$10,000

Is the asking price for this snake! This might be the most expensive animal I have ever held. She is for sale at Repticon, Orlando, by Ballroom Pythons.

Yikes!

Oh, the rest of the show. I saw a cool lizard called a Gargoyle Gecko that could jump on command. There were lots of lizards, tons of balls and boas, and milksnakes, interestingly, seemed to dominate the coubrids. Some kings, Calis and mountains, some corns, but nothing unusual, and a very wide variety of milks. Lots of spiders and frogs and scorpions and salamanders.

I bought three big hides for my new cages, if they ever get here. I had Maizey model them. I told her, if you're going to starve yourself, you may as well be a model. (Refused her mouse last night for the first time since November...)

So, back to the Ball- I think this morph is very, very new and there are only a couple of these. Calico. She was very sweet. Aren't they all? Why did the guy let me hold her?? Obviously, I wasn't going to be able to buy her. Still- I appreciated it.

A vendor had a snake stolen while we were there. Nice.

Saw Jake the Snake and his giant python. Woo hoo. He didn't seem really into it.

The guy I bought Zee from had a bunch of WC Viper Boas ranging from very small to I don't know, 200 grams? How big do they get? He said they were eating great, but probably just because of their hideous attitudes, and he was selling them at a great price. They were sort of cool looking. They looked venomous and angry. The younger ones were pretty and striped, the older ones were flat muddy black. But still cool.

Nanci

The whole Ball Python market is just out of hand IMO.
It's sjut sankes
And yes Chris, a royalty check is on the way!

I would pay £100 tops for that "calico"... Theres only a few because it is NOT proven recessive or co-dominant trait. Its just an oddball with no real potential to mix into other morphs. We have piebals to make royals have white patches!

Sounds like a cool show Nanci. I would have jumped at the chance of vipers (which btw max out at around 3ft). Any more pictures?

No more pics...I bet you could trade Hogwiena for some VBs, though, when you come to visit Dallas!

What's the difference between pied and calico?

Nanci

LOL I doubt I'd get her on the plane

Calico is only recognised as a genetic trait in reticulated pythons. As they get older, white speckling appears on their sides and sometimes on their backs. You can't tell which babies are going to be calico though, it takes a long time to develop. It was thought only males were able to carry this gene but NERD proved it recessive in females a few years ago.

Piebald is a proven recessive mutation in royal pythons. So they are either visuals or het for that trait. It is considered a pattern and colour mutation as it removes both pigment and pattern in patches or sometimes the whole body of the snake will be white, with a normal coloured head. Or you can get very low white pieds with insane patterns and only one or two small patches of pure white. No two pieds are the same. Its a highly sought after morph in the ball world and still too expensive for me

Some of the nicer combinations are pied albino (recessive), pied pastel/super pastel (co dominant) pied spider (co-dominant) etc etc..

Heres pictures of an extreme calico retic and evenly patterned piebald royal.

Both are really cool!

Nanci

I'm a pied fan... Calicos are too messy and unpredicatable