thing is for sure: with 19/19 babies all striped we are on to something and this season should hopefully produce more striped babies, after refining our incubation method.
At present only myself and one other breeder have this line and he is one of Australia’s most well known and respected breeders, so they are in safe hands.
So that is the story so far!

jas

krusty · #2 31-Jul-06, 08:25 PM

very nice pics mate and thanks for the story...........interesting.

Snow1369 · #3 31-Jul-06, 08:31 PM

Nice! Very intresting! any pic's of the parents?

Kyro · #4 31-Jul-06, 08:31 PM

Thats really interesting zobo, thanks very much for that & good luck with the breeding, they are beautiful snakes

NCHERPS · #5 31-Jul-06, 08:32 PM

Good to hear where you are at Jas, good luck for this season.
Great looking animals.

Neil

MrSpike · #6 31-Jul-06, 08:34 PM

STUNNING!!

yommy · #7 31-Jul-06, 08:37 PM

amagine what you might have got saving the original females from that 1st lot of hatchies and putting them over your male?
Still awesome snakes and line you have going.

Pike · #8 31-Jul-06, 08:38 PM

very interesting.. good to hear.

zobo · #9 31-Jul-06, 08:40 PM

here are the parents.
jas

Reptile City · #10 31-Jul-06, 08:53 PM

Hi Jas
Thanks for the story on your great striped Coastals!
Good pics!
You should send a compete write up to Reptiles Australia.
Hope things are going good for this season.

Good Luck,
Jason