I agree that we don’t understand everything about the Motley-Stripe locus. And interactions with other mutations might not always be straightforward. Especially with Sunkissed, I think. There is no Motley allele yet in my Bantam line, and there cannot be. Yet there are a lot of irregular Stripes that look superficially like pinstripe Mots.
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What a bunch of cuties! I’m loving all the Amber beauties, too.
I also use tap water for the incubation medium. It’s also what we (and all of the animals) drink. a
Theoretically it’s supposed to really clean here since it’s run through a reverse osmosis purification system. I dunno. I do use sphagnum, partly for potential benefit to the eggs. There’s data behind it in other species.
I hope that you’ve figured out what the
Maybe. The water is a factor, an awful lot of variables contribute to feeding response. If you’re handling them more or less, if they’re in a different location, varying scent of the prey items because of their diet and/or storage…
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Agreed that we don’t fully understand Motley nor Stripe expression. It’s not just with Motley-Stripe pairings. Homozygous Motley has a ridiculous range of visual presentation. Homozygous Stripe also has a wide range, from long clean lines to Cubes to Sunspots to Vanishing.
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Great point about the variation of each by themselves!
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Here’s another odd thing I’ve noticed. I’ve been working with Stripes since I started breeding. Curiously, the ones who produce the cleanest, longest, “best” classic Stripe markings also tend to produce very nice, clean, separated, squared-off Cubes. What the heck is THAT about? Dunno. Just one more part of what keeps this fresh 
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You mentioned elsewhere that Red Coat was named too soon before its expression was fully understood. That goes for Stripe too. It’s hard to explain to novices trying to learn that Stripes don’t always have stripes. 
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Yes, and I see them all mislabeled a LOT. I see snakes that look like they absolutely HAVE to be motley tesseras labeled stripe, for example.
I do love the clean, long stripes and tidy cubes best of the variety of stripes by themselves. Luna seems to create cubes well, and Goldie seems to create the long, pretty lines. But I wonder if I paired them with different males if I’d get the variety you’ve mentioned @caryl.
I also love the interaction between sunkissed, stripe, and /or tessera. I’m a sucker for the spotted spine and the clean, patternless effect. I have several females I’m growing up right now that will get me closer to producing those, so I’m excited when that time comes.
Goldie and Luna are my only two girls producing anything right now, though, so I have a lot to learn and need many more years of observation under my belt before I feel like I understand it. But maybe, like @caryl and @deanaii, I will get those years and still not understand what’s going on!
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