- On my quest to produce a purple snake,
we unexpectedly have this purplish looking animal
which is of a mystery gene.
Will we ever get to the bottom
of what this mystery gene is?
Today, we're gonna try to find out.
It's another exciting clutch.
One of the most exciting clutches
that I've had for the entire year happens to be the mama,
what we call the mystery ball python.
Look at her, she is absolutely crazy.
And she laid eggs all over the place.
We gotta get these eggs outta here.
Look at these beautiful pearly white.
She was bred to a mystery male.
So this should really be the clutch
that starts to tell us what the heck
is a mystery ball python.
Let's go ahead and pull all these eggs out.
Looks like mama's done,
but she didn't coil around them or anything.
So I'm gonna have to definitely candle these eggs.
Let's see what's going on.
Again, look at how beautiful mama is right there.
That is just, oh, she was around one egg right there.
Look at that.
But look at how incredible she is.
Again, no idea what the genetics are behind this animal.
Later in the vlog, we're gonna actually cut the clutch.
So you're gonna find out with me at the end of the vlog.
So make sure you guys stick around.
Two, four, six, seven beautiful eggs.
Let's get 'em over to the incubator. (air whooshing loudly)
I always say that there's so many
anticipated clutches of the year.
This may be the most anticipated.
Mystery to mystery.
It's the only mystery ball python male
I bred to anything but a normal.
So this clutch, who knows what's gonna be inside it.
No clue what's gonna happen, but it's definitely exciting.
Day 57, you guys are gonna find out
what mystery to mystery ball pythons actually look like.
To explain the origins of the mystery animal,
it was actually this pinstripe here, the mom to the clutch.
Now it was just a normal pinstripe
that wasn't bred to anything too dramatic.
So it's kind of surprising that something hatched out.
Again, a normal pinstripe.
And the dad was this black pewter here
which is a pastel and a black pastel.
Nothing too crazy.
So what I should have got is lemon blast, pastel,
black pastel, pinstripe, and then combinations thereof.
But interestingly enough,
this female was actually produced in that clutch.
And I thought that doesn't make sense.
Now it could be a pastel,
a black pastel, a pinstripe for sure.
But typically, you wouldn't have this lack of pattern.
Now we have a little bit of striping on this animal too,
which is a little bit unusual too.
Something you wouldn't see.
So I ended up raising this female up, breeding her,
thinking what could possibly happen.
But before I even bred her for the first time,
the female produced this actually the following year,
which, again is even a more interesting animal
because it looked like there was probably
black pastel in that adult female.
This looks like there's not black pastel.
But why is it yellow with no pattern?
Again, it should just be a pinstripe and maybe a pastel
which would be a lemon blast,
which would have all kinds of patterns. But in the meantime,
I produced this weird yellow looking snake.
So the mystery just continued to get further and further.
Then the first year that I actually bred the mystery female,
I produced some really unusual animals.
There was like seven eggs in the clutch,
seven babies hatch and all seven babies
were radically different looking.
This was one of 'em, which again,
looks like it has black pastel,
looks like it has pastel,
and it definitely has some pinstripe.
But it doesn't look like a normal animal by any stretch.
Then we had this male that I bred this year
from that same clutch, that actually is like a lemon blast.
It has these really wide,
almost like jaguar type look to it.
Again, something was really interesting.
As a baby, raised it up.
Just continues to add to this mystery
that continues to grow.
- Staying over here. - On the ground, right?
- [Jay] I'm not saying over here.
- Come on over, come on over.
- No, I'm not- - Can you guys,
can you give me some box with a lid.
- Paper towel.
- Give me whatever. - That's smart.
- Just in case it gets away
from me- - Paper towel.
- And I have to like do something.
No. - No!
- No?
- Not a fly water.
(hand claps loudly)
- Ready.
- So, unfortunately, our big goliath bird-eating tarantula
passed away.
When it came in, it actually wasn't doing well
from the beginning.
So Jay (mellow drum roll music)
(bell dings softly) did me a favor
and actually bought me even a larger birdeater.
We're about to see if this one's a little bit more mellow.
The last one was super fast.
Oh, this a big tub.
- That's a big- - All right, ready?
(Jay and Mike laugh softly)
Ready? - No.
- [Jay] No, we're not ready.
- Oh, it's so hairy, it's so hairy.
- [Brian] It's so big.
Look how big those legs are.
- No, not even- - Oh God.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Don't let it out, don't let it out!
- Mike, Mike, hold this.
This is by far the dumbest decision we made.
- Look at this thing, look at it.
It's so cool, it's so mellow.
And then the last male that I used to breed this year
was actually this animal here.
Again, should just be a lemon blast,
a pastel and a pinstripe.
This certainly isn't a normal lemon blast by a long shot.
I'm not even sure what's going on with this animal.
It was really interesting to see
all the variety that hatched out in the clutch.
Again, the most mysterious thing
that I've done ever in my breeding life, for sure.
And guess what, it's time to cut that clutch of eggs.
And now back to the mystery eggs that are hatching.
Again, this animal here is just a solid
lavender type of snake.
You know, purple, you guys know I love purple snakes.
This is definitely a lavenderish type snake.
This one here has a little bit of pattern to it.
Again, a silverish lavender snake
with a little bit of pattern.
And then this one is basically
like a gray snake with quite a bit of pattern.
Now, interestingly enough, we still have a few eggs
that we can cut and see what's inside of it.
But this is not the results I was expecting at all.
Don't know what the heck is going on.
Neither of the parents were purple.
Neither of the parents were this color.
I don't know what's going on with this mystery gene.
We have two animals that are poking its head out.
One animal that has split the egg.
And one egg that hasn't even cut.
So let's go ahead and cut these eggs
and figure out what in the world is going on.
I have a feeling this mystery
is just getting deeper and deeper.
I thought I was gonna solve it this year.
And in actuality, it's getting more bizarre.
So let's see what's inside this egg right here.
Again, the head is already out,
so I can just basically cut right like this.
No problem.
And see what's inside here.
Again, what do we have?
A solid purplish snake here, guys.
What in the world is going on?
No pattern on that one at all.
Just like this animal here
that has a little bit of a actual paradoxing on it.
Pretty interesting.
But I have never hatched out a solid snake like that.
What is this gene?
I don't know.
This one was also pipped out.
So we can cut this one.
See what's inside here.
And now, like I said, I mean, I love,
I wish I knew it was going on
because the problem with this type of situation
is that I can't even really sell 'em.
Now, this is a purple snake, but look at it.
It's got the striping on it.
So it's got some striping on it.
Almost looks like a super stripe type of thing but purple.
Purple super stripe.
I don't know why.
And again, these snakes popped out of just normal breedings.
I mean, there was nothing fancy.
This isn't like a five or six gene animal, that I know of.
Should actually be only a two,
maybe three gene animal at best.
And it's just crazy to see what's going on.
So let's go ahead.
We can see the first snake in here.
I can see its head's piping out right now.
That doesn't look normal.
Maybe this will start to tell us something.
Let's see inside of this egg.
And then maybe this will give us
an insight into what's going on.
Not really.
I mean, it looks really kind of like
a really pretty pastel ball python,
which is interesting.
Again, I don't even know what's going on.
This is the last egg here.
That's not even pipped.
Ooh, I take that back.
There is a slice in this egg right now
but I don't know what the animal is in here.
So let's go ahead and take a look at this.
And just see if we can start to figure out anything.
Any clues for me, it would be absolutely amazing.
But again, what do we have,
a solid purple snake with a little bit of striping on it.
So what is going on here?
We definitely have a brand new gene
that has never been produced before.
We just don't know exactly what that gene is
and why it's reacting to animals like this.
Wiping out patterns, causing purplish snakes.
I don't know what's going on,
but they are absolutely stunning animals.
I am so excited about this.
This may take me another four or five years.
Now, remember, we've done mystery to normals.
This was mystery to mystery.
So I don't know what's going on.
I'm gonna let these guys hatch out.
You guys are gonna see 'em here in a little bit.
After they hatch out, we'll let 'em shed out.
You'll see 'em after their shed as well.
Wow, this clutch blew my mind.
Not at all knowing what's going on.
So let me know in the comments
what you guys think might be going on.
And I'll let you guys see these animals
when they hatch out here just in a minute.
So again, wild combination, even more so.
Again, this was another animal from the mystery as well,
a lot like the last one that I showed you,
that's just kind of all yellow with hardly any pattern.
And then for this clutch to actually hatch purplish snakes
with no patterns was really wild.
I don't have any clue what's going on.
We're getting animals from silver to purple
to solid yellow, all kinds of stuff.
This mystery continues to go on.
And all I can do is I know that it's linked back
to at least one female.
And while those babies are hatching out,
which would be out in the next day or two,
I want to show you one last animal
that is, again, similar, but a little bit different
that we hatched out from the mystery line.
This one doesn't seem to have any freckling at all.
Still has a very interesting head pattern to it.
But again, what is going on?
Definitely some sort of gene hidden in that pinstripe.
And I think that I have to just somehow figure it out.
Hopefully when this clutch hatches out
and some of the mysteries to normals hatch out this year,
I'll have a better take on it.
And eventually, we can isolate that gene
and find out and repeat the actual process
every single time.
So we know what's going on,
rather than hatching stuff going, I have no idea what's up.
Then if you didn't see yesterday's video,
we actually hatched these animals outright here.
And this was actually a normal bred to a mystery male.
And every single animal in the clutch,
10 eggs in the clutch,
every single animal hatched out pinstripe.
The odds of that happening are very, very slim.
So is there a chance that the mystery
could be like some sort of super for a pinstripe
or is there something else going on?
And we definitely see some animals in here
that have a lot more freckling and interesting pattern.
I mean, this is an absolute ripper.
And certainly doesn't look like a normal pinstripe.
And there's a bunch of them in here
that are just very unusual.
So we're starting to unlock it.
But the thing that I think is really interesting,
the fact that every single animal is a pinstripe
including the mystery clutch that we cut today.
Every single animal in there was a pinstripe too.
There is something strange going on.
Now what are we gonna do?
- [Jay] I have no idea how we gonna get it?
- [Mike] You're the one that let it out.
- [Jay] Grab it with your hand.
Yeah, there you go. - Oh.
- Put your hand right in front of it
and just let it walk right on you.
Let it walk on you.
- I'm afraid.
- [Jay] Don't, let it walk on you, don't be, don't be.
- [Noah] Dad, you got it, dad.
- [Mike] Wait, it's coming this way.
- [Noah] Dad, dad, get it in your hand.
- Slowly, slowly. - He's so chill.
You passed though.
- [Brian] I can't do it, I can't do it.
- Dad.
- [Jay] Oh my. - [Noah] The kind of help.
- This is good, it's mellow.
It's mellow compared to the last one.
- Do you want the glove? - You're letting it go.
- Oh yeah, let me get a glove, let me get a glove.
- [Jay] The other glove.
- Whoa. (Jay exclaims loudly)
- And Des, what are you doing?
You can't run.
- [Noah] Dad, oh man, dad, no.
- Give me the- - This guy.
- [Jay] The tub.
- [Noah] Dad, you can't let it go.
- Okay, okay.
Go, go, go, go, go, go, okay, go.
Actually, I take back what I just said
because there was this one animal that turned out
that was not a pinstripe from the clutch
but they're all hatched out now.
This is something that I would've expected to produce.
This is what kind of looks like a black pastel,
pastel and a pinstripe.
So it's basically what they call a pewter blast.
So that's kind of similar.
It's a little bit different.
But then look at this.
One, two, three, four, five purplish silvery snakes.
No idea what there's going on.
Like I said, I had been producing yellow snakes
that were patternless,
now I'm producing purply silver snakes
that are patternless with just a little bit
of striping on some.
See a little dorsal striping here,
a little dorsal striping here.
And then some that literally have no pattern whatsoever,
except on just on their head.
Very interesting to see what's happening.
So what I'm gonna do,
is I'm gonna get these guys set up today
and show you these guys after they shed out
just to see if there's any different thing going on there.
Wow, I tell you what this is absolutely incredible.
Every single year that goes by, the mystery deepens.
But nevertheless, isn't it amazing
that I'm on a quest to produce purple snake
and then just out of nowhere by accident
I produce a bunch of really cool lavender purple snakes?
My legacy in ball pythons really started with pinstripes
back in the late '90s when I first produced them.
And really, that started my explosion
into the ball python world.
Wouldn't it be amazing that 20 something years later
from the exact same gene,
that maybe there's a new legacy starting
with a new mystery gene that I'm trying to figure out?
Again, it may take me another couple years
to nail this down, but there's no doubt
it's very intriguing and interesting gene.
And I can't wait 'til these babies shed out
so we can see what they look like. Whoa!
(all exclaim loudly)
- [Brian] That was my fault.
- [Mike] Put the lid on it, put the lid on it.
- [Brian] Okay, get the lid on.
- [Jay] Put the lid.
- Wow, that went awesome.
- No, Mike. - Oh my God.
What's wrong with you?
- I'm sweating so bad.
Mike. - No.
- Put it away. - No.
- How are we even gonna
get in there? - I can't open that.
There's not a chance I open that.
- I'm out of breath, I need a nap.
Okay, let's go put it away.
Come on, guys, come on. - Look how big it is.
It is literally its head sitting in the top.
- I love this spider.
I tell you what, I think before long,
we're gonna be holding this spider.
The other one was so mean.
This one is actually pretty mellow.
- Don't open it right there. - Open then (beeps)?
- Let me see where it is, okay.
Hang on, let's open it from the back.
- Why? - That's never-
- That's so Polish. - Here, now you go.
- [Mike] This is not how this goes.
(Brian exclaims delightedly)
- I tell you, professional.
Hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
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Have a wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone.
And I promise-
- I think I peed a little.