I know everyone here can appreciate just how stoked I am today! So a little run down, this year I had paired Fleur who is conda dh albino & axanthic with Neville dh albino & axanthic. They were together for 2.5 months roundabouts. I did not witness any locks and Neville in general seemed rather meh about courting his lady. So after no noticeable progress and no signs of gravidness (is that a word?) I separated them and gave Fleur a 3 week break. She seemed to have some ovulation related swelling again so I decided I would pair her with Hufflepuff conda het albino instead. He locked twice that I saw and she quickly started showing signs of being gravid. She laid 11 beautiful eggs, though one went bad a couple weeks ago unfortunately. I have assumed that Hufflepuff is the sire, that seems most likely right? So the first baby pipped 7/11 at 54 days exactly. Picture tax!
I got home from work this afternoon and of course the first thing I have to do is check on the babies. Y’all, my mind was blown I was not expecting this. There lies an axanthic! My first axanthic, that I produced!
So now I have the mystery of whether Neville got the job done and it just took a while for Fleur to produce eggs or is Hufflepuff actually dh snow?! I don’t have any other snakes with axanthic so the only thing to do is pair Fleur and Hufflepuff again next year.
Now the surprise! After I got done gawking at that little cutie I looked down and noticed something quite odd with another egg. There’s two heads!
Twins! Or maybe a two-head but hopefully twins! Oh my goodness I am so over the moon right now I can’t even explain it. I have been running around like a headless chicken because there was something I was supposed to do but I’ve completely forgotten what that was
That’s awesome on both counts! There’s also a chance, though small, that you could hit a snow or yeti, which would be a nice bonus on an already amazing clutch. If, by chance, the double head egg is a double headed snake, it will likely need help getting out of the egg, so cutting the spot in between the two pips would be a good idea.
Thank you for the recommendation I went ahead and did that just now. I’m pretty sure they are twins but not 100% yet as I didn’t want to disturb them too much. I also discovered that there is a second axanthic conda! It was hiding in the substrate so I didn’t see it the first time. There is one egg left to pip and although it would be incredible if that were a snow I feel that’s exceedingly unlikely. But that’s okay I am so very happy with the outcome I did get, it’s so much better than I was anticipating. Now they need to all come out so I can get more pictures!
It has almost no head stamp but I can see some faded pattern farther down. Super weird conda? Some other abnormality? I have no clue but I’m really excited to see it’s whole body. Come on baby! It is unbelievably difficult to resist peeking in on them non stop.
For added cuteness here is a baby pile!
They are taking so long. The weird chocolate one is looking real cool and im pretty sure the others are twins. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some pictures for you guys!
@ghsaltie Hey Erin! I really hope there are twins and not a 2 headed baby! I am so excited and happy for you and I really want to see the little dark headed one too! I love it when great things happen to people!
The final count is 7.4 and unfortunately both axanthics are male so I won’t be keeping either but it is still an incredible surprise and I am very happy with this clutch.
Now for the photo spam! I really don’t know what to think of this little dude. He is so chocolatey! I wish you all could see him in person but hopefully pictures can suffice. He has beautiful purple and red hues on his side, his belly is kind of a grey/blue rather than black and he does have a very faint conda pattern that is barely visible. Needless to say he isn’t going anywhere (I don’t know how to do the multiple pics in one so sorry!)
And last but not least, twins A and B. They are both little girls and as I expected very small at 3.9 and 3.2g. I’ve had that small before but these two are very obviously not having a good start. Twin B is also quite lethargic. I’m worried about these two and I think I’m going to leave them in the incubator a little longer so I can make sure they are staying warm.
@ghsaltie ! Erin you have a whirlwind of babies there! ALL of those babies are winners in my book! I just pray the twins survive so keep those little critters warm! I hope they don’t have any problems eating!
But the chocolate baby is a little wonder! I am so glad you are keeping the little critter! There is almost an iridescence coming from that little guy! I am so very happy for you Erin! Congratulations!
That baby in the middle right above the chocolately one looks like its wearing leopard print! I’m not well versed in hoggies, so I assume thats a normal? But looks like so many tiny spots on one snake!
Definitely a factor. I am suspicious though that they might have a very minimal expression of whatever is going on with chocolate dude. Their head stamps are not as extreme but definitely different from the other normals.
(I don’t know how to do the multiple pics in one so sorry!)
