The good, the bad and the ugly.

The 2023-2024 breeding season has been the wildest so far, from hitting a couple of World-first blood pythons to getting a parthenogenesis clutch. This is a long post, but it contains a good recap of the season, and hopefully, if you stay until the end, you will be just as excited as I am for what is ahead of us. 

One last warning: some of the pictures in this write-up are graphic, so if you are not okay with raw images, please stop reading here. 

Let's start from bad to good, shall we?

The Bad…

The "Bad" is pretty simple: an unfruitful breeding pair. Last year, Nick Bottini (Cold-Blooded Earth) and I joined forces to pursue a groundbreaking project. The T+Albino Pale gray. It's a unique and powerful double recessive combo. The plan was simple. Breed my female Pale Gray to Nick's Electrostatic male (Ivory-Batik). The pair intended to produce double het babies that would be at least Matrix and, down the line, create a visual snake that could look similar to the "Sunset" or "Moca" T+Albino Borneo STP, but in the blood python species, opening the floodgates to other incredible Blood Python mutations without creating hybrids between Borneos and Bloods (Thats foul language around here).  

Despite multiple confirmed locks, the female failed to produce a clutch. So, what could go wrong? My theory is that I fed her too big of a rat towards the end of the breeding cycle. This could have messed up the follicle development by occupying the necessary space for egg growth at a critical stage. Other experienced keepers have documented a similar phenomenon in different species: when the female is too obese or eats a big meal right before they releases their follicles, the abdominal cavity decreases in usable space, as the female is already stretched to the max and the follicles do not have enough space to grow and develop fully, leading to either slugs or follicle reabsorption. 

A second possibility (and less dramatic) is that she wasn't ready. Whatever the case, we missed that clutch, which was a big disappointment for Nick and me. But worry not; we are back at it this year, and I have confirmed a successful lock so far as I write this article. Hopefully, we will see this project take off this year. 

Pale Gray and Electrostatic (Ivory-Batik)

The Ugly…

If you've been around long enough in the reptile space or if you paid attention to your biology class, the word Parthenogenesis may sound familiar. It is an asexual reproductive process in which a female produces a clutch or an embryo without male intervention (Sperm), resulting in the offspring having identical genotypes (not phenotypes) to the mother. 

Although uncommon, these things happen, and often, the results are less than ideal regarding clutch viability. That is precisely what happened with this clutch; let me tell you, it was a humbling experience—not only because I lost the entire clutch but also because this is a very special project for me—the Blackeye Blood Python project. 

The breeding process and parameters were identical to those of my other pairs. I introduced the female Blackeye to a gorgeous T+ Albino male in late September 2023 and continued pairing them until February 2024. Despite multiple introductions, the male never showed interest or courting activity, and I couldn't observe a solid lock from them. To my surprise, the female underwent a normal ovulation cycle, and two months later, she laid nine perfect-looking eggs. 

That was exciting news, but the joy did not last long; five eggs didn’t have strong vein formation, and seven days after oviposition, they went bad. I separated the other four eggs, which showed strong veins, but only one week later (a total of two weeks), a sixth egg died, leaving me with only three "good" ones. Against all odds, they went the long distance and completed the 65 days of incubation. I typically never "cut" eggs and let the babies emerge on their own, but after day 66 and based on the "disaster" this clutch had been, I decided to cut a small window to inspect the babies. Not knowing what to expect, the first two babies were "normal-eyed" babies, leaving me with one last possibility of hitting a black eye in the clutch. Finally, I cut the third egg, and a pair of beautiful jet-black eyes emerged from the shell. There it was, the elusive blackeye, but something didn't seem right....

On healthy eggs, you typically see a clear or very light yellow-colored albumen (egg white), but the albumen in these eggs was thick and very cloudy, with bile. At least 50 % of the bottom portion was solidified entirely into a white mass (resembling a pouched egg). The babies were alive but very unresponsive to stimuli, so I decided to pull them out of the egg as the conditions inside didn't look right. 

All babies had deformities, from misshaped jaws and small eyes to kinks. But nothing compared to the Blackeye baby. 

The number of deformities present in this baby was massive, reinforcing the parthenogenesis clutch idea. The baby had a fused abdomen and thorax with vital organs (heart and lungs) staying outside the body and many kinks throughout the body. It was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful snake in such a condition. But in all this Chaos, something fundamental was revealed. If this is an actual parthenogenesis clutch, then the baby was a "Super Blackeye.” (It carried two copies of the Blackeye mutation).  

This is huge. That means the Blackeye project has tremendous potential and proves its genetic inheritance mode. Incomplete-Dominant. The "Super" is an outstanding snake. The pattern seems busy and shattered, with jet-black eyes and a unique headstamp.  It is unfortunate that the baby had so many issues, but I will take the positive out of this disaster. We had a "preview " of what's ahead of us for this project, and now, more than ever, I'm fueled to push this project forward.  

I'm happy to report that the Blackeye female is doing great and gaining weight and should be ready to breed next year, as I wanted to give her a year off before a new breeding attempt.

Possible Super Blackeye.

And finally… the good

Thank you for reading the article thus far! I know it's been a long one, but we are almost finished.  

Many of you know that I’ve been working with Tracy on the Wrought Iron (WI) project. Last year, we produced a couple of amazing and, most importantly, "perfect" WI babies, including a T+Albino WI. 

Confirming that the WI was a viable and healthy morph was a huge first step, giving us the confidence to proceed to the next stage. 

For the second step, We decided to move forward with morphs. 

I couldn’t think of a better candidate to start this crazy journey than Matrix and Goldeneye. Both morphs have proved healthy, and no issues have been associated with the supers, so that was a no-brainer. The perfect candidate for this task was my 007 het T+ Albino female. 

I’m excited to share that the clutch was a MASSIVE success (Finally, some good news, haha). Nairobi (007) laid 12 good eggs with no slugs, and all made it full term. The results and odds were very impressive. Out of 12 eggs,  7 were WIs, of which 6 were combos. And some of them are "World First" (a badge of honor for any Snake Breeder). 

I’m working on an entire article about this subject, so you will have to wait (just a few more days) before you see the results, but I promise: If you didn’t think you needed a Wrought Iron in your life, this clutch will change your mind! 

But in the meantime, how about a teaser? 

             Wrought Iron-Matrix         T+ Albino Wrought Iron-Goldeneye

And there you have it—A Good, Bad, and Ugly season. 
I think sharing these experiences makes the journey a lot more fruitful, as many keepers tend to sweep the negative under the rug. But if we always do that, are we really being transparent? Of course, striving for the best outcome is the goal, but sharing the bad and the ugly benefits us more than just sharing our wins. It is an excellent reflective exercise that can be a reality check for many of us. 

Lastly, I wanted to thank all the hard-working keepers/breeders who keep pushing forward against all odds and difficulties. Your work is noticed and is a strong inspiration for many. The Blood Python community is growing stronger by the day, and many great things are ahead because of that. 

As Frank Ocean once said   -Work hard in silence; let your success be your noise-

Keep pushing the boundaries, guys!

-Ernesto Hinojosa