2 headed ball python update :-)

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Originally Posted by Quality_Snakes

I hatched it out from pied X 66% het pied breeding

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Wow! That must have been a surprise! Glad to see it's doing well!

That is SO awesome. Im glad he is doing well. Thanks for sharing with us

Thanks for the update! Glad he is doing well!

And here's one of the videos that a previous member asked for...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCjBQMrrNXI

Do you plan to breed it? It's pretty awesome :sweeet:

That's awesome!

sent by a beastly droid x

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Originally Posted by eracer

I wonder if we'll see more mutations like this as we manipulate the genotypes of these snakes.

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This is not really a "mutation"--it's basically a pair of siamese twins that got joined in the egg. It might be possible to selectively breed to increase the chances of that happening... for example by breeding only animals that produce twin eggs... but it might be purely luck and/or incubator conditions.

(And we're not really manipulating the genotypes all that much. We're mostly just playing with recessive and dominant traits. All of which are existing, naturally-occurring mutations in the wild. Inbreeding is a risk with recessives in particular, but we're still not doing anything as extreme as what was done to toy poodles or Great Danes or bulldogs in the last two centuries.)

Does only the one head eat?

Quote:

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This is not really a "mutation"--it's basically a pair of siamese twins that got joined in the egg. It might be possible to selectively breed to increase the chances of that happening... for example by breeding only animals that produce twin eggs... but it might be purely luck and/or incubator conditions.

(And we're not really manipulating the genotypes all that much. We're mostly just playing with recessive and dominant traits. All of which are existing, naturally-occurring mutations in the wild. Inbreeding is a risk with recessives in particular, but we're still not doing anything as extreme as what was done to toy poodles or Great Danes or bulldogs in the last two centuries.)

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Thank you for pointing this out. Manipulating the genotype would be actually splicing in genes into the genome of the organism. And this isn't easy. It takes the ability to cut out a gene sequence from one genome then transplant it into a vessel such as a virus that then splices the gene into the genome of the intended organism. Even when this is achieved that actual chances of the process being viable is slim to none.

But deffinetly great snake. Im glad its doing well. In my opinion, I dont think we should be selectively breeding for these mutations since there are such high mortality rates.

SO COOL! I love that he's still doing great. I hope he gets nice and big for you, keep us posted!.....well I hope THEY(?) get nice and big for you. haha. I wondered if they can think individually.

Awesome that he doing well. And cool pattern too! Lol