Isnt the black dots in the white of a pied a form of paradoxing? And the morphs that cause high white animals wouldn’t these decrease the probability of replicating the dots? And if I’m not mistaken the cow mutation in retics start out all white and develop spots as they age. And in banana/ coral glow genes like mojave, black pastel, lesser and others decrease the amount of spots that develop.
8 Likes
Just saw her on Reddit the other day!! Truly a remarkable noodle!!! So pretty 
4 Likes
She was solid white as a baby, the grey specs developed over the first few weeks. Now they’re all black. They’re not slowing down any either. She gets a new spot everyday it seems like. But I’m not sure if paradox or not. We shall see soon enough though.
10 Likes
I love speckled Pieds like that. The speckles continue to develop on most Pieds throughout their lives, some are just more extreme. As far as I’ve seen it is not genetic but I would still put in the effort to attempt it.
13 Likes
I don’t know about this, which is why I was suggesting a single gene pied male to cross with, not a combo. My gut feeling is that it isn’t paradoxing because of how the spots appear and develop over tim, but of course I very likely could be wrong.
I’m not familiar with retics at all, but I looked up it up and it appears that the cow phenotype is caused by an interaction of two loci (Phantom and het for orange ghost stripe), neither of which has the speckling on its own. To me that supports the “Dalmatian hypothesis” that it’s genetic.
Once again, still could be very wrong here
7 Likes
This is probably the most pretty and interesting ball python I’ve ever seen, what kind of morph is this?
5 Likes
@chesterhf And you could definitely be right geneticist I am not lol. I agree I would use a single gene male as well. Eliminate all other variables. And I was just listing examples of speckling for comparison sake. I have had several people tell me before speckling in pieds was a form of paradox. Never made sense to me though.
4 Likes
The highly speckled animals are extremely rare. I’ve seen only a handful in the last 20 years and each has been from typical Pied pairings that I know of. Repeat pairings have been done and I don’t think any additional speckled animals have been reproduced.
As for morphs that cause high white in Pieds, I have seen some with no speckling and some with more than average. One of my Suma Pieds is becoming quite spotted but in my experience the highly speckled are a one-off.
6 Likes
That’s correct. Most start out all white unless Goldenchild is also in the cow. That can produce a hatchling with some faint yellow on the dorsal and sides of the snake. But some regular cows( Phantom het Orange Ghost Stripe) can also develop faint yellows that usually fade with age, and being a relatively new combo in retics, we’re still learning as to why this happens.
But all cows will develop the spots as they grow, but like @chesterhf mentioned, neither Phantom or HOGS have the spots on their own so it’s a combination of the 2 genes that make the freckles appear.
6 Likes
That’s amazing. I’ve seen freckles on pieds before but Ive never been aware of them developing so drastically over time.
@osbornereptiles from your experience with pieds, have you seen them develop like this overtime or have they been born with faint spots and they increase in size or develop more overtime?
4 Likes
I have a baby black pastel pied with a handful of freckles, but nothing like this. Wondering if any other genes are related…a decent % of the black pastels I searched browsed on MM had this paradoxing.
6 Likes
Wow I’ve never seen a pied like that, I hope that eventually we can prove it out to be a genetic combo to breed for.
3 Likes
She’s stunning 
2 Likes
She’s stunning!
4 Likes
Absolutely stunning. My guy needs a date with your girl to produce some super freckle offspring! Wow!
46 Likes