Breeder Updates
WHAT’S HOT in the reptile world?
In his regular monthly column, Tariq Abou-Zahr reports on the amazing lizards that captured people’s imagination at the recent Hamm show in Germany, plus several new breakthroughs in the field of python breeding.
Sunrise.
Making the
sunrise
All photos courtesy Steven Mussard.
T
o start this month, I have news of a remarkable world-first combination mutation that has been produced here in the UK, in the reticulated python. Steven Mussard (or ‘snaketats’ as he is better-known on some reptile forums) has created what has been christened the sunrise morph. This is a double combo, linking the sunfire and granite back forms. I caught up with Steven recently for some more information. He explained that he has been keeping snakes for nearly 10 years now, with his first purchase having been a Burmese python. Steven told me how, before he obtained this snake, the breeder who ultimately sold it to him went through some fundamental principles that must be appreciated and understood before buying any large constrictor. The breeder in question made Steven handle a 5.5m (18ft) female Burmese with an immense girth, so as to allow him to understand what he was potentially taking on, and to see if Steven was up to the challenge of handling a big snake. This encounter went very well and Steven loved it! It did not end there, however. For several weeks, he went into this female snake’s vivarium and cleaned her out. He learnt how to make a sufficiently strong and large enclosure for his snake when it ultimately reached adult size.
Left: Baby granite back. Above: Sunfire male.
6 Practical Reptile Keeping
Breeder Updates.indd 6
13/04/2011 09:51