A while back someone asked for updated pictures of this project and I just finally took some I liked today.
First is the matriarch I found at Reptile Haven in Denver in 2001. She was small adult size and I estimated she might have been hatched in 1997 but really don't know any background on her. She has always eaten well so I didn't think she was a recent import and could perhaps have been hatched a year or two later or even be much older for all I know.
http://snakemorphs.home.comcast.net/...ed_12years.jpg
I stubbornly tried to breed her to a possible het caramel male I owned for a couple of years even though he wasn't a proven breeder at the time. After no eggs I decided it was time to give someone else a shot so loaned her out to Daniel Garcia. After a few more years she finally produced for him in 2007 bred to an odd male which I believe he told me was an import dinker he got from RDR. Four of the eight hatchlings (I think there was a 9th egg that went bad) looked like mom and even the others were dark and not completely normal. I'm very proud of this pick of the litter girl from that clutch:
http://snakemorphs.home.comcast.net/..._med_2year.jpg
I’m not sure how much influence she might have from her dad’s genetics or if she is just a nicer variation of whatever mom is.
It was pointed out that they look something like one of the chocolate lines and they may well be the same or related but since I don't know I've been calling them Garcia after Daniel Garcia who finally got her to produce.
I got her back from Daniel before those 2007 eggs had hatched and since I didn't have any morph males of my own at the time I immediately loaned her out to Marshall Van Thorre. She has a clear belly and I'd hoped she might be a white snake producer so Marshall put her with a Lesser and a Mojave and produced a nice clutch of 14 eggs in 2008. Some of the eggs went bad but of the nine hatchlings there where two girls that looked to be Mojave and Garcia combined (but no white snakes) and here is mine at almost a year:
http://snakemorphs.home.comcast.net/...d_11months.jpg
Mom and the two daughters pictured here all share unusually wide dark areas that tend to have a rich chocolate color and also high iridescence. Unfortunately there where no males at all in the 2007 clutch and only one that really looked much like mom in the 2008. I did keep a 2008 mojave that I hoped might also have Garcia but I have my doubts as he has a much more typical mojave color without the dark chocolate of his sister. I did try breeding him and a couple other males (a pastel het ghost and even a possible het piebald) to her this year and I think she is gravid although not nearly as big as last year before her monster 14 egg clutch.