Josie Ball Pythons
Josie Female, Light Josie Male, Fire Female
The Story Behind These Babies:
I have been working with this weird male for the last 4 years. I always noticed the black mustache, a busy pattern, and a light color (He is in shed in this picture) and figured I would see what he could do. I am not sure on the name so I will just call them "Josie Balls" for now.....
Original Josie Ball.
I bred him to a normal female his first year and she laid four eggs. I got three normals and one female "Josie Ball". You can see she has the busy pattern, light hue, light spots on head, and the black mustache. She was produced in 2008 and goes off feed every winter She is around 850 grams now.
Josie Ball Female
In late 2008 I bred the original "Josie Ball" to two normal female. In 2009 produced 2.0 "Josie Balls" and 0.1 Normal from one female and 2.0"Josie Ball" and 1.2 Normals from the second female. They were not all that crazy looking and they were all males so I decided to give most of them away as pets. I did give one to a buddy of mine just in case it ended up being something. At this time I was pretty much thinking I would only breed this male to his daughter (who hates to grow) so that I would not waste anymore females on a dinker project. I did not take any pics of the "Josie Balls" that year thinking it was a dead end project. I will get a photo of the one I gave my buddy when I see him next week.
Here is where it gets a little interesting. Last year I decided I was going to move out all my normal females and replace them with morphs. I had one normal female that I have had for over 4 years. She is a monster. She has always been over 4500 grams and feeds on jumbo rats like its nothing. She had never bred for me and last season I tried breeding her to the "Josie Ball" and received zero eggs. I figured she is huge and maybe her monster genes will pass down. My sex ratio on this "Josie Ball" project has always sucked and I figured she would be the perfect candidate to see if this co-dom/dom dinker project is genetic. I kept her to try one last time. He bred her and she dropped 10 nice eggs.
Big Momma Normal
After 55 days at an incubation temp of 88.6 degrees I had babies hatching. I hatched eleven babies out of ten eggs.
Twins!! YAY!!!
Here is what I hatched out. 0.2 Normals (still light with a busy pattern but no mustache) and 7.1.1 "Josie Balls". One is still in the egg absorbing yolk. 9 of these little guys have a light spot on the head, have the dirty face,a busy pattern and are pretty light. I would take pics of the bellies but to be honest they do not look any different than that of a normal. I took a few pics of two that really stood out to me as well as a group shot (minus the one still in the egg). All the pictures are in natural sunlight except for the first Light "Josie Ball" picture. I have never bred the big female to any other snake than the original "Josie Ball" so there is no way pastel could be mixed in unless Big Momma is the ugliest pastel known to man.
2010 Light Josie Ball
2010 Busy Pattern Josie Ball
2010 Clutch
Light Josie and Super Pastel
Let me know what you guys think and thanks for taking the time to read my post.
Joe Ellis
Reply With Quote