This year my diamond female laid a nice healthy clutch. She was initially introduced to my male diamond who showed no interest in her for the best part of two weeks. The window for her being able to mate was closing so I though 'lets try my male jungle zebra' and he readily mated with her.
I then tried her again with my male diamond and he then decided that he was in the mood and mated with her for the subsequent two weeks.
She then became gravid and I hoped that the male diamond would be the father as he had mated with her countless times whereas the zebra only did the deed just the once.
I cut the eggs last week and my worst case scenario came true, the zebra was the father. Not all was bad though as there are 50% diamond x jungle zebras which I have been told is a first as Paul Harris has only bred 25% diamond x jungle zebras; and the zebras look set to be stunners for sure.
The crazy thing however is that there are two patternless snakes within the clutch. They are neither zebras and are neither normal diamond jungle crosses. They almost look like super zebras but with tipping or stardust diamonds with a granite type look.
What do you make of them?
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The mother is a Precision reptiles Gosford diamond who was mated with a Precision Gosford male and a jungle zebra. There is also the remote possibility that these two odd ones could be pure diamonds and that it was a mixed paternity clutch despite there being no visible diamonds hatching. Next time I will pair both diamonds with no other external influences to establish if it is a diamond mutation or a diamond x jungle mutation.
The chance to two co- Dom mutations spontaneously appearing in a clutch is as good as zero so the likelihood is that it could be recessive. The chance then of a diamond and a jungle carrying the same recessive gene is also near to zero which I what makes me think diamond which is the most likely explanation as they are also highly likely related. There is also the possibility that they are diamond jungle crosses and the zebra gene has fragmented the pattern to a more extreme level than the majority of the diamond zebras in this clutch. Even the zebras from this clutch are more extreme than standard ones. Time will hopefully provide some more answers.
I then tried her again with my male diamond and he then decided that he was in the mood and mated with her for the subsequent two weeks.
She then became gravid and I hoped that the male diamond would be the father as he had mated with her countless times whereas the zebra only did the deed just the once.
I cut the eggs last week and my worst case scenario came true, the zebra was the father. Not all was bad though as there are 50% diamond x jungle zebras which I have been told is a first as Paul Harris has only bred 25% diamond x jungle zebras; and the zebras look set to be stunners for sure.
The crazy thing however is that there are two patternless snakes within the clutch. They are neither zebras and are neither normal diamond jungle crosses. They almost look like super zebras but with tipping or stardust diamonds with a granite type look.
What do you make of them?
- - - Updated - - -
The mother is a Precision reptiles Gosford diamond who was mated with a Precision Gosford male and a jungle zebra. There is also the remote possibility that these two odd ones could be pure diamonds and that it was a mixed paternity clutch despite there being no visible diamonds hatching. Next time I will pair both diamonds with no other external influences to establish if it is a diamond mutation or a diamond x jungle mutation.
The chance to two co- Dom mutations spontaneously appearing in a clutch is as good as zero so the likelihood is that it could be recessive. The chance then of a diamond and a jungle carrying the same recessive gene is also near to zero which I what makes me think diamond which is the most likely explanation as they are also highly likely related. There is also the possibility that they are diamond jungle crosses and the zebra gene has fragmented the pattern to a more extreme level than the majority of the diamond zebras in this clutch. Even the zebras from this clutch are more extreme than standard ones. Time will hopefully provide some more answers.
