Hey all! I have been working a dinker project of my own for a bit now, and wanted to share some of the animals I’ve bought/produced out of this group. I’m not entirely sure if this is indeed a new mutation or a different expression of something we already have in the ball python world, but either way I’m excited to share it with everyone! I am merely continuing the project started by Megan over at Gearwork Exotics and decided to keep the name.
Incoming is a massive photo dump, so apologies in advance! I’m going to try to organize this as best possible for everyone’s sanity but I am only human and may make mistakes. I would love to hear y’all’s thoughts on the project and what you might think it could be or might be related to! A few theories myself and close friends have come up with include chocolate, red stripe, black head, mahogany, and stranger.
Credit: Gearwork Exotics - comparison of hellhound, hellhound hypo, and hypo
The following photos are of my founding hellhound male, Icarus/Ike. He is labeled as a hellhound black pastel hypo het pied. I purchased him from Megan in 2022, and he is a direct son of the original female from Ozzy, who was labeled as a dinker hypo het pied. I regrettably do not have photos of the original female at this time but I’ll be going digging across multiple drives in hopes I have it saved somewhere. In 2024 he produced a clutch of 6 eggs with my orange enchi hypo female, Juri, of which 5 hatched. I am planning on repeating this pairing, along with putting him to my GHI dh hypo pied female, Violet in the future, as well as working in various females of suspected possibilities for what hellhound may be. I am waiting for more genes to become available for testing before sending in a group of all of my hellhound animals for testing, hence why I am focused on breeding trials at this time.
Additionally, here is a photo of Mom during her quarantine. Just an enchi hypo as far as I am aware.
Next up, the babies! I have only released one hellhound hatchling this year, to a very close friend of mine. I am hoping to make more hellhounds available to the public in the coming years, after the wait-list is covered first. I have had some of these awesome peeps waiting since 2022 for a baby, hence why they’re being offered first picks.
Starting off, is what I believe to be the all gene animal from this pairing - black pastel, enchi, hellhound hypo. This is Alphard! He is the only hellhound baby I released and has been growing wonderfully.
Next up, we have Solaris. I believe him to be one short of his brother, likely enchi based on patterning, and compared to his father, black pastel seems unlikely. I have him labeled as enchi hellhound hypo. Apologies for his lack of photos, but he takes after mom quite a bit with a nervous temperament and handling is something I try to minimize with him unless it is choice based. He’s slowly gotten better with age, but still quite nervous.
Up next we have Hubble, the lone female of the clutch. I have her down as a hellhound hypo. I also have a comparison shot of her with an unrelated hypo hatchling.
Finally, there’s the two “normals” of the clutch - Minchir and Blue, the latter who has been chronicled in a post I made earlier this year about. Minchy is a black pastel hypo and Blue is a hypo.
Finally, here is a photo of Solaris, Blue, and Hubble all together! One chronic illness is no longer kicking me into the dirt I plan on getting photos of the entire clutch in my lightbox to share with everyone.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this massive post, and I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!
James
