Two pairs of Loveliness

[Mehelya]

First Post here on RTB.com, so, thought I'd start off with pics of my little beauts. I acquired them in December of 2015. Two separate mothers, same father, so they are half related pairs. The one pair I got because they were lighter than the others (the mother was a lovely light caramel color), and I had to get a half related pair of normal as well. The addiction started immediately again. I know nothing about the various morphs, as the last time I had boas, there were only one or two morphs being produced. If there is something going on here, awesome, if not, still awesome. Could also just be a locality thing, so if anyone has an idea, please lay it on thick...

Normal male (Parents – Normal male to normal female)


Normal female (Parents – Normal male to normal female)


Light Male (Parents – Normal male to light caramel-colored female)


Light Female (Parents – Normal male to light caramel-colored female)


Those are my current little beastlies, and I will be adding some het albino and albino genes in the near future. I am trying to get decent pics of the parents, and will add them on here as soon as I get some pics from the breeder.

Thanks for Looking.

[natieb]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

It's hard to say for sure if you have something genetically reproducible short of data from the breeder or from doing your own breeding, but you do have some interesting stuff going on there. The Normal Male has a Circleback Laddertail (CBLT) pattern, which is common with some Colombian localities and some Central American localities. The pattern often passes on to subsequent generations, but isn't necessarily a "morph", rather a polygenic characteristic.

Light Male (and Light Female to a lesser extent) has a strong resemblance to a Key West Boa. I'm not saying that's definitely what they are, but it would be interesting to see pics of both parents and the ratio of offspring that have that connected pattern.

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

natieb, thanks for that. Soem serious food for thought, and I will probably have to do the test and trials Here is a pic the breeders sent me. Sadly, they are extremely busy running a reptile park, on a staff of 2, and quickly snapped this one between tours. They are used at the entrance to the park, and have a large enclosure that they live in together. The two dark ones in the background are the male and female of the "normals", and the light mother in the fore of the "light" babies. The only male in the enclosure sired both clutches.



I am waiting for an estimate of how many of the normal male to light female babies were which color. Will update as soon as possible.

[Jrock23]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Nice photos and beautiful boas

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

@natieb, I am still waiting for the breeders to send the information about the offspring ratios, as I was interested in some of the heavily flecked ones as well from the "normal x normal" pairing. Some of them looked as if they had been wet, and then rolled around in pepper kernels. I just chose the ones with least speckling.
[MENTION=19975]Jrock23[/MENTION], thanks man, I can hardly wait till they are big, so I can see what they look like in their adult clothes. Hopefully my suspicions are correct with the lighter two on their morph, but I will have to wait 4 years to prove it out, so it will be excruciating.

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

[MENTION=19975]Jrock23[/MENTION], thanks man! Amateur reptile photographer, and I know how difficult it is to get true colors of snakes to show on photos... Just a slight change in angle and everything looks different. I am hoping that the two light ones are something special, but that will have to wait for 4 years or so... ha ha ha... Always the waiting game with this passion. But even if they’re just really light normals, I’m sure they would go nicely with anery or albino...
@natieb, I am still trying to get more info on both litters from both pairings (things like this bug me endlessly until it is worked out), as I clearly remember the "normal x normal" babies were very strange to me... About half the babies from that litter where so flecked with black, and I didn't think anything of it at the time, and rather went for the cleanest ones that were in the batches. When I say flecked, I mean it looked like they went for a swim and then climbed through a pepper shaker... Black dots all over the place... It can be seen slightly on the “normal female” juvenile towards the back half of the snake. The same went with the light ones. There weren’t many light ones in the “light x normal” pairing, as most of them looked “normal”, except a few that were this light “biscuit/caramel” color, and my first thought was “Hypo”! A good friend also suggested either hypo, or perhaps a nicaraguan or key west, as you suggested, but, unless I can get all the data from the breeder, I will have to wait and prove it out myself when they’re ready to do their thing.

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

@natieb, So I have done some asking around, and bugging tons of people... The parent stock of these babies are rescue animals, so that will mean that I am going to have to do the breeding thing to see what comes out genetically. What I can remember of the litters from both pairings when I saw them in person, was that for the normal to normal looking adults, all the babies I saw were normal, except for about half that had black flecks all over their body, and heads. Some were insanely flecked with black dots, and one of the baby's heads was almost completely covered... The normal to light adult pair's litter was probably also about half light and half normal, but most of that litter had been sold off (people probably took the light ones first as they are prettier than the normals), so I am thumb sucking here. Heck, if I wanted to believe it (and really set myself up for disappointment), I could almost say the normal male is het for albino (judging by the "eye theory", and compared to it's sibling normal female). But I will see what happens in 4 years time. Will be adding some albinos to my addiction in the next few months... For now, they are awesome little normals with some wicked attitude (calm and inquisitive), and are a pleasure to have back in the collection.

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

So, the normal male, and light female shed this week, and I decided to do an impromptu photoshoot of them all (good practice anyway)… I think this is as close to their true colors as I am going to be able to get for now. Next photos I'll do in a few months time. The normals are coloring up very nicely, and the light ones just seem to be getting lighter every day. Even, at the end of the day, if they are all plain normal mixes, I still think they are lovely little beggars with such personalities.

Normal Male (Not really in the mood)


Normal Female (Make sure you get my good side)


Light Male (Not really ready for that flash)


Light Female (Get my curves please)


I just cannot wait for these gems to grow up, but I guess patience isn’t always a strong point for us herpers…

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Although I haven’t managed to get any better shots of the adults that were paired to produce these little chompers, I did receive these photos of some of the “leftovers” that are going to a reptile expo on the weekend. These are some of the siblings of my normals and light ones. So, for those that were helping me with the possibilities of genetics, these are what the sibs look like from both clutches…

Here they are in no particular order…



















So tempted to grab Male E (broken head pattern and thin saddles) and Female A or B (head pattern is intriguing) but I have enough for now! I cannot let my obsession take over this quickly again, seeing as I have an albino and het albino pair on their way! Ha ha ha…

Thanks for looking, and have an awesome weekend everyone!

[zamora]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

You have some really pretty babies there. It will certainly be interesting to see these grow up and reproduce, especially that male with the interesting tail. Looking at the littermates makes me think that there may be something pretty cool hiding in there genetically. Now to wait and see! Welcome to RTB and thanks for all the awesome photos!

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Thanks Zamora, I am also hoping that there is something interesting hiding in these little chompers… In my limited knowledge, and a hang of a lot of internet searching, I came to an (un)educated guess that there may be some sort of hypo/KWB and arabesque type of gene working here, but that’s based purely on physical looks, although several characteristics from the suggested morphs are not there. Breeding is the way to go in 4 year’s time, and I am going to have to try and be patient with this lot, and not rush, or breed early.

Probably absolutely stupid of me, but I did receive another pair from the same breeder, as I hinted in the post with the other siblings the breeder sent me, and bought Male E and Female A. I have the space, and the time for them, and can always thin them out once they’re older, and showing more mature coloration.

Reasons for that purchase were :

Male E : 1. Broken head pattern (really interesting to me); 2. The saddles are mostly complete, but unlike the siblings, the connectors are not all complete, and saddle 8 from the head is broken as well; 3. Very nice stripe on the tail, not on the other littermates; 4. Very thin saddles compared to the others.

Female A: 1. Broken head pattern (The Y shape, and patterning on the top of the back of the jaw); 2. Broken connectors towards the end of the tail; 3. The dark coloration opposed to the other females; 4. A creamy pink showing at the end of the tail.

The breeder was kind enough to drop them off for me on the way back from the show/expo they attended, and I just put them in one tub, so the breeder could have his pillowcase back, and separated them that afternoon into separate tubs. They arrived a bit dehydrated, and looking a bit smaller and thinner than the two pairs I already have, but they will soon be back up to scratch, and have already had two meals with gusto.

Here are two quick pics I took the day of their arrival. Once they have shed here for the first time, I will put up better individual pics. I just don’t want to mess with them too much until they are settled in and growing nicely…

In the tub, minutes after arriving…


Just a quick “studio” shot of the pair, with a Rinkhals checking in from behind…


Now, I need to stop buying boas, and get to working on these chaps, and how I am going to go about selecting who to breed with who to see what happens… Maybe breed it to an unrelated albino, and see what pops out. At the very least I will then have het albinos in the mix.

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Cleaned some enclosures last night, and just snapped some quick shots of the young ‘uns. Most of them were pretty chilled, but one was not too happy about the change of enclosures and the flashing lights. Just excuse the blurred faces... Without further ado, here they are…

Normal (Dark) Female


Normal (Dark) Male


Light Female (Not Happy, and “snarling” at me)


Light Male


Mix Female


Mix Male (Not really interested)


Thanks for looking, and will update in a few months again.

[Jrock23]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

I like the patterns on these. They are nice

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

[Mehelya]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Thanks Jrock, appreciate the comment. One of the main reasons I picked these in particular was their pattern, and then because of differences in coloration between certain siblings, which is quite noticeable.

Well, did some spot cleaning last night, and decided to take some quick indoor photos of the little chompers. I will do a comparison outdoor shoot sometime in the next few days, to have comparisons between inside and outside (maybe eye shots and belly shots as well, seeing as I like to record every detail and compare everything).

These little ones are starting to grow like weeds, and I am going to have to up their prey size soon to keep up with them. They are also starting to really color up as well, and I can only imagine and wait with bated breath to see what they look like in December…

Without further ado, here are all the little beasties in some quick snaps last night. Excuse the poor quality shots, I was standing in the way of the light for most of these...

Mix Female



Mix Male



Light Female



Light Male



Normal Female



Normal Male



Het Albino Male



Albino Female




Thanks for Looking

[Jhbhc007]

Re: Two pairs of Loveliness

Hi there. Those are some cool looking boas and great pics
I'm also from SA. Glad to see there are people still interested in boa constrictors.
I'm BCC crazy