Decided to name this gene Aurora. Here's the story. It's long!

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

The Aurora line...

No it's not another dinker claim..

I've decided to finally name my brightening gene that I've worked with for awhile. Initially I suspected it was a type of genetic blackback. I was just calling them blackbacks even though there was not always a complete blackback. As it turns out, it's actually a brightening gene somewhat like the fader but definitely different. I'm handing over part of this project to my friends over at Mad Men Morphs. It needed a name so people will know where these beautiful morphs came from, and can incorporate it into their own projects..

I started with an 08' blackbacked female from unknown origin. She was bred to a dark Bradford Cole cinnamon. I'd bred my pair of BC cinnys before and they only produced cinnys which looked like them. Dark cinnamon and black coloration, faded eye stripes which ended in the same straight line they began in, and nice flames but almost no dorsal blushing..

The outcome was very different when I put that BC cinny to my Aurora line blackbacked female. There were 4 cinnys and 3 normals. All but one cinny had the gene. It was very obvious. The normals resembled Russos, and the cinnys, while obviously different as babies, just got better with age. They looked like very low quality pewters. They had a sort of brown-out line showing a separation of color. The eye stripes on all of them always looked like the mothers. They end behind the eye in a larger circle, or curve down and connect with the neck. The eyes were also lighter. Blue grey in the top half for the cinnys, hazel for the normals. The cinnys showed increasing amounts of dorsal blushing as they grew, and the white outlining around the alien heads was on the cinnys as well as the normals.

I knew it was genetic but I just kept calling them blackbacks that lighten.

I then kept 2 of the cinnys and bred them together. They gave me 2 super cinnys, 1 cinny, and 3 normals. All are Aurora line. It's obvious the supers have the gene simply because they are very light and silvery. Especially along the last 2/3 of their body. A faint brown-out line is visible. All of these were shown to another fellow breeder who was at my house recently and he just kept pointing out the details that make all these snakes different from those that do not carry this gene. It's pretty obvious for sure.

The newest cinny is starting out the same way the first cinny clutch did. Almost yellow spots in between the dorsal markings. Lighter than average cinnys. The obvious wonky pattern influence. The pronounced and rounded eye stripes. The coloration..

The original blackback Dam was also bred to a normal holdback carrying the gene. So there were 2 breedings done to see if there was a super. Unfortunately, I lost most of those eggs. I do not know why, they just began to harden and go bad. The veins were weak. There were 2 eggs that had what appeared to be a viable baby inside near the end but they died in the egg. When I cut them, one was a reduced blackback that looked a lot like mom, but without all the alien heads. I do not know if the fact that the eggs died is related to this gene or not. I do not know why that one baby was so reduced with a solid blackback. I wont call it a super. more breeding needs to be done. It does make me wonder tho.

The decision to finally give it a name comes from the fact that I'm handing the project over to Mad Men Morphs for more breeding, and I'm selling a couple more males. I made the decision to cut way back on balls a couple years ago. As much as I'd like to continue with it to learn more about it, this project is taking up more time and space than I've allowed myself to have for balls recently. The owners of Mad Men Morphs are my friends, and I've done a lot of business with them in recent years so it made sense. This way, it can be known that these aren't just a normal wild-type ball python, and others can have a chance to work with it. The Aurora line brightening gene will improve on so many things. Hopefully it will even produce pastels that look better than lemons or citrus' We will know that soon..

I've worked with this gene for 4 years now and here is what is known so far..

It is definitely genetic and reacts like a dominant gene.
It reproduces itself consistently.
It greatly increases blackback patterning.
It effects pattern AND color in other morphs.
It increases blushing and flames.
It brightens and improves on color.
It tends to lighten with sheds during the first year.
It is NOT allelic with het red, or green pastel.

It will be bred into light morphs such as Fire and Bee to see just how well it can improve on the low quality morphs we're seeing too much of lately.

I myself have decided to keep my big Aurora Cinnamon female. She will be bred to a Lavender simply because I've always wanted a cinny lav. My own personal pet project is to hold back a 1.1 cinny pair from that. I know that breeding will do nothing for this project but I have always wanted a cinny lav. Otherwise, the bulk of the future breedings of the Aurora will be done by Mad Men Morphs. I believe it has great potential.

Here are some photos.. Many of you have seen some of these pics.
















Aurora on bottom..




And there you have it. Expect to see some beautiful morphs coming from this line soon