Update on our little kinked hatchling

[frankykeno]

Just thought I'd update you all on our little kinked female YB that we hatched out in May of this year. She was the product of a boob egg that I didn't even know would hatch or not. We're in our first successful breeding year and hadn't dealt with a boob egg before but were told to give it a chance.

Well out popped this little beautiful yellowbelly female. A bit smaller than her clutchmates at only 54 grams but really not that awfully small.



Unfortunately she was born with this kink....



She's done really well though right from the start. She started eating as soon as she had her first shed and is usually the first of our 11 hatchlings to snatch up her dinner. She seems determined to prove that no little kink is ever going to hold her back LOL.

She's a beautifully patterned snake, not the best of our YB's as far as flames or anything and with that kink maybe some wouldn't even keep her but she's got a home with us for her lifetime. She's gone from our smallest hatchling to the 2nd biggest of the hatchlings and nothing is stopping this little female! Mike and I can't resist any little snake whose as determined as she is to thrive.

Here she is...all 107 grams of her....









We haven't found the just right name for her yet. We like to pick either celtic or gaelic names for all our ball pythons so I'm on the search for a warrior queen type of name for this fierce little girl.

[jknudson]

Excellent job with her Jo! She looks great!

Just a question, is the kink just before her cloaca? Are you going to attempt breeding her in the future, or is it thought it would impede the laying of any eggs? Nonetheless she'll be a beautiful pet.

[stangs13]

Wow its to bad you are keeping her!! Cause i want her!! LOL. I love her pattern. Are you going to breed her when shes older? Either way, post LOTS of pics, I want to see her grow up!

[frankykeno]

Yep the kink is above her vent area. We quite honestly aren't sure what her future might be as far as breeding goes. What we are planning to do at this point is have her ultrasounded when she's about 6 months old to see how things look inside her. Then we'll repeat the ultrasound when she's breeding age and see again how it looks.

We've been told that all in all it's a very minor kink and since there's no depression of her spine (on physical exam) into her body that likely it wouldn't impede her laying eggs someday. We've also been advised by two very experienced breeders that she would not be a snake you'd want to breed light but rather to give her lots of time to grow up and really mature before even contemplating breeding her.

The fact is though that even if she's never a candidate for breeding it really doesn't matter. We fell for her (even though I swore to Tim Bailey that I was NOT getting emotionally attached to a boob egg just in case ) pretty much as soon as she came out of her egg. We are planning to feature her this coming school year in our snake presentations. She'll help us talk to the young kids about being born "different" and how it hasn't stopped her doing anything that her clutchmates do and she's still a very cool snake even if she's got a funny bump on her butt end.

Now the poor little thing needs a name. I really must get on this as the whole family calls her "Kinky" and that just won't do LOL.

[Michelle.C]

She is stunning! She is a very lucky little girl.

I name my Ball Pythons Gaelic and Celtic names too.

I like the name Quinlan, pronounced KWIN lin, meaning "beautiful shape".

[frankykeno]

Oh that is a pretty name! Finally someone else who picks names that are hard to spell and even harder to pronounce LOL.

Here's our ball pythons so far.....

Females:

Brannagh
Orlah
Kyna
Rionnach
Ailish
Morag
Muirne
Cara
Dacey
Daimhin
Danu
Saorise
Kennis
Doireann
Liadan
Ardra
Niamh
Fianna
Darra
Pandora (husband insisted on that one LOL)

and the males....

Malachi
Riordan
Liam
Torin
Buddy (hey a 5 year old named this one...it's his snake! )

I think that's all of them.

Oh plus the 11 hatchlings and the 7 eggs in the incubator LOL.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I like her! love the tail pattern!

[recycling goddess]

ahhhhh she's soooo beautiful jo. i love your company name... scale kids!

[SnakieMom]

I love that you get involved with things, in this case, using that adorable girl to talk to kids about being 'born different'. I don't know many people that would even have the initiative to do something like that, and for this, I give you two thumbs up!

And fyi, there's nothing wrong with the name "Kinky". I think it's just as adorable as she is!

[Sputnik]

That is great to see, great job!