Harlequin Wide-Stripe

[dr del]

HI,

Here's the deal with harlequin wide stripes. These are the things I personally know to be fact.

1. yes it's genetic and it has been proven. it's an incomplete dominant morph. when bred to a normal you get 25%-50% wide stripes

2. it does not work with pastels but if you breed it to super pastels it does work. Basically if you breed a harlequin to a pastel you get 50% pastels and 50% normals. If you bred it to a super you get at least 25% pastel harlequins. The last clutch was 6 eggs and 3 were pastel wide stripes. I know for sure it works with fires, anything that makes B.E.L., yellow bellies, and albino's. The males have been bred to about 26 different snakes over 2 seasons.

3. there are 3 lines of wide stripe out there. VMS/Pro Exotics line, a Canadian line, and a line from Italy.

I bought 4 wide stripes from VMS 2 males and 2 females. All of them have been used and all produced wide stripe offspring. I know the person now owns the 4 and there offspring and they are working on a few projects that might be shown off this year but most likely next year.

Can you share some more information about this?


dr del

[Drewp]

Thats cool... thanks so much for posting that... any additional info you could provide would be amazing. If its a proven morph, shouldn't it be more "known of" among ball python breeders? You seem to know more about them than I've been able to figure out through countless hours of searching the internet. Do you know if there is a super form? VMS' website claims that there is a Harlequin Side-Stripe, which is the super form... but other than that I can't find any info on Harlequin x Harlequin breeding. I assume since you said incomplete Dominant (and not co-dominant) that there is no known super form?

Has anyone tried breeding different lines together? My friend has a VMS line male and my female I believe to be a different line (probably the Canadian line you're referring to). This is solely based on the colours, the VMS line look a lot darker and are more obvious looking that its probably a morph. Where as my girl looks a lot more like a normal colour-wise, but displays the big bold wide stripe... and the saddles are pretty funky looking, too.

Very interested in any more info at all that you could share.

Cheers

[meeistom]

They won't make wide stripes. It's a visual or it's not a wide stripe. Siblings don't carry the gene for it. They are very nice though.

What do you think about the female I posted a picture of? I got a pastel male and pastel yb female from her...do you think they are worth breeding together?

Dave

[meeistom]

Never seen a super form or bred a stripe x stripe. My buddy hasn't either. Next year the females will be big enough to bred so we will find out next year.

I know more because I bought some from VMS and bred the males last year to a lot of females. I tried to sell the offspring and no one was interested at all. After bringing them to several shows and getting no where with them I sold the remaining snakes to a friend as he wanted a cheap project to work on. He did some more work and now I have more information. Honestly I had no idea anyone even cared about the wides at all.

I know about the different lines from talking to folks at shows and talking to guys from Canada and Italy. I have family in both areas and they know i'm into reptiles and with the internet we got to emailing and exchanging info.

No idea on trying to bred the different lines I haven't heard of this happening. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened.


I think the reason it's no more "known" is very simply put they aren't too special. There are lots of normals out there that have a very similar appearance. In the grand scheme of morphs out there they aren't that different from a normal. Some of the combos are nice but again if you can't sell them at a decent price you end up with lots of pretty pets. Lets say you bred a wide to a mojave you get 5 eggs and 1 is a normal wide and 1 is a stripe mojave. You now have to market the stripe mojave and show it's genetic. Easier said then done. It just may not be worth the time and effort. Remember not everyone thinks they are all that special.

Thats cool... thanks so much for posting that... any additional info you could provide would be amazing. If its a proven morph, shouldn't it be more "known of" among ball python breeders? You seem to know more about them than I've been able to figure out through countless hours of searching the internet. Do you know if there is a super form? VMS' website claims that there is a Harlequin Side-Stripe, which is the super form... but other than that I can't find any info on Harlequin x Harlequin breeding. I assume since you said incomplete Dominant (and not co-dominant) that there is no known super form?

Has anyone tried breeding different lines together? My friend has a VMS line male and my female I believe to be a different line (probably the Canadian line you're referring to). This is solely based on the colours, the VMS line look a lot darker and are more obvious looking that its probably a morph. Where as my girl looks a lot more like a normal colour-wise, but displays the big bold wide stripe... and the saddles are pretty funky looking, too.

Very interested in any more info at all that you could share.

Cheers

[Drewp]

I don't know, I think they look awesome and should make some killer combos... if a super is produced I think they'll start to get some more attention (assuming its awesome looking lol)

Either way though I'm stoked to possibly get to work with this project this year.

If you've got any pictures of the different crosses I would love to see them. The harlequin mojave looks amazing, and the (possible) harlequin yellowbelly posted in this thread. You said theres albino widestripes? Those must be killer...

[chago11]

Here's the deal with harlequin wide stripes. These are the things I personally know to be fact.

1. yes it's genetic and it has been proven. it's an incomplete dominant morph. when bred to a normal you get 25%-50% wide stripes

2. it does not work with pastels but if you breed it to super pastels it does work. Basically if you breed a harlequin to a pastel you get 50% pastels and 50% normals. If you bred it to a super you get at least 25% pastel harlequins. The last clutch was 6 eggs and 3 were pastel wide stripes. I know for sure it works with fires, anything that makes B.E.L., yellow bellies, and albino's. The males have been bred to about 26 different snakes over 2 seasons.

3. there are 3 lines of wide stripe out there. VMS/Pro Exotics line, a Canadian line, and a line from Italy.

I bought 4 wide stripes from VMS 2 males and 2 females. All of them have been used and all produced wide stripe offspring. I know the person now owns the 4 and there offspring and they are working on a few projects that might be shown off this year but most likely next year.

You seem to know a lot about the wide stripe what do you think about my male and female that a posted?

[meeistom]

There are 13 100% het for albino wide stripes out there that i know of. Never seen an albino stripe but VMS might have some they aren't letting anyone know about. Next year if the odds are good there will be some albinos. My friend may or may not let me post pics of his stuff. He plans to show them off next year when he has more of them. This I can say some of the combo's are really cool others not so much.

[meeistom]

Keep breeding the adults together and see if your next clutch produces some wide stripes. You can also try to bred the male to a few normal females and see what comes out of those as well. They may not be wide stripes and just striped normals.

You seem to know a lot about the wide stripe what do you think about my male and female that a posted?

[ahunt037]

to me this snake looks almost identical to my female normal purchased from petsmart(ya i learned my lesson never buying there again) also i have noticed that my girl is extremely light compared to other normals i have seen but then again everyone has a normal that to them isnt normal right?
OP Photo
My Photo

[Drewp]

Looks pretty solid ahunt! You might have something there. My female hasn't been bred yet and therefore isn't proven genetic, I bought her as a normal. From the pics I've seen of them and comparing to my friends 1.1 pair though, I think she'll prove out as a wide-stripe... but only time and breeding will tell for sure.

Chago's pair both look way more promising than either of ours and he got all normal looking snakes out of his clutch, so its really a toss up unless you've acquired a genetic Harlequin Wide-Stripe from VMS.

meeistrom I hope your friend will share some pics, thanks again for all of the info.