What are we? Sire, Dam, Clutch, Holdback, Half-sibs

[Ssthisto]

I've got a bit of a conundrum, after getting my 2017 holdback male out and comparing him against his sire, when theoretically they should both be Mojaves.

This is the sire, Duncan, a 2013 animal purchased as a Mojave and picked because of the long neck/body stripe:

This is as accurate to his true colour as possible; he is beige.


His belly is plain white, no speckling or marking at all.


His eyes look brassy on top, not greenish.


And I'll apologise for the quality of the photo, but this is what he looked like as a baby.

This is the dam, Alice, a 2003 animal purchased as a "big normal female" when she was six years old:



She wasn't cooperating for the belly shot or for a head shot, but at least this shows that she's got a speckled, marked belly.

And this is my holdback male, Mocha, from 2017:

He does have greenish tones in the fade along his sides.


He has light belly speckling in khaki and yellow.


Dark eye, very little gold/brassy colour in the top stripe.

Some additional pics:


This was the clutch in 2017 that Mocha came from - he's the second Mojave from the right, the one coiled over himself. Not pictured are one more normal and one more Mojave, the last two of the eleven to hatch, and believe me I'm kicking myself for not having a photo of that last Mojo as a hatchling for identification, because we may have re-found that animal (she was sold to a local shop, along with the rest of the clutch I didn't keep)... and if that's the same animal, she doesn't look at all like her brother, and looks a lot more like her dad.


And this is the only photo I took of the first clutch I had from Alice and a Lesser male in 2011 - my apologies for the in-shed photo - but thought it might be useful for comparison purposes.

Are Duncan and Mocha just "two ends of the Mojave spectrum" or could there be something else going on there?

Does Alice look like a normal normal, or could she have contributed to Mocha looking nothing like Duncan?

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

- Ssthisto

[Ax01]

IMO Duncan is just a highly blushed Mojo. he has sure lighten up w/ age. Mocha is also a Mojo. i counted 6 Mojo's in the in the Duncan x Alice clutch. they all have the speech bubbles and cheerios. also they all seem to inherit somekind of dorsal striping from their dad.

cute clutch. congrats!

[Ssthisto]

Does that mean that the description of Mojave on WoBP is incorrect ("Another key trait on the Mojaves is a complete white underbelly") and that Mojaves *can* have speckled/marked bellies?

[Ax01]

Does that mean that the description of Mojave on WoBP is incorrect ("Another key trait on the Mojaves is a complete white underbelly") and that Mojaves *can* have speckled/marked bellies?

i wouldn't say the WoBP description is incorrect. it just provides a typical description for a Mojo and it's not an absolute definition as this morph (and others) is highly variable. sure they can have a few marks here and there on their bellies, just as they can have a regular alien head in their pattern here and there. my second BP was a very dark and striped Mojo boy like our Duncan but his colors also mellowed out. if i didn't know better, i woulda thought he had Blackhead or something but he was just a good looking Mojo baby boy.