Calico Blackheaded Pythons

[Peter-Birch]

Craig P my animals are not related to Big guys they are Qld animals originally from Ben Bernal in Vic, the other siblings from the same clutch show white belly scales same as the Male founder.

 

[Perko]

Hi Peter, sorry for the stuff up. I was told they were, from 2nd hand info (you know the person). Its origins did not concern me until this thread came up & i did not have your contact to clarify.

Craig P my animals are not related to Big guys they are Qld animals originally from Ben Bernal in Vic, the other siblings from the same clutch show white belly scales same as the Male founder.

 

[zulu]

re Calico

Den said>> Lol Zulu, It's good to see more people willing to put the work in on this line, definitely not something to pair willy nilly. As soon as I'm online at my new place I'd love to have a good chat mate, maybe swap some images of 'interesting' 'calicos'....;-)
Yeh Den,would be good to discuss things and hear whats being bred and in the pipeline,i onley keep a few but they are favourites in the collection,it is true that some thought should go into pairing and maintaining lines.

Craig P,thanks for the imfo with the white ventral scales,probably just a natural trait that is emphasised in juvenile colouration,find out more down the track one day with these hopefully.

Cheers

 

[-Peter]

Theres still the question of melanin decline in very standard mature animals. Its been observed quite a few times. Anyone have any ideas on this, Genetic, immunological, fungal, bacterial, viral?

 

[solar 17]

Theres still the question of melanin decline in very standard mature animals. Its been observed quite a few times. Anyone have any ideas on this, Genetic, immunological, fungal, bacterial, viral?

l feel quite strongly its a hepatic condition when you look at these reptiles there are a couple of markers/ pointers in each of these animals that supports this "theory".
l was inline to purchase a pair of said animals for the purpose of watching/looking more closely at but they were sold from under my nose so that was the end of that.
..........solar 17 (Baden)

 

[girdheinz]

I tend to agree with you Baden, many many years ago my mate had one of these animals turn calico at 18 months. It had severely concentrated urine all it's life and never functioned normal internally despite behaving and eating well. It also started to develop spinal calcifications and lumps along its spine with age. The well known reptile vet Robert Johnson at the time suspected the liver and believed the animals organs were beginning to fail with age. He had it euthenased.
Having said that people seem to have bred these animals successfully without any major signs of health problems. So what are the snakes actually inheriting seeing as it only appears with age. They start off looking normal and then change, quite rapidly sometimes.

I guess in time we might understand more, but it doesn't appear to be heritable in definite Predictable ratios.

Gird

 

[deebo]

A friend of mine showed me pics of one of his BHPs, that he still has now, from about 8 years ago and it was a stunning calico animal with nice peachy coloured bands and a light white background. He said it stayed like that for a few years and then slowly returned to its normal appearance. It now looks like any other BHP.....

 

[girdheinz]

A friend of mine showed me pics of one of his BHPs, that he still has now, from about 8 years ago and it was a stunning calico animal with nice peachy coloured bands and a light white background. He said it stayed like that for a few years and then slowly returned to its normal appearance. It now looks like any other BHP.....

That's the first time i've heard that scenario David, that is very interesting indeed.

 

[turtle]

So are they really genetic at all? Maybe people should consider this when paying top dollar for het for calico animals.
When I used to breed blackheads many years ago, I had one female that changed calico. I never thought it was anything more than old age.

Dan