What's your experience with paradoxing?

[Daigga]

Purely by chance, two of the three males I purchased to breed happened to have some paradox markings. The more I look at them, the more I love this weird phenomenon. Does anyone have any experience producing or breeding paradoxes? Most of the information I'm finding is just showing that it's totally random, but some people seem to think your odds of producing a paradox is higher if the parents have it.

On a similar note, I have heard of the chimera theory regarding paradoxing. Are the odds of producing twins random in ball pythons, or could it be argued that it's genetic?

Some pictures of my paradox boys;

Dexter, who was in shed at the time of this photo. He's shed out now and is a real beauty.


Edward. Not as noticeable (especially in poor lighting and camera phone quality), but he has a double tail ringer. The ringer near the end of his tail is a lot more noticeable than the one a bit father up.

Neither of these two are up to a good breeding size yet. Can't wait to see what they produce for me

[Ransack]

There are a couple of genetic "paradoxing" morphs just getting off the ground Atomic and Whitewash.

[PeterPieBaldPython]

Are the odds of producing twins random in ball pythons, or could it be argued that it's genetic?

Twinning isn't super well understood even in humans where tons of money goes in to understanding it If you find a line of bps that reliably produces twins, I'd LOVE to study them!!!!!

from a human study (C.M. Little 2011):
"A twin pregnancy has a higher risk of fetal morbidity and mortality than a singleton pregnancy depending on the zygosity and chorionicity of the fetuses. (fraternal) Dizygotic twins originate from two separate ova that are fertilized by two different sperm and are no more alike than any two siblings, and (identical) monozygotic twins develop from a single fertilized ovum, develop from one zygote, and are genetically “identical.” Recent evidence has shown that “identical twins” are more genetically discordant than originally thought because of epigenetic factors (this stuff is neat, actually - usually in regards to disease symptoms). In addition, twins are more at risk for chromosomal abnormalities and congenital anomalies. In the last century, twins played and continue to play an important role in genetics research. Twin studies are the criterion standard for research on the importance of heritability and environmental influences on behavior and disease."

Super interesting stuff, really. Even crazier when you think of it in an egg! sharing a yolk?! So amazing!!!

[paulh]

Occurrence of double-yolked eggs in chickens.
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/0...uble-yolk.html

I do not have the reference handy, but there was a study done over 20 years ago about double-yolk eggs. As I recall, there was a correlation between the size of the bird and the probability of double yolk eggs.

But you also need genetics. A snake may be a chimera without showing any paradoxing because both embryos produce the same coloration. The two embryos that form the chimera need to be of obviously different colors to produce paradoxing. Mating albino to het albino is a good mating to produce paradoxes.

Genetics can affect the number of eggs a female can produce, too. Years back, I had two female bullsnakes about the same size. Both bred in captivity over several years. One never had more than 10 (big to huge) eggs in a clutch, while the other never had less than 20 (smallish) eggs per clutch. Neither produced twins, and both were normal colored mated to normal colored males. So I can't prove that any babies were chimeras.