Jag the GIANT Pastel Yellow belly male...

Here are new pictures of Jag. He is my 8 year old Pastel Yellowbelly male. Have had him since he was a tiny hatchling. He is living proof that you don't have to power feed to end up with a big Ball Python. All mine are fed well, but rather on the conservative end of the spectrum, rather then heavily. They will reach their genetically predetermined size regardless. To this day he continues to grow. He also took a 7 month break from feeding between February and September. Didn't hurt him any..LOL. There is no flabby fat on that boy...All muscle and very strong. I can't really make pictures holding him up anymore...my arm gets tired before he poses right, lol. Therefore I had to rest him on my legs in some pictures to get all of him into the shot. He is around 5 feet long and around 3000 gr. He is one awesome guy [emoji4]

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Nice! I don't think I've ever seen a male ball python that big. I know you can breed a small male to a big female but I wonder if you can do it the other way around? I wouldn't think his hemipenes would fit in a small female snake LOL. He's got some really nice color and pattern.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Nice! I don't think I've ever seen a male ball python that big. I know you can breed a small male to a big female but I wonder if you can do it the other way around? I wouldn't think his hemipenes would fit in a small female snake LOL. He's got some really nice color and pattern.

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Thanks for the compliments !! I do think he is gorgeous, too. He has such a pixelated look to him, he reminds me of "charcoal drawings" when I look at him.

Yeah, I dunno, I don't think I would want to pair him with a small female, that just doesn't seem right, LOL.

Funny story...from the getgo Jag just grew BIGGER then any of the others. I got 5 hatchlings, all from the same year. All on the same schedule. Yet, Jag grew bigger and faster, on the same amount of food. How weird is that ?

After a while I assumed he must be a female. But since I didn't plan on breeding, I wasn't that worried about it throughout the years. When I decided to breed them all last year, I paird Jag with my other male. Of course they each sat in opposite corners of the tub, looking highly offended. LOL !!! So I decided to probe Jag, and yup, he was a male after all !! Just a REALLY big one.

He must simply carry some of those "big BP" genes, I suppose..because I haven't fed him any differently then the others..

Brian Gundy has a Normal ball python that he said grew bigger than any of his other ball pythons and he thought it was genetic. It makes me wonder if it's a specific gene that is co-dominant or if it gets diluted. For example, if you breed a fast growing snake with a slower growing snake, will half the babies be fast growing and half slow growing, or will they all grow a mid range speed?

It would be an interesting experiment in genetics. Perhaps it could be the start of a new 'Giant' morph LOL. From what I've seen I'm thinking it may be a higher conversion rate of rodent / food intake to weight gained, i.e. feeding the same rodent will make a 'Giant' snake grow faster because more of the rodent is converted into snake body mass. Seems like you could track the rodent weight vs. snake weight over time and compare the food intake to body mass conversion.

What a stunner! Are you sure he's a male? :P

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Brian Gundy has a Normal ball python that he said grew bigger than any of his other ball pythons and he thought it was genetic. It makes me wonder if it's a specific gene that is co-dominant or if it gets diluted. For example, if you breed a fast growing snake with a slower growing snake, will half the babies be fast growing and half slow growing, or will they all grow a mid range speed?

It would be an interesting experiment in genetics. Perhaps it could be the start of a new 'Giant' morph LOL. From what I've seen I'm thinking it may be a higher conversion rate of rodent / food intake to weight gained, i.e. feeding the same rodent will make a 'Giant' snake grow faster because more of the rodent is converted into snake body mass. Seems like you could track the rodent weight vs. snake weight over time and compare the food intake to body mass conversion.

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Interesting thoughts, esp. about how the food is converted in the body.
I think there is a region where Ball Pythons grow bigger. Their heads, everything. Not just heavier (through feeding) but bigger overall. Forgot what they were called, though...I believe that it IS genetic and perhaps somewhere along the line Jag carries the genes of those bigger BP's.

How those genes present, dominant, co-dominant, etc..I have no idea. But would be very interesting to find out !!

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Originally Posted by mlededee

What a stunner! Are you sure he's a male? :P

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Yup, LOL. I probed him twice (carefully, wanted to make sure its not a female that got "pierced" by probes) Probes went in easily and deep, on both sides.

Plus he had ZERO interest in my other male and that other male sure didn't like Jag, either. LOL!!!

He is awesome! That pic with him on your legs makes him look huge! I'm sure it must be that your pretty tiny but seeing how thick he is next to a leg is unreal, I've never seen a ball python look so big! I would be breeding him just to try and pass down his 'big genes' to some other morph combos. He was a lucky pick up for sure!

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Originally Posted by zina10

Interesting thoughts, esp. about how the food is converted in the body.
I think there is a region where Ball Pythons grow bigger. Their heads, everything. Not just heavier (through feeding) but bigger overall. Forgot what they were called, though...I believe that it IS genetic and perhaps somewhere along the line Jag carries the genes of those bigger BP's.

How those genes present, dominant, co-dominant, etc..I have no idea. But would be very interesting to find out !!

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there is - it's called sub-saharan iirc. :)

Such a big beautiful boy, wonder how big he'll end up being. Also, that makes me wonder if anyone has bred bps for size? Would anyone even be interested in large bps?