Mojo Power

Jigsaw (Mojave Pinstripe)

Most of you well know that I am a big advocate of Mojaves. Mojaves are awesome. Mojaves are a great base morph, as well as a killer combination morph to work with.

Here we have some awesome critters that are all involved with Mojave.

The Snake Keeper were the first breeders to produce and prove out the Mojave in 2000, and it was thus named for the Mojave Desert here in California. I imagine it's due to the dusky coloration, but that may just be me putting an artsy spin on it. I've never really asked Dan and Colette why they named the morph the Mojave. Maybe next time I see them... I'd like to know.

Mojave Spider

Anyway, it seems like no matter what you combine it to, it makes things awesome. Granted, you may disagree awesomeness occurs when it is involved with the Leucistic Making genes, as everything turns out White.

I don't quite get how getting a solid white snake is somehow a bad thing, but I understand from a combination standpoint, it doesn't leave much to work with.

Super Pastel Mojave

So to fix it, I just plan my breedings accordingly, to avoid making more White Snakes as many people tend to poo-poo.

And so should you, if you care not to see that type of morph combination. But think of it this way... The magic that is Ball Python Morphs allows for so many different opportunities to mix new things, it really shouldn't be that much of a hindrance to not work in Mojave into everything.

YAY MOJAVE!

Have a great day, my friends.

Mystic versus Mojave

There are a lot of questions about Mystics versus Mojaves out there.
And I am going to say that I am not the formost expert on them at all. I only have a few, and some of them are much more odd to me than others.

But I am going to try to get this outlined for you all out there as a helpful tool.

Above, we have a Mystic. Note the golden tone, the average looking normalish look to it? Yeah, this one is going to be tough to describe.

I have noticed and heard many people mention that they look like Mojaves.

I can see where they are coming from, so lets make an attempt to discuss it.

Mystics have the floating alien heads and blushed out sides like Mojaves. They have the head pattern similar to Mojaves. Other than that? I don't see it.

The first thing to note between the two is the color.

Mystics look NORMAL.

Mojaves stand out like a sore thumb next to them, case in point the photo below. Mystic on the left, Mojave on the right.

The first thing about the difference in tone is that the Mojave is purple and grey. The yellows are muted, and the blushing is bright. The Mystic on the other hand, is standard in color, with typical golds and blacks. The patterns are similar, as well as the blushing location, but that is the end of it in terms of what they look like comparatively (other than being Ball Pythons, of course).

It is fascinating to think that these two morphs, bred together, produce a purplely white snake with grey eyes.

Who would have thunk it, right?

So I hope this helps in identifying your Mystics. I have a hard time with it sometimes, but as I always say... When in doubt, breed it out!

Have a great day, my friends.

Pretty White

I have always touted the glory of the leucistic complex morphs, the Lessers, the Mojaves, the Butters.. etc.

Pastel Lesser

And of course, most people love the wow factor of the white animals. Pieds, leucistics, and albinos all have that WOW that even normal people would love to see.

So of course, most of the popular morphs are those that actually have that Wow Factor, or can contribute to that Wow Factor.

Mojave Het Genetic Stripe

Pieds, Albinos, Leucistics are all goal snakes for most people who are beginning out breeding, because they are awesome even out of the egg.

I have to admit, making Albinos and seeing them pip is always a fun thing, due to the fact that you can immediately tell you have something new and different. There is no question as to what they are, and they are always a cool thing to have and see.

So of course, I had to go out of my way and add more WOW factor to the collection.

Welcome to the fold, Black Pastel Pied.

He is VERY high white, and apparently most of them hatch out this way. He even has white nostrils!

There is no coloration to him other than his head. His body is entirely white until his neck and head, and the white bleeds onto his nose as well.

I am super excited to have him in the collection, and I have to say that he is a complete jerk, so I know he'll be a good eater at least. He has already tried to bite me at least fifty times... even through his cup on the way home!

Black Pastel Pied

Gotta love the feisty ones...

Have a great day, my friends!

Last Crystal Clutch of the Year

Well, this Special Mystery Clutch wasn't so much of a Mystery after the hatching.

The answer for the question?

Pastel Super Mojave was the father yet again this year.

That is totally okay, since there was only one Special animal in the entire four egg clutch. (OUCH)

But it turns out to be a Pastel Crystal, that is less of an ouch.

BUT... She's a girl.

So now I am stuck with the problem of... should I keep her or should I sell her?

She hatched out with 2.1 Mojaves as well, all very nice looking ones to boot.

But of course, in a sea of dark colors, she stands out like a beacon.

And yes, Beacon... not Bacon....

Mmmmm Bacon.

I had all intentions of selling whatever came out of this clutch to pay for various and sundry wedding items that are needed, but... I am conflicted yet again with what to do specifically with this girl.

And tomorrow, I will share the photos of color change between the years. I haven't done that in a while, and with this girl and her older sister, I feel that I need to once again.

So there you go, folks.

Have a great day!

Clutch 39 and Mojave Combos (again)

Welcome to the world, Clutch 39! There are five eggs from my Special female to a Mystery male. This should be a fun clutch! I just need it to hatch without any problems... Fingers crossed!

And although I am trying to compile some photos for the sexing blog, I'm not quite there yet, so here are some pictures of a new pick-up and comparision.

Welcome to the fold, Jigsaw!

I really love Pinstripes with a solid stripe, and this gal has it all going on! Jigsaws are Mojave Pinstripes, and this girl has an extra genetic bonus of being Het Hypo as well.

She should be a great addition to the group.

And of course, I had to do my famous comparison photos...

Mojave Spider against the Mojave Pinstripe.. The colors are similar, but there is more yellow in the Spider combo than the Pinstripe combo. It's interesting to see the change within a genetic combination by changing pattern. I love pictures like this, and I hope you do too!

 

I managed to pick up another critter at Anahiem, a long awaited addition, but it is in shed, so we will have to wait for the unveil until after it sheds.

So tomorrows blog should be the sexing blog, and hopefully a few other things will be covered as well. 

Have a great day, my friends!

Crystal Special Mojave Complex

Alrighty.

All of the Special/Crystal/Mojave/Normals out of the last Crystal clutch have shed out, and I want to do another "How can you tell what it is" Blog.

So here we go!

In this photo, we have a Mojave, a Special, a Normal, and in front, the Crystal. 

Most people have a very hard time identifying a Special from a Normal.

The difference, at least with the Baker line that I am working with, is the color. 

They are BRIGHT.

Similar to that of a Vanilla or Fire coloration. 

I do not have a Vanilla to share with you to compare the colors, but it is the most similar morph to a Special that would hatch coloration wise as a baby.

Yes, it is easy-ish to tell what is normal and what isn't when you have comparisons.

Below, we have What plus What equals What!

Special in the back left, Mojave in the back right, and Crystal all washed out in the front.

Notice that the Special and the Mojave have the same color tones. Yellow and bright are the characteristics here.

And below, we have an older Crystal that is developing the nice orange and violet tones that they tend to get over time. 

I am falling in love with this girl, and I'm not sure what I should do about it.

(Shhhhh... Don't tell Joel)

Anyway, I hope the photos and visuals help more in what I know is a complicated identification for most.

I will have these kids at Anahiem, and if you are there and I am there, we can discuss it more in depth. Come on out and join the fun at the largest California Reptile Show of the year!!

www.NARBC.com

Have a fantastic day, my friends, and of course, if you have any questions, ask away!!!

Mojave..Spider...Pastel

Clutch 14 is out, and all 10 eggs were fantastically fine! My odds were good in terms of morphs, as there are no normals in the clutch, but I have to say, my sex odds had a little to be desired.

That's alright though.

Here are the males...

One Bumblebee, One Mojave Spider, 3 Mojaves, and a Pastel Mojave Spider...

And what about the girls?

A Spider, two Mojaves, and a Pastel Mojave Spider (who is of course, staying here)

I am in love. I really do like this combination... I look forward to seeing her grow up.

I am glad to have the opportunity to have a gal...

YAY for more SPIDERS!

Swimming in more Spiders, and I am alright with it!

The next clutch doesn't hatch out for another week, so I am lacking in topics somewhat.

Suggestions? Comments? Concerns?

What have I not touched on in a while?

What do you wanna see?

Let me know, and have a great day, my friends!

Clutches and How WONDERFUL!

I have to say that doing Mystery clutches has again baffled me. This clutch was SUPPOSED to be bred by my Mystic or my Spotnose. Somehow, this clutch ended up with two normals, a Pastel Mojave and a Mojave.

I have no idea what happened in this clutch.

Oh well.

And my Pied clutch hatched, this time with no mysteries!

I am loving my odds on this one.

2.2 Pieds, 1.2 Hets.

I can't be mad at that.

And they look awesome too!

Anyway, that was the snake weekend in terms of hatchings. I got to hang out with a few snake friends, have some snake conversations, but more than anything, I got to do a bucket list checkoff.

I saw Stevie Wonder in concert.

Not just him, but a few other people as well. It was a great time at the Hollywood Bowl, and I took a few pictures to share with everyone.

The notorious Hollywood Bowl. If you watch Looney Tunes, I believe several episodes of musical Bugs Bunny was based at this location.

Stevie Wonder himself... With Janelle Monae, who recently was nominated for a Grammy last year.

Here she is again.

This guy was cool, Rocky Dawuni... Reggae and lots of soul in this man.

The man of the hour... I love his work.

And the YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA) who performed with everyone on stage. It was very moving.. Very beautiful setup.

I had a great time, got a chance to relax... now back to SNAKES!

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutch 25: Crystals

 Clutch 25 is on the ground, and it is from my largest female Mojave. She is a fantastic animal, and gave me good eggs last year as well.

This year was no exception. 

Seven good eggs from her to a Special male.

So I can hopefully look forward to more Crystals in two months. Fingers crossed.

Seven crooked eggs that I can't seem to right up with this blog program. I'm sorry.

Don't strain your neck. 

Speaking of more Crystals, I have to say that the more I look around at pictures of the hatchling Mystic Potions, I am pretty darned sure that the "Crystal" that is darker is really just a darker Crystal. It's interesting the differences in color between the two siblings.

I can't wait to take some pictures of them after they shed. Should be interesting to see them together.

So there you go, my friends. The next clutch due to hatch is due the end of the week or so, so lets see what happens with that.

Have a great day!

Clutch #22 and babies!

Clutch #22 is on the ground, and I am a little annoyed with this one. This Spider girl is the one that gave me eggs last season and all went bad from my Queenbee clutch. 

She gave me five good eggs this season, but not without making the tub absolutely disgusting and laying in her own waste. And of course the eggs are in the waste as well. 

I got them pretty quickly, I think, so here we are. 

And I also have no idea what the heck are in these eggs. 

I bred this female thoughtlessly. 

She was a female that I was debating about giving a year off, so I never wrote on the tub what I put in with her. 

AT ALL.

So of all the Mystery clutches I have, this one is the biggest mystery.

 These eggs better survive...

You can kind of see where they were in liquids?

Yeah.. Not happy about that. 

Anyway, here is clutch #1 shed out!

Again, we had 1.1 Pastels, 1.1 Super Pastels, 1.0 Super Pastel Lesser.

They look good, eh?

I will be putting them up on the available page soon.

And Clutch #2 has completely hatched out.

I am not going to call what they all are, because I do want to make sure I'm sure. Shedding is required for this clutch, so that I don't mistake things for other things.

But I did get two female Crystal Thingies, 1.1 Mojaves and 2.0 Thingies.

The reason why I am not calling both of them Crystals (the pink one I am sure of) is because of the color... The one on the right is just much darker and I'm not sure how it will turn out after it sheds. I am hoping its a Mystic Potion, but I'm not completely convinced. And since this is my first hatching of the morph, I am not 100% sure.

The same is being said of the normal looking animals. So I will wait and call them when they hatch out for now. Caution is important for morphs like this.

What do you guys think?

Have a great day, my friends!

How could I forget???

Well, I'm sorry, my friends.

I didn't get around to doing my blog on Friday due to Finals and I failed you all in my lack of doing it, or even getting around to warning you all about it.

Shame on me.

But I also forgot another thing that I just recently found out.

I did not have my Mojave Spider in the Collection page.

How could I forget???

Well, because he is one of my Breeders and currently in with a gal pal, apparently I didn't account for him on the list that I wrote up of all the morphs I have.

And of course, I only have him right now, so that didn't help matters much.

He got lost in the shuffle, so to speak.. Poor little man.

And he is one of those animals that I really do enjoy looking at. He is so pretty!

Even without a flash, his colors shine thru. I should have taken some pictures with him and a Spider too...

Peek-a-boo!



Of course, after I typed that I should have taken some comparison shots, I actually went and did them.

Overactive Spider and shy Mojave Spider... What a crazy difference in color, huh?

And then I went and got the Bumblebee involved...  Also crazy how light he is compared to that of a Pastel Spider.

And then, like all crazy Heather Photo comparisons, I had to go out and get the Mojave and another Spider involved for the "This plus This equals This" photo.

So there you go, my friends.

Lots and lots of Mojave Spider pictures for your enjoyment.

And if you check, he actually is in the Collection page now too!

Have a great day, my friends!

Clutches 12 and 13

Egg Butt Puff realized, my friends. This is the female that had the puff a few days ago. She finally laid her eggs, and she didn't let me down, other than pushing her paper away from the bottom of the tub and pissing all over the place...

This female is a Het Pied female that I bred with my Pied male to get a few more pieds under my belt. Last year she gave me six eggs, this year seven! YAY for eggs!

They are nice and big and well veined, so here's to lots of Pieds in two months, my friends.

And later on that evening, I was doing my deep clean... I went thru and cleaned all the tubs, including a tub of a Mojave that was suspiciously underneath her hide (which I only provided due to the fact that she was a crappy eater without it). I moved it away when I saw her look like she was coiled around something...

And she was.

This gal was bred to a Mystic primarily, but also my Spotnose het VPI Axanthic male as well. We shall see what took, but there were only four large eggs in this clutch. I kinda hope for the Spot to be the father on this one...

We will see. These eggs are large enough to maybe house twins? Wishful thinking, but hey, I said it here, and if it actually happens... WOOHOOO!!!

So other than cleaning and dusting some of the racks, that is pretty much all I did this weekend. And study...

Yeah.

Can't wait to be done with that....

Anyway, to all of the Veterans out there, thank you so much for your service and dedication to our country. Let us remember the Fallen with respect and honor. Happy Memorial Day, my friends.