iHerp_Australia_-_May_-_June_2018

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Paradox albino carpet python. Image by
Ben Thompson.

The season before last, I was pipping a clutch from

one of my albino Darwins, when I came across an

animal that looked like it had shit on itself inside the

egg. Just then, a mate rang and I told him about it.

“Don’t do any more until I get there!” he said –

obviously he had guessed what it might be. When

he arrived we started going through the other eggs.

With mounting excitement we found a second and

then a third Paradox; three in the one clutch.

Christmas is my favourite time of year as you

never know what you are going to get when all the

eggs start hatching. Occasionally something

different crops up, and that’s what really keeps me

going.

The female that produced the clutch is a long-time

breeder that hatched in November 2007. She

doesn’t lay every year, and didn’t have any eggs the

year before the Paradox animals were produced, or

the year after (which was last year), but has had a

lot of progeny and never before thrown anything like

them. She was originally from Simon Stone’s line,

which is interesting, as Simon did produce at least

one Paradox albino Darwin. When I saw it in about

2007, it was already an adult, and had a few black

patches. The other interesting thing is that every

other clutch my female has produced has

comprised a total of 19-21 eggs, whereas the one

that included the Paradox animals was 30. I keep

careful records of my animals and there was no

difference in her weight.

The year the Paradox

animals came along was

the first time I had paired

my female with a het

albino Zebra male from

Dave Evans. I believe

the line came from down

south somewhere – there

is talk of someone down

there consistently pro-

ducing Paradox animals

from a couple of het

albinos. Unfortunately, I

subsequently lost the

male with myeloid leukaemia. When I took it to the

vet, he said it was the third snake he had seen with

the condition within a week.

My three Paradox snakes were all males. All had

nice markings, and they seemed to develop more

black as they aged. I sold the two that had smaller

blotches and kept one which is very heavily marked.

I’ve had a couple of serious offers for it, but I figured

there are so few around I would keep one. To be

honest, I didn’t think much of the Paradoxes at first,

but they have grown on me, particularly with the

evolution of the markings.

I intend to put mine (which is now 18 months old)

back over his mum next season. He will be the only

male I use with her, and I will also put him with a

couple of other female Darwins. If the mother lays, I

will hold back a couple of pairs of the progeny –

even if there are no visual markers – just to see if

they are some sort of ‘hets’, with a genetic

predisposition to producing Paradox animals.

The best Christmas present!

Neville Reibelt has been refining some beautiful lines of pythons for two decades,

but got an unexpected surprise a couple of years back.

‘I didn't think much of the

Paradoxes at first, but they

have grown on megrown on megrown on me....’

Right (slide show): the

markings have evolved

considerably over time

(more than one snake

shown). Images by

Neville Reibelt.