Happy Labor Day, everyone! Hope you’re all doing well and the holiday is treating you kindly!
Starting this thread as my first babies of the season begin to have their first sheds as a way to track their progress, and kicking us off is firstborn little guy Glimmer! His siblings are close behind, but as of right now he’s the only of the four from his clutch to shed.
His first shed absolutely brought out his contrast and some nice pops of yellow, and made the way his pattern/color sort of fades in and out towards the tail more noticable. At minimum he’s pastel mojave het ghost, but seeing that he has much more intense blushing than his brother who’s also a pastel mojave het ghost, I’m guessing this little guy is probably a super pastel mojave. I’d think perhaps a mojave pewter, but comparing to other mojave pewters on the website his head just seems way too light/blushed out, and I’d expect way more going on if he were a mojave sterling. What do you guys think?
He’s now been moved into his own digs, and he’ll get the week to settle in before we try our first feeding. Fingers crossed for a good appetite, and that his brothers and sister get their own posts in the thread here soon!
Happy Labor Day to you as well! Your baby’s greys and yellows are very pretty. You know I know next to nothing about BP morphs so I won’t even guess about whether or not he’s a mojave sterling. l will stick to saying that he’s handsome and I like him! Lovely to see your labors paying off so handsomely!
TYSM! Maybe I’m biased but I really do think he’s a stunning little guy regardless of genetics, and my heart feels SO full having the privilege to say I played a hand in the creation of him and his siblings.
I also know next to nothing about Ball Pythons, but that transition from grey to pink/white is beautiful. Do you think he’ll retain that into adulthood?
Thank you! Odds are he’ll likely “brown out”/get duller, at least little as a lot of ball pythons do into adulthood, though quality of his genetics have a hand in that and hopefully he’ll retain a good bit of his current color/contrast!
Here’s Blink! He looks so similar to his father as a baby, and I’m a bit surprised he ended up so grey/white without being visual ghost. I suspect he’ll get more grey like his dad over time.
And last but not least, Flicker! The color and contrast is so pretty on this little dude.
Morph IDs I’m certain on;
Flare - GHI Pastel Mojave het Ghost
Flicker - Pastel Mojave het Ghost
IDs I’m questioning
Glimmer - Super Pastel Mojave het Ghost
Blink - Super Pastel Cinnamon het Ghost
Glimmer is for sure a Pastel Mojave at minimum, but when compared to Flicker clearly has another gene at play. The intense blushing on the body and the back of the head implies another copy of the pastel gene, but the patterning and way it almost starts to fade out makes me think of how that occurs with some Pewter combos. Definitely not sterling, as that would have made him much more grey overall instead of hanging on to those nice contrasting blacks along the dorsal.
Meanwhile, Blink is more just wishful thinking, as I know he’s definitely Super Pastel Cinnamon just like his dad, but was hoping that he’d have Mojave as well. Otherwise, he’s just a copy of his dad but only het Ghost rather than visual. Difficult to really tell with how the sterling strips so much pattern, but based on other Mojave Sterlings listed in the past on MM, I’m beginning to lean towards him not being Mojave. When it’s present, the Mojave seems to cause the Sterling to retain a bit of that keyhole pattern and give them the Mojave eyes, neither of which he seems to have.
Any opinion or insight on those would be appreciated!
Now that everyone has shed and been separated, this evening they’ll hopefully take their first meals. I did attempt yesterday to see if Glimmer would take frozen, but of course he turned his nose up at it lol. We’ll try live this evening and hope he changes his tune.
Feeding day came and went, and only one decided to join the Clean Plate Club this week - Flicker takes the lead, while Blink, Flare, and Glimmer decided to go hungry for now. We’ll try again this upcoming Thursday/Friday, though I’m sure my kings aren’t complaining about the refusals since they get the leftovers
No worries! I’m always glad to lend an ID if I can
So here are my thoughts:
Glimmer: Super Pastel Mojave het Ghost, I wouldn’t say Sterling or Pewter because the alienheads are too bold and prominent and there wouldn’t be much if any black near the back.
Blink: GHI Mojave Sterling het Ghost. I wouldn’t say just Sterling because Sterlings still have some patterning and visible alienheads.
@cmsreptiles@armiyana TYSM for your input! Always helpful getting a second opinion; I wouldn’t have thought Blink was GHI, but you both seem to agree he is! Is it because of how his pattern is more or less nonexistent, even though there is some of the stripey pattern near his neck?
I saw that when looking at examples on MM, I guess what might have thrown me is that his dad looked almost identical as a baby with nearly no pattern, but even he does actually have a few spots where you can see faint impressions of his alienheads that became more prominent down the line.
Opp yes! Pastel. I was pre-caffination. So brain no work gud.
As far as the GHI goes …
It may just be waiting to see how the color comes in over the next couple of sheds. Pewters will change a lot in the first sheds.
I do have a similar thing happening in a hatchling that is lesser pewter sandblast. Where the markings become more of a wobbly line instead of the distorted alien heads. The only difference between them and a sibling that looked almost identical except for the lack of sandblast.
There’s a chance you can have some great expressions on the sterling mojo. But GHI would be the most likely addition to smudging things the way they are.
A couple more sheds and new member of the clean plate club!
Blink decided to join Flicker and both ate for me on Thursday, while Glimmer and Flare held out again. We’re gonna try to offer them mouse hoppers to see if those are more enticing for them than the rat fuzzies. A few from clutch 2 shed out finally, so they’ll get offered food this week as well!
Two of the shedders were the larger pastels, managed a quick snap of all 3 pastel siblings together;
The size difference is incredible. As you can see, the interesting white dots down the spine did go away on the two that shed, so it must just be some dryness with their baby sheds causing it. Just interesting that it only appeared on the pastels, but they may have just been the easiest to see it on. The siblings also browned out a good bit in their first sheds. I would have expected some better color retention with how bright the siblings from the first clutch are with their pastel expression, but alas! If/when dad is paired again in the future, it certainly won’t be for the quality of pastel.
This little guy is a holdout on even going into blue, but he’s doing good and starting to put on grams - we hit 20 this week!
He’s thankfully become much more lively, I do think I want to get a few more good meals in him before I back off the assist feedings and really try to push him to eat on his own. I got a pink thawing now and I’ll give him a little time to take it on his own if he will, but if not we’ll get another meal in him today either way. Really hoping he gets around to having his first shed soon.
And finally, one of the pewters also shed! It was the first of the three to hatch of course, and a quick recheck confirms he’s absolutely male lol. Pretty little dude, has these really subtle orange undertones that came in with this first shed.
