Blue Apple Herps
aka Matthew, PhD
Sort of a long story, but it's pretty cool if you ask me...
So I got VERY lucky with my lavender clutch this year. I bought a male hypo lavender 66% het stripe and a female lavender 66% het stripe and hypo as hatchlings in '05. I raised them up and this was their first year breeding. All was going well and the female had really swollen up. I figured she was going to lay at least 16 if not 20 eggs. Well she finally lays and decides to only lay 3. She wasn't egg bound or anything, so I have no idea why such a small clutch. I was pretty bummed about it. Then on top of that, one egg went bad early on.
She then double clutched and laid 12 eggs, but only one was fertile. So I had a total of 3 good eggs. I think, "well this sucks", I probably won't be able to prove if they're both het stripe and if the dam is het for hypo as with only 3 eggs the odds aren't very good to tell either way.
Well, they pipped last night and to my surprise I saw a pink nose poking out!! "A pink nose?!?" I thought, "Wow!! An opal!!". Turns out they're both het for amel! I was really stoked and at that point didn't care about the stripe and hypo part of it. The other egg's nose was just barely poking out, it was being very shy and I had no idea what it was other than a lavender something
Today I got home from work and poked inside and what did I see? A nearly patternless lavender stripe had crawled out! I couldn't believe it.
With only two eggs going to term I was able to prove them as both being het amel and het stripe. Who knows that the last lone egg of the 2nd clutch will bring. But I couldn't be more pumped. I figure the odds of them both being 66% het stripe with no known amel in their background (none of their litter mates were amel anything, so it was just floating around) and out of two eggs getting a stripe and an opal has to be one in a million.
Hopefully next year they'll be more cooperative and do things better their 2nd go around and I'll get a bigger clutch and hopefully an opal stripe or two!
Anyways, I'm really pumped. Never thought I'd have such luck with possible hets. Maybe it'll be some inspiration for others working with hets and what not. Sorry for the long rant, just needed to share it with people who would get it.
So I got VERY lucky with my lavender clutch this year. I bought a male hypo lavender 66% het stripe and a female lavender 66% het stripe and hypo as hatchlings in '05. I raised them up and this was their first year breeding. All was going well and the female had really swollen up. I figured she was going to lay at least 16 if not 20 eggs. Well she finally lays and decides to only lay 3. She wasn't egg bound or anything, so I have no idea why such a small clutch. I was pretty bummed about it. Then on top of that, one egg went bad early on.
She then double clutched and laid 12 eggs, but only one was fertile. So I had a total of 3 good eggs. I think, "well this sucks", I probably won't be able to prove if they're both het stripe and if the dam is het for hypo as with only 3 eggs the odds aren't very good to tell either way.
Well, they pipped last night and to my surprise I saw a pink nose poking out!! "A pink nose?!?" I thought, "Wow!! An opal!!". Turns out they're both het for amel! I was really stoked and at that point didn't care about the stripe and hypo part of it. The other egg's nose was just barely poking out, it was being very shy and I had no idea what it was other than a lavender something
Today I got home from work and poked inside and what did I see? A nearly patternless lavender stripe had crawled out! I couldn't believe it.
With only two eggs going to term I was able to prove them as both being het amel and het stripe. Who knows that the last lone egg of the 2nd clutch will bring. But I couldn't be more pumped. I figure the odds of them both being 66% het stripe with no known amel in their background (none of their litter mates were amel anything, so it was just floating around) and out of two eggs getting a stripe and an opal has to be one in a million.
Hopefully next year they'll be more cooperative and do things better their 2nd go around and I'll get a bigger clutch and hopefully an opal stripe or two!
Anyways, I'm really pumped. Never thought I'd have such luck with possible hets. Maybe it'll be some inspiration for others working with hets and what not. Sorry for the long rant, just needed to share it with people who would get it.
