lyfoti05's 2013-14 Breeding Season Thread

[HypoLyf]

Great looking snakes. The differences are very subtle and hard to pick out. The alien heads are very cool, with the Granite like appearance. The blushing is also a nice trait. In the second comparison picture, I felt as if the Yellowbelly gene brought more of a gold look to the yellow, but based on the first comparison picture, I'm not so sure. What features/markings are you finding to differentiate between them?

The camera settings for all of the photos are identical, but depending on how I position myself to take the photo relative to the fixed animals (and lights), it seems like the colors can get changed ever so slightly.

For this photo, I also put the Mojave Nazca Yellow Belly next to the Mojave Nazca in the group shot. The Mojave Nazca Yellow Belly does have a more gold shade to the yellow than the Mojave Nazca's paler yellow. Awhile ago, I was talking to my friend when he was comparing the look of his paler fireflies to the bolder look of his firefly yellow bellies. I would think something a little similar is occurring here.


One thing to consider for the blushing is that the hypo gene is also in play. For the few animals I have hatched out that are hets (in other clutches produced from a visual hypo), the color in the hets tends to get jacked up, which also could be going on here.

Talking with Jon, one of the things to look at is the granite speckles in the neck pattern. The Mojave Nazca Yellow Belly and the Mojave Nazca have that. As far the Mojave Yellow Belly possible Nazca is concerned, she has a dot or two instead of being really speckled like the other two, but the neck pattern is really funky and very elongated. The other two animals seem to have more of rusty tone to them, while the possible Nazca girl has an overall coloration that reminds me of her dad when I first purchased him.

Here is the Mojave Nazca het Hypo I bought from Jon. Take note of the neck pattern.


For the determination of the yellow belly aspect, I'm looking at the dorsal striping. For the Mojave Nazca, I'm seeing more regular striping, compared to the animals with yellow belly that have little J-hooks coming from the dorsal stripe. Their pattern looks a little less uniform compared to the Mojave Nazca in my opinion, but maybe that's just me.

Anyways, I'm still learning, but those are a few observations. Jon is the Nazca master.