The Avalanche
The first season we bred her to a Spider and produced an amazing looking litter of Spiders that all had heavy dorsal striping like a reduced pattern Clown. That litter started the discussions as to whether or not this was a new genetic influence or a random occurrence. It is possible with Spiders that this pattern will pop up randomly from time to time. However to date it has not been proven to be a genetically passable trait with Spiders. This is why we continued our focus on this female and bred her to an entirely different morph to help prove or disprove the theory about this being a new genetic influence.
2007 Avalanche x Spider Cross
After contacting the breeder that we got our spider male from, they confirmed that not one of the other litters made by this spiders parents produced anything that looked like this. Our same spider male has never made anything that looked similar to this litter with any other clutch that he sired. So thinking it could be part of the genetics that makes up the Super Stripes we then bred the founding Avalanche dam to our Orange-belly YB male.
Orange-belly YB Sire
The results were not what we had expected. The paring did not produce Super Stripes. We were somewhat disappointed that it didn't, however we were very excited that it wasn't a trait that has already been proven but in fact a new one. Most of the YB babies had the Avalanche gene and it is very apparent once we saw them hatching. Here is the cross that came from that pairing. As you can see, it turned the Orange-belly Yb offsrping yellow. What we have noticed over the past few months, is that the yellow coloring is getting brighter and brighter with each passing shed.
2008 Avalanche x Orange-belly YB Cross
Here is a side by side comparison of the Avalanche x YB with one of her YB siblings from the same litter. The Avalanche influence is undeniable when you see them side by side like this.
There has been a lot of discussion on whether or not the original dam is a Vanilla, Fire or even a Sulfur. She does not have the markers or look of either of these three morphs. We do plan on introducing the Avalanche gene with these genes to see what the outcomes will be along with many other genetic morphs in the future. What ever the results of these breeding attempts are and if these theories prove out or not, we still need a male out of this litter to prove this new mutation co-dominant. Not a bad project for a free snake.
With any new genetic discovery there will always be skeptics and naysayers attempting to denounce them. Remember when we thought the world was flat? Sadly these type of people create arguments and controversy that are motivated by their own greed, hatred, obsessions, misplaced admiration and worst of all their over inflated fragile egos. It is a sad side effect of this hobby that everyone has to be subjected to from time to time because they can't control themselves in an open forum state. So to our skeptics and naysayers, I say stay tuned for future updates about the newest gene to hit the ball python scene.
To those that have offered your congratulations and well wishes on our new project, we thank you for your kind words and genuine interest in our project.
