This is an interesting and somewhat long story so TLDR below, full story at the end of the post.

We are just getting into breeding BP’s and would love to get some expert eyes and opinions on what these hatchlings might be, thanks to all who are able to assist!

Provided Imur links for photos of the hatchling #1 and hatchling #2 in question and the dam for both.



The amateur guess is that hatchling #1 is a Mojave and Hatchling #2 could possibly be a fire Mojave or Mojave x something else due to the very intense yellow dorsal color and intense blushing already. Also second guessing if the dam has any other genes, or if she is in-fact a nice looking Mojave. That being said, this could all be wishful thinking on what are undoubtedly some good looking Mojave's.


Full Story:

We purchased a very nice looking Mojave female proven breeder back in May 2022 at a reptile show. Late June she showed signs of ovulation. Sure enough in early September she laid a clutch of 8 eggs (2 slugs, 6 fertile).

We reached out to the breeder to see what she was paired with and they said they didn’t reminder her being paired at all and could not tell us what the sire was. A bit odd but we figured they were bonus snakes so no worries. The breeder we purchased the Dam from is a decent sized operation and is also well established so the hunch is that she was acquired in a trade with no parties involved knowing the mating with her mystery sire was successful....

Unfortunately 1 of the eggs went bad halfway through incubation. At 57 days the first two eggs pipped and we waited another two days to cut, sadly the three remaining eggs contained well developed/full term but deceased hatchlings. Interestingly enough two of the three deceased eggs were black eyed leucistic (solid almost pink white with what appeared to be black eyes), and the third deceased hatchling looked similar to the two surviving hatchlings. The three that were deceased had a large amount of yolk left that had not been absorbed, while the two hatchlings that came out all natural were fully absorbed and out of the shell within a day or two of piping. Still not sure what happened but it was quite a bummer.