How did this happen?
A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at a new clutch of hatching ball python eggs. The label read "Male LemonBlast x Female Butter." So, we were hoping to hatch out some Butter LemonBlasts, among other things, in this nice pairing. Out of 5 eggs in the clutch, the one that slit first was a Normal. Well, that's not too unexpected, so we began to cut the rest. The second egg was a complete surprise- a solid white snake with blue eyes! Blue eyed Lucys are still fairly rare- but should be impossible from this breeding! The 3rd and 4th eggs were the same- 2 more Lucys! By now, we knew this was a special clutch, but we were still unprepared for what came next... we cut the egg, peered inside to see... a PIEBALD? No, wait, look again- that's no pied. It has crazy side pattern, faded white in the colored parts, white eye stripes, and blue eyes with red pupils! What the heck is going on here? Tim looked back into the breeding records, and discovered that months earlier a very small Super Lesser male (Blue Eyed Lucy) had been introduced to the female, but at only 7 months old, no one thought anything of it. So might account for the 3 white snakes, but there should be no normals, and what's this new thing looking back up at us? It must be a Paradox Leucistic- an unexplained phenomenon that occurs every blue moon. Yet, all other Paradox Lucy's we've seen would still have a Butter pattern where the white wasn't expressed... Maybe it's something new after all? Time will tell, I suppose. Until then, we have a real trophy snake to admire as we wonder what it is...