White Marble Children ’ s Python . these very heavily-flecked specimens , as they think they look much like a normal Children ’ s Python , but in the flesh they are something entirely different . They retain a very thin strip of the base colour that doesn ’ t seem to get fully covered , so as you come up from the crisp , white belly you get a very thin line of the yellowy base colour coming through and then the very dark colouration which dominates the body , giving them a very unique appearance . As these animals age the flecking changes from dark brown to jet black , imparting an almost hypermelanistic look to most of the body .
At the opposite end of the spectrum , you can also get some very light Marbles , which in my opinion are some of the most stunning animals around . These can be hard to pick at an early age , as even hatchlings that are still quite pale at six months old can quickly change within a couple of sheds , with a lot of dark colouration mingling with their base colour . It is more a case of whittling down a clutch by progressively excluding animals which won ’ t end up extremely pale , and then working with the palest ones to produce the next generation . It does seem that this gene can be ( loosely ) line bred to a certain extent for particular appearances , but a lot of variation can still pop up within a single clutch .
The first year I bred with the Marbles I was able to get my T + albino male over my female Marble and produce some nice double-het animals . After growing these up for a couple of years I was then able to pair them back to each other with the goal of producing a double-visual specimen . With a one in 16 chance of a double recessive combination , I knew the odds were always going to be against me , especially given the small clutch size of young Antaresia . As the season advanced and clutches started to hatch , I began to feel as though I wasn ’ t going to be lucky , but eventually after 55 eggs I got what I was after ! I wasn ’ t entirely sure what the double-visual would look like but had expressed the opinion to a few friends that I thought it might be an orange animal , and turns out my guess was right . It
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