Dinker project proves out!!!

[Evan Jamison]

I can't believe it still, even after seeing them many times, but here's the story.....the whole story, with plenty of pics old and new.

Back in '04 we picked up a very high gold yearling female here locally for $90 (not sure why I remember the price...). We were told she was CB, and they had her male sibling who also looked very gold. With no interest in adding another normal male to the collection, we passed on him. We named the female Goldfinger.

In the 05/06 season she was bred to our lemon pastel Lemonardo, and we hatched some very nice looking animals. This was our very first clutch of morphs to hatch.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=31185

The "Normal Female" in this pic ended up being male when I double checked sexes later, and we decided to hold him back for our first official dinkin' project. He just stood out from the rest of the normals in the clutch.



...and a pic of him next to a sib a few months later.



We also held back two of the female pastels, and sold the rest of the clutch, some to active members here (you know who you are ).

In the 06/07 season, she was again bred to Lemonardo and again had some good looking babies. She once again produced a nice high gold female that we have held back, and we sold the rest of the clutch. She did however retain an egg last year, and after trying many other options, we dropped the money to have it surgically removed to ensure her health and reproductive future.

She bounced back very quickly after the surgery, and was back up to her breeding weight in just a few months. We felt comfortable breeding her again last season, and with enough morph projects going on, I decided to give her son a go with her. This has always been my little pet project, and although I dreamt of seeing something special hatch, I really only had expectations of getting some nice high gold normals.



Well she laid on 3-12



I cut the eggs on 5-3. I only made small cuts at first, and let them be. The next day I saw a glimpse of a head as it was pulling back in, and at first I thought I was seeing things......was that......nah it couldn't be. I thought I must be convincing myself that it was more than a normal looking hatchling BP head. Once again I let them be. On 5-5, after getting home from a concert at about midnight, I opened the egg box and saw this staring back at me.



I started yelling and jumping around, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! My blood was pumping as if I had just run a mile, and I had to tell some one!!!! I woke my wife up, and she was happy for me, but expectantly somewhat perturbed that it couldn't have waited until morning . I was all alone in my excitement for the rest of the night, 'cause I sure didn't sleep much. (I spent the next few hours going back down for some sneak peaks to pass the time )

Over the next week or so, and after cutting larger windows in the eggs, I took a million pictures as they began to emerge from the egg (with maybe 10 good ones... ). Every time I opened that incubator, I thought they must have changed back into normals by now somehow, things like this just don't happen to me.......slowly opens tub.....nope! Still awesome!!! We ended up with 1.2 visual homozygous and I couldn't be happier!!!





.....and now they have shed!!!





Now, we aren't exactly sure what we are dealing with. I thought there was going to be one obvious high gold post shed, but all the sibs seem really dark to me, darker than her normal offspring usually are. They also seemed very caramel-like right out of the egg, but seem to resemble hypos much more post-shed, though two of them seem much more gold than typical hypos. The head pattern on those two are dramatically reduced as well, and I'm not sure if it is linked to this trait or not. I am however very excited to see these guys in a few months!!!

Technically, we can't even be sure yet that the gold color in the parents has anything to do with this trait, or if it is completely independent. We have some sleuthing to do over the next couple seasons, and that's all part of the fun!!! However it is inherited, or whether it is compatible with lines of hypos or caramels or not, we have decided to name the project "Goldfinger" after Mom.

Opinions are welcome

-Evan

[Nate]

Awesome luck!! Just a beauty. Congrats to you man, You deserve it

[Friendsnotwar]

wow i would have been just as excited after seeing that head, it looked carmel to me as well, i was so stoked for you as i was reading down. They look great, can't believe they came from the same clutch

[sg1trogdor]

those are awesome i am soo freaking jealous. lol. good luck in the next few seasons.

[JASBALLS]

They look like caramel fires!! Holy Sheets!

[mischevious21]

OMG! Congradulations! I mean, holy ****! That is amazing!! I wonder what they are- that is so cool, I am so happy for you! And hey, you need a home for any of those baies, just let meknow and I'mm let you know if they prove out lol, j/p, but seriously that is just awsome!

[West Coast Jungle]

Gotta love the dinker project
Congrats, they are special looking, Good Times

[jkobylka]

man you really hit on that one!! Incredable! It looks 1/2 orange ghost 1/2 caramel to me. Need lots more pics!!!

Justin

[dr del]

Congratulations!! ,

That last post shed picture is just amazing.

I can't wait to see how they change as they age.


dr del

[joepythons]

Sweet Congrats