April-July 2008

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7/29/08:  I was introduced to the coolest boat sport I have seen before; wake surfing.  I had never even heard of wake surfing and was very surprised to learn you could surf behind a boat on the wake wave.  It is so cool.  I did alright and was able to surf for a while after throwing the rope into the boat.  My buddy Matt and his family introduced me to it and he could follow the boat for a long time.  Matt's wife, Nicole, got a picture of me surfing, so I will post it below.  Good stuff.


Got some nice pics of Grevy, our zebra jungle carpet python and made a Zebra Jungle Carpet Python Page and linked from the Collection Page.  I also updated the Jungle Carpet and Jaguar Coastal Carpet Python pages on the Collection page as well.  Hope you like the new layout of the pages.  I will hopefully be able to get all the pages updated in a similar manner.

We are getting ready to do our annual giveaway again.  We will be releasing the details and a link from this page when it is ready to go.  Should be finished in the next day or two, so keep an eye out to win a nice python.  It will be similar to last years where you must answer a series of questions to be entered into a drawing.  Should be fun!

We will also be posting our second red jaguar carpet python clutch on the available page, which turned out nicely.  I also got pictures of this years PXP jungle carpet python clutch, although I don't think we will be selling any this year.  We had a small hatch with only 6 eggs that made it full term.  There are some nice ones in this clutch as well.  We may sell some down the road, but for now, we will be keeping them here.  I thought this year would be the best jungle carpet year yet, but with half of the PXP clutch crashing, Opals clutch crashing, and the younger females not taking, it was our smallest year yet.  I guess that is the way it goes and not all goes as plannned.  I will put up a couple pictures below.  I also put up one of our clutches of Cape York spotted pythons up on the available page, so if you are interested in a female CY, get your's quick.  These sold out very fast last year.  This year, we only hatched out one single male, so we will have females only that will be available.

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7/22/08:  Another fun clutch has landed; we finally got the eggs from our mojave female bred to our bumblebee, Nacho!  She gave us 6 good eggs.  I really wasn't going to breed this mojave girl this year, as she is only 18 months old, but she was feeding very well and was around 1400 g, so I figured she was more than ready.  This clutch confirms my original thoughts that she could sustain breeding.  Now the hard part, waiting for the eggs to hatch.  When you have morphs, it seems like it is extra hard to wait.  This clutch should be the most interesting ball python clutch of all, as there is a possibility of hatching normals, pastels, spiders, mojaves, pastaves (pastel mojaves), bumblebees (pastel spiders), spider mojaves, and mojavebees (pastel spider mojaves).  I am really hoping we get some good odds here.  It would be great to get a mojavebee, but I wouldn't mind a mojave spider or any other morph.  The long wait begins....

The centralian clutch is cooking well, although one egg has gone south.  I also have the 9 eggs from Nacho to a nice normal female, so that should be another fun one.  I hope we get better odds than the last bee clutch, which only yeilded a spider and 3 normals.  One nice thing is they all seem to be very interestingly patterned (see photo below).  I really like the way the spider looks, and we are planning on keeping him back to breed back to the dam to see if she has any hidden genetics going on.  She is a different looking ball as well.  I have always wondered if there was genetics there.  I will attach a poor picture of her as well, so you can see what I mean.  So, we are down to 3 clutches in my incubator and about the same number in Ben's incubator.  We slit a clutch from our pied to poss het pied and came up pied-less, so I guess she is probably not a het.  We weren't expecting much as she did not have the pied marker, which is usually indicative of het pieds.  The next 3 clutches are from proven het pieds and we are still expecting a clutch from the spider female bred to the pied as well.  I think Ben said there is a total of 17 eggs from pied to het pied, but that may have included the 4 we slit, so that means we should have as many as 8 pieds hatching in the next month or two.  I can't imagine how cool that will be, and we are certainly hoping for good odds there as well.   I will keep you all updated.

Odd clutch from Bee to "normal"	Close up of lone spider at hatching	Post-shed pics of the male spider	The big one on top is the dam	Nacho, after a recent shed	Mojave female that laid 6 eggs

I added some woma available pages so we can start selling our first womas.  They should turn out phenomenally well.  We are only putting up 10 or so, so they will be limited in numbers.  We have also included some updated pictures of our jaguar hatchlings from our first clutch, and they are ready to go.  The new pics turned out a bit yellowy because we had a yellowish cream background tub that cast a yellowish glow on the pictures, but I included them anyway.  Childrens python hatchlings are doing well and there are many that are ready to go.  I still have some picky hatchlings that are not wanting pinkies, but they will feed eventually.  They always do.  I was checking them out this morning, and they are looking very nice.  Such great reds in the VPI childrens line.  I will be holding a couple back for future breeders this year, as our adults are getting a bit old.  I may also have a couple Cape York spotted females for sale, as out of all of the hatchlings, I only got one male!  Not that I am complaining, but I was hoping for a few more males than one.  Anyway, keep an eye on the available page for updates soon.

We are also planning on attending the Daytona show this year, but just as spectators, although with the amount we are paying to go, we might as well have gotten a booth.  We both figured that attending for the first time should be unencumbered with a booth, so we can be free to see everything and meet some of the people we have only met in cyberspace.  I am really looking forward to it, and it should be a great time.  Feel free to give me or Ben a call if you are going to be there and want to meet up.  We can also ship ourselves any animals that you might want to pick up and we could deliver them in person. 

The zebra male shed, and I couldn't resist taking a couple more pictures.  He is stunning, and I can't wait to see how he develops.  He is eating very well, and even took down a rodent or two in the blue.  What a cool morph to be working with.  The supers are turing out very nice and are very interesting looking carpets.  You can see updated pictures of the super zebras on Pauls (new) website here.  I am still wondering whether they will turn yellow or stay the pale tan color that they are.  Hopefully Paul will keep the updates coming.  He also posted pictures on his site of the caramel zebra, which is phenomenal.  There is so much potential for this mutation! 

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7/2/08:  I took a video of the zebra male to give you a better view of this guy.  I still am shooting crap videos with an old cannon point and shoot digital camera, so these do the snake no justice.  He is just such a cool looking snake and I find myself just staring at him when I go in the herp room.  Well, our mojave female bred to the bee male should be popping any day now.  Man, this is a fun time of year.  Just getting ready to hit the shows this fall as well.  I am hoping to revamp the website a bit with a new banner and new pages such as a hall of fame page, so I will be contacing some of you guys for updated pictures of snakes that you bought from us.  This is a good chance to show off your AAR snakes and lizards.  I will also be putting up a videos page to keep our video collection a click away.  We have also updated the available page and will be adding more available animals soon.  Thanks for checking in and GET ADDICTED!

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6/30/08:  Alright, time for the big announcement; we just got a male zebra jungle carpet python from Paul Harris last week.  He is stunning and is doing very well here.  He has taken down 3 rat pups in the last week.  Some probably guessed this already with others posting pictures of their zebras on moreliapythons.com, but we are still excited to be posting pictures of our guy.  Nick Mutton was a great help in helping us get our zebra and it was great to work with Nick.  The zebra is a pure jungle carpet python morph (ie, NOT crossed with any other carpet python) and is a "co-dom" mutation with a paternless super.  I will put up a zebra page in the near future, so you can see more pictures as he matures.  He is a bit smaller than we would have hoped for, but all the zebras that came in were approximately the same size, so the race is on to produce the first in the US.  This batch is the first batch of zebras in the US, and this should be the start of something very good.  Our male is VERY nice, as we got first pick of all the zebras.  He is an '07, so we will see if we can get him close to breeding size this season.  I imagine that he will wait until '09-'10 breeding season, but we will see.  This is very fun for us to have a new project and look forward to seeing what he will produce.  Another exciting thing is that we don't know yet how the super will look, whether it will remain silver, turn bright yellow, or what will happen as they grow.  Hopefully Paul will keep us updated with the progress of the super zebra.  Well, without further adieu, here is our male Zebra, (name pending)!!!  GET ADDICTED!

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6/27/087:  I have added a NXS jaguar page (Napoleon and Starla babies) to our Available animals, so check it out if you are interested in getting a jaguar.  This was a great week!  We had our PXP jungles hatch out, and they look great.  We may be keeping those this year.  We also got Centralian (bredli) python eggs from one of our nice females bred to a striped male.  Pictures are included below.  A clutch of really interesting red jaguars hatched from breeding Napoleon to a very nice female coastal.  The babies are amazing right out of the egg!  They have this really cool blue wash to them that I really hope sticks around after they have shed once.  Can't wait to see how they look after a shed, so we can pick a couple out to hold back.  That, in my opinion, is one of the best things about this hobby; picking out the nicest babies that you produce and watch them develop and color up.  The total count for eggs that one of our balls bred to Nacho, our bumblebee, was 9 eggs, so we are happy with that result.  Hopefully we'll have a nice assortment of morphs.  Looks like a female Centralian Knob-tail (amyae) gecko may also be preparing to lay some eggs, so I am extremely excited to see some baby basketball heads (coined by my wife) poking out of some eggs in a couple months (although I still need to get the eggs first).  This is shaping out to be the best year ever!  We will have some exciting news to announce in the next few weeks, so keep posted.  Here are a few pictures until then.  GET ADDICTED!

This female had the most perfect coil I have ever seen!	Didn't get to take pics last year, so I took a few this year.	One more showing this perfect basket.	Nice pile of jaguars.  Look at all the variety!	The stragglers of the previous clutch.  Looking good!

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6/19/08:  Very exciting developments in the Carpet python world were revealed this week.  There is a super form of the Zebra morph Jungle Carpet python; Paul Harris (UKpythons.com) produced 2 patternless babies from a Zebra to Zebra pairing!  You can see the pictures here posted by our friend Nick Mutton.  They are both doing well and have shed and one has started eating.  The interesting question will be what colors will they develop.  There was a faint stripe as they were in the egg, but it is not as apparent after their first shed.  Will they turn out to be an all yellow carpet python, or will they retain the silvery color they have now?  I am very excited to find out.  This makes Zebra jungles just that much better.  Zebras are a "co-dom" morph of the jungle carpet python.  Paul has pictures here of his Zebras (he is the originator of the morph).  Their intricate pattern is very appealing and they have made some nice crosses with the jaguar morph as well.  Zebras should be a hot morph for many years to come. 

The 50% poss het for Granite Irian Jayas are ready to go.  You can see individual pictures of this years hatchlings for sale on the available page, or by clicking here.  They have started feeding aggressively on fuzzy mice and are looking very nice.  These were produced from our 100% het granite male, Kip, to a cool looking female Irian Jaya female.  We were a bit female heavy, so we will also be selling lone females.  That would be quite a score if a poss het pair proved out.  This is definitely the least expensive way to get into a granite project, and with how last years babies from this pair are turning out, they are worth the price we are asking if they turn out to be normal as well.  I wasn't the biggest fan of IJ's but these female holdbacks are really changing my mind.  One is posted in the last entry below, and you can see they are as nice as any IJ out there.  To be poss het granite to boot is a nice thing.  We will hopefully be proving out a couple of the females this year with Kip.  Next year we will probably spring for a male granite to help us prove these out a little more surely.  Irians are one of the smallest carpets, if not the smallest, so they are a nice way to go for someone who wants a nice carpet that stays relatively small.  Granites are a fairly new morph of Irian Jaya carpet python that is a recessive trait.  There have only been a handful of granites produced in the US, so this should be a stable morph for a long time. 

Our second clutch of Cape Yorks is hatching, and 3 little heads were poking out of the eggs.  Hopefully there will be a few males in this clutch, as the last clutch is all female.  I sure like these little blonde macs (the Australian name for Cape York spotteds) and am feeling very fortunate to have 2 clutches of these guys this year.  A lot of them are sold already, so if you are interested, better get your name in quick.  I am also hoping to trade a pair for a pair of pure stimsoni, the Stimsons python.  The Antaresia are a fun group of pythons that are small, easy to keep and breed, and are very nice to look at.  Someday we will have all of the Antaresia group.

More red morph and normal jaguars are hatching today from Napoleon to a very nice coastal female, so we are excited to see how they will turn out.  The first '08 jaguar clutch has shed and started to feed, so they will be available soon.  We should have a very nice selection of red jags, jags, red sibs, and normal sibs available.  Jaguars are a nice looking morph of the coastal carpet and prices are very affordable.  This is also a "co-dom" mutation, although the super form, a leucistic carpet, also appears to be a lethal mutation, so no lucies survive past a few days after hatching.  Carpet enthusiasts are hoping that someday a leucy will be produced through outcrossing and such, but up to this point, none have been produced.  The closest was a paradox leucy that was produced in Japan, which lived a few weeks.  We will see what happens in the future.

Our PXP jungles should also be hatching soon, although only about 5 eggs look good.  I sure hope they all hatch.  The Skunk and Deb babies are also feeding well and are about ready to go.  We will be taking pictures this week for the available page, so watch for those to appear soon.  Unfortunately, the clutch from Skunk and Opal crashed, so it looks like we will have to wait yet another year to see what will hatch from that pairing.  Our two holdback females also didn't feel like producing this year, as I thought they might, so our jungle year is a lot leaner than expected.  That is the way it goes sometimes.  Hopefully next year will be our bumpercrop year.  Jungles are definitely one of the most beautiful pythons out there and I never get sick of seeing baby jungles.  Well, honestly, I never get sick of seeing any baby pythons hatching.  Now I just need to get those knobtails to lay some eggs.

Another ball python clutch was laid this morning from a nice normal female bred to our Bumblebee, Nacho.  The first of his clutches is due to hatch in a couple weeks.  We let the female incubate this one, but that may have not been the best idea, as half her eggs have gone bad.  Our mojave female is also due to lay soon, and she was bred to Nacho as well.  It would be really cool to get a mojave bee from these two, as they are both very nice examples of their respective morphs.  The mojave female has been laying inverted and she looks very uncomfortable.  It is always fun to have morph females lay.  I sure wish our female pastels would have been a bit more eager to eat and produce eggs this year.  Can't wait to see if we will hatch a few bees this year.  I will definitely post an update this week.  We also have some mojave babies from this year that have hatched, and a few more clutches that will hatch soon.  Our pied project is also doing well this year, and we should have 5 clutches of eggs from our pied male to various females.  We are looking to hold back some female pieds for our pied projects, so hopefully we get a good amout of girls.  The pied and bumblebee morph are some of the most visually appealing morphs out there and I am happy to be working with them.

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6/1/08:  Hatching season is in full swing!  Our first clutch of womas is out, which turned out to be a lot darker than I anticipated.  I have since learned that that is how they start out, and with each shed get lighter.  They have shed out and have started to feed as well.  A couple pictures are included below.  It was quite a thrill to see the carrot head sticking out of the egg, and an even bigger thrill to see 7 out of 7 hatched out.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hatch them out after all the problems I hear people have with woma eggs, but I kept them a bit on the dry side and they did just fine.  It is nice to have that milestone, and I look forward to more to come.  Another clutch is very close to hatching, so picture of those will be forthcoming.  The third clutch that was laid went south, so unfortunately, the stunning red pair did not produce good eggs, but we look forward to next year.  Can't get enough of those bright orange heads and dark sunglasses.  Sure is a thrill to hatch out a new species, especially one that has been a dream for quite a while.  Major thanks goes out to Pete for hooking us up with such great womas.  If you are interested in any premium quality womas, let us know.  We will definitely have some of the best in the country. 

Another nice hatch was a clutch of Cape York spotted pythons.  These were from our larger female that we picked up late last year from Doug Kranich.  She kind of scattered them around the cage after laying, so I was worried they would all bomb, but I only lost 4 of the eggs in this clutch.  Another interesting thing is they all appear to be female, but this will need to be verified.  Can't complain about a high female ratio in a clutch.  Some have a nice reduced pattern with some nice striping.  A few will be staying here with us to see how they develop.  I should have kept some of last years babies, but they sold out so fast.  I imagine this year will be similar as we have already sold 4 pairs.  The next clutch from our smaller female is due to hatch in a week or two.  There are 12 good eggs still incubating from that clutch, so we should have a few more to sell.  They sure are great looking Antaresia.  Speaking of Antaresia, we also had both clutches of childrens pythons hatch out.  They are looking great and some have started to eat.  They should be ready to go soon.  Most of the babies from the younger female are nice and red, while there is more of a mix in the older girls offspring.  I think this is the year for holdbacks and we will be keeping a pair of childreni this year as well.  It is nice to get first pick!  I will put up individual pictures of all the animals for sale once they start feeding and have shed again. 

Our first jag clutch is out, as well as the sole surviving egg from our jungle jag clutch.  The eggs from the JJ clutch went bad pretty early into incubation, but the sole surviving hatchling made up for it by being a nice male jungle jag with a great reduced pattern.  The red jags look good, and we will have some pictures of those once they have all shed out.  Jag prices are a bit more reasonable now, so we do not expect to hold onto them very long.  Last years babies are turning out nicely and it looks like it is time for another photo shoot.  I am especially digging the twin red jaguar female that we held back.  She is turning out very nicely.  One of our other red jag holdbacks is getting really big and is looking good.  Napoleon Jr. continues to grow and is looking nicer than his namesake.  We have 2 more jag clutches that are a few weeks from hatching, so we should have a great selection.  One of these clutches is from Napoleon bred to our very nicely colored and patterned coastal female, and we are very excited to see what comes from that pairing.  Should be a good year for nice red morph jaguars. 

Another clutch of 50% possible het for granite Irian Jaya/West Papuan carpet pythons has also hatched.  They have started eating and a few have shed out for the first time.  It is always nice when they start eating before they shed out for the first time.  Man, they look great.  I have included a picture below of one of the female hatchlings next to a sibling from last year produced by the same pairing.  Needless to say, I am very happy how these snakes are turning out.  They are all so ravenous and are growing very quickly.  We may even be able to try and prove their genetics this coming season.  It would sure be nice to end up hatching some nice granites from Kip.  This is a very fun project and I am excited about these Irians.  We will likely be selling all of our 2008 offspring, so if you are looking for an inexpensive way to start your own granite project, get a deposit in quick, as these gals will not last long.  We also had a heavy female ratio in this clutch, so we should have a few single gals for sale as well.  If you have seen a granite or even pictures of a granite, then you will understand why I am so excited about this project.  The amazing beauty of these gals just adds an extra bonus to this project.  We kept back 6 females from last year, so we are hoping that we get our 3 het granites.

The jungles produced by Skunk and Deb have shed out and are starting to feed.  They should be ready to go.  We have some nice striped jungles from this clutch, and we are very pleased to say that there was a female among the striped offspring.  Most to date have been males.  Lucky Chris gets a striped female on his first try, but it took us 3 clutches to get something that resembles Skunk.  Let's just hope she colors up like him as well.  The clutch from Skunk to Opal will be hatching soon, and this is one of our most anticipated clutches of the year.  Unfortunately, many of the eggs from this clutch have gone bad, so we may be keeping most of these babies, at least for a while.  Our PXP clutch from JB and Lily is also a few weeks out, but like the Skunk/Opal eggs, many from this clutch have gone bad as well.  We should still have a couple PXPs from this year.  I just love that line, and a high percentage of the clutch turns out as nice or nicer than the parents.  I may need to hold back another one this year as well.  It is so hard to sell a nice jungle, but lucky for our customers, we can't keep them all.  We were hoping for a few more clutches of jungles, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen this year.  Oh well, they will be primed and ready to go next year.  We should have a few more cool breeders in the mix.  Good times ahead for jungle fans.  Well, that about does it for this update.  I am sure there is a lot I am missing, but I will catch up more later.  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures below, and I will work on getting more.  GET ADDICTED!

First carrot-top	Post-shed	Close-up shot	Pile of Cape Yorks	Another shot of the pile
An '08 PH granite	An '07 PH granite IJ	Nice dalmation Crested	Lesser platty getting big	Nachooooo!

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5/1/08:  Just got back from Singapore and had a great trip.  I have put up some pics on the Singapore zoo page here.  Had some great adventures chasing some wild herps on the grounds of the Singapore zoo, which was the best zoo I have ever visited.  Great stuff.  This was one of my favorite shots and favorite animals at the zoo.  I had a blast chasing clouded monitors and flying lizards around the zoo grounds as well.  Lots more pictures and details of my adventures at the link above. 


I came home to good eggs from Lilly and JB, so that is great news.  She is like clockwork, and this is her 5th consecutive clutch.  More PXPs on the way!  Our Skunk X Deb (SXD) eggs also hatched out while I was gone.  It seems like a much higher percentage are striped as compared with previous years. It is interesting to see the variation from the same pairing from year to year.  With the first clutch we were very anxious to see striped jungles, but there were very few in the clutch.  It was nice to see more in this clutch.  Hopefully they will take after their father.  We are hoping they will shed soon so we can get some good pictures up on the site.  We should be releasing them for sale after they take a few meals, but we have a few people who have made deposits on hatchlings from this clutch.  It is so nice to have snakes beginning to hatch.  More should be hatching out in the next few weeks, so the fun has begun.

We have a few jungles for sale to fund an exciting new project, so you can check out some PXP07 males for sale.  I won't say too much about our new project until it is in house, but we are stoked with anticipation for the day to arrive.  The sale includes some of our holdback jungle carpet pythons to get the funds together, so it will be sad to see them go.  I guess the new snake will make up for the snakes we have to sell.  Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for someone else, we can't keep all of them.  Stay tuned for more news on the new project.  Good stuff ahead.

Other than the jungle clutch, the other female Cape York laid her clutch.  It was pretty funny, as she had the main clutch wrapped in the main coils and two additional eggs coiled in her tail.  Interesting behavior, which I was able to capture on film.  The female woma from our reddest clutch has laid one egg so far, and I am hoping the rest are on their way soon.  It will be nice to have those eggs in the incubator.  We also got some eggs for the first time from our beautiful smaller female coastal bred to Napoleon, our red jaguar male.  I am excited to see the babies from that pairing!  She is very nicely colored and patterned, so the jags and sibs should be very nice.  We also received eggs from a female ball bred to our mojave male, so more mojaves on the way.  This is a great time of year.  Here are a couple pictures from this week.  GET ADDICTED!

Woma ready to lay	Don't let the last two go	Jungle jag looking good	Sweet striped PXP jungle

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4/13/08:  More eggs are here.  We now have 8 types of eggs incubating and 10 clutches laid so far and are still waiting on several more females.  Only the bredli are left as far as species we are waiting on.  New clutches include mojave to normal ball python, a jungle jag cross, some uncoiled and scattered eggs from a Cape York spotted female, a nice red woma pairing, and our second childrens python.  So far the season is shaping up nicely, and if the majority of the eggs hatch, we will be looking at a fantastic year.  We should have eggs hatching in a few weeks, so it will be nice to start up the hatchling season again.  Seeing baby reptiles hatch out is probably the most rewarding part of this hobby.  There is just not much better in herpetoculture than the thrill of seeing eggs hatch.

The new clutches from the spotted and woma females were left around the cage and the females did not coil around the eggs.  It was like an easter egg hunt through the cage to find all the eggs under the substrate.  I am a bit leary about their hatching potential, but hopefully at least some will make it all the way.  I think this is the first time I have gotten clutches of eggs where the females have not coiled around them.  It could be with the woma that she had recently finished when I discovered the eggs, as they were still a bit damp and soft, but the spotted female did not try at all to wrap her eggs.  She is a nervous female, so that may have played a role in her failure to coil the eggs, and I wasn't sure she was going to lay in the first place so I hadn't separated her out from the others.   This is the female we aquired as an adult from Doug Krannich and I was really hoping she would give us a clutch, as she is very nice and yellow, an all around great looking girl. 

I did get a few pics of the childrens in her nice coil around the eggs.  I also got to help out our nice yellow jungle jaguar female shed out, so got to see her new look.  It's great to see her nice new yellow skin over top of her dull in shed look.  She is turning out very nicely, and I can't wait to see what she produces in the future.  See pictures below of these events. 

Well, here is the tally so far for the serpents:
Womas, 2 clutches, 2-3 more on the way
Jungles, 1 clutch, 2-4 more on the way
Centralians, 2 clutches on the way
Jaguar coastals, 1 clutch, 2 more on the way
Jungle jaguar cross, 1 clutch
Cape York spotted pythons, 1 clutch, 1 on the way
Childrens pythons, 2 clutches
Irian jaya (het granite to normal female), 1 clutch
Ball pythons, 1 mojave clutch, around 12 more on the way (mojos, bumble and killer bees, pieds, and spider het pieds, pastels and spiders, whew!)
We also hope to have several knob-tail clutches this spring.  This will be a great year!  We will keep you posted on the progress of the eggs, hatchlings, and new clutches of eggs to come.  GET ADDICTED!

A peek at her new eggs	Tightly, perfectly coiled	In the process of shedding	An amazing new look

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