We are working with several lines of these magnificent serpents with our primary line being the Swiss Line as described below. We feel the provenance (previous ownership) and pedigree (lineage) are an important part of our breeding program. In order to keep our lines straight and to avoid confusion we have decided to name key animals in our breeding program.

“Granger” The Coral Pink Hypo

The Swiss Line produces brilliant yellow, high contrast offspring and also produced the first hypomelanistic Black-headed pythons hatched in the United States.

Our primary breeder male, Granger , was hatched out in Zurich, Switzerland by George Merahtzakis and is one of the original Black-headed python imports brought into the United States by Joe Robson of Living Jewels in April of 1994. The Living Jewels Blackhead collection (including Granger ) was purchased by Casey Lazik in 1997. Granger resided in Casey's Blackhead breeding program until early 2001 when he was sold to Brandon Weik of Summit Reptiles. According to Brandon (personal communication) this normal, nice looking adult male Blackhead unexpectedly went through an extreme color transformation while in his possession. The black pigmentation on the main part of his body was gradually replaced by pastel hues of red and pink and his high contrast banding virtually vanished. The black area beneath his chin also turned a milky white during this change and remains as a highly distinctive marker. This transformation took place rapidly during a series of several sheds over a three month period. When the transformation was complete Granger had turned into a magnificent “Coral Pink Hypo” Blackhead. In early 2002 Granger was sold by Brandon Weik to Joe Lewis at Rare Earth Inc. Granger remained at Rare Earth Inc. as a breeder until being acquired by Split Rock Reptiles in 2004. The first two photos of this stunning animal were taken by Paul Edwards while visiting Joe Lewis at his Rare Earth Inc. facility in Virginia several years ago.

“Olivia”

Olivia was captive born at the Rare Earth facility in June of 2000. The Sire and Dam who produced Olivia were purchased as a group (2.2) of baby Blackheads by Rare Earth from Jay Brewer at Prehistoric Pets in July of 1998 as Lazik captive bred offspring. It is important to note that these Lazik captive bred offspring were produced in 1998 and are probably directly connected to Living Jewels stock Casey had in his possession at the time as he had just purchased the Swiss line stock (including Granger ) from Joe Robson's estate in 1997. We believe that these1998 animals were part of a clutch which may have been sired by Granger as he was an active breeder along with another Swiss line male at Casey Lazik Reptiles between 1997 and 2001. Based on the timing and placement of the animals described above, it is very likely that Olivia is the granddaughter or a blood relation of Granger.

Olivia arrived at Split Rock Reptiles along with Granger and a pair of their 2003 offspring ( Annabelle and Winston ) in March of 2004. Olivia had been bred to Granger at Rare Earth and was gravid at the time of delivery. Three days after her arrival Olivia laid a beautiful clutch of 10 eggs. Olivia and Granger had been a dedicated breeding pair at Rare Earth during the 2003 and 2004 breeding seasons for good reason! The 2003 clutch ( Olivia's first breeding year) hatched out Annabelle , the first Hypomelanistic Blackhead produced in the United States! Olivia's 2004 clutch was incubated successfully and 10 beautiful baby Blackheads hatched in May of 2004 including another Hypomelanistic female ( Clementine ). Most of the offspring from this breeding were kept back for incorporation into the Swiss Line Breeding program and will be discussed later.

Olivia was given the 2005 breeding season off to regain some much needed weight from two consecutive years of breeding and egg laying. As the 2006 breeding season was approaching Olivia was being conditioned to breed by increasing her rat intake to three rats per week. In late October-early November she began shedding more frequently, often times turning light blue while she was opaque. At the conclusion of each shed cycle her pigmentation became lighter and her banding began to vanish as she ultimately went through the same color and pattern transformation that her mate Granger had experienced. This coincidental transformation and the production of Hypomelanistic offspring could be taken as evidence of blood relations between Granger and Olivia .The first photograph below was taken three days after Olivia's arrival and shows her normal coloration and banding before her transformation. The next seven photographs show her in the mottled stage in the middle of the transformation. The final three photographs show Olivia fully transformed and ovulating during the 2006 breeding season.

2003 Offspring of Granger and Olivia

“Annabelle”

Anabelle is the product of the first breeding of Granger and Olivia and was hatched at Rare Earth in 2003. Annabelle was the first Hypomelantic Blackhead hatched from this line and is a key animal in our breeding program. Annabelle is now a young adult and big enough to be bred. Annabelle and Granger were paired up for the 2006 breeding season. We are not sure if this breeding was successful at the time of this writing. We are hoping for good results but may have to wait until the 2007 breeding season.

“Winston”

Winston is the sibling brother of Anabelle and was also hatched out at Rare Earth in 2003.

Winston is the sibling brother of Anabelle and was also hatched out at Rare Earth in 2003. Winston , being at least eight feet and having significant body weight was entered into the 2006 breeding program. Due to the fact that Granger was dedicated to Annabelle we decided to pair Winston to Olivia to see what kind of offspring they would produce. At the time of this writing it looks like this pairing was successful as Olivia has ovulated and gone through her pre-egg laying shed. Olivia laid a nice clutch of 10 healthy eggs on April 12, 2006. We should see some little black heads poking out of the eggs in about 60 days!

2004 Offspring of Granger and Olivia

“Clementine”

This prized animal was what we were really hoping for as the eggs began to hatch in May of 2004. All of the babies that hatched out were top quality animals but this one was absolutely stunning and definitely Hypomelanistic. We believe that deep fading of black to tan beneath the chin is an indication of Hypomelanism. We have seen this on both Clementine and Chance. Hatching this animal proved there is something in the genetics of the Granger and Olivia pairing and gives us great hope for determining how this gene works and how to reproduce it with measured repeatability.

“Chance”

This male is one phenomenal Blackhead. He possesses a quality we term “electric brilliance” as his ground color is bright, bright yellow. His bright ground color combined with his thin and almost perfect banding causes him to radiate brilliance. We suspect that he may also be a hypo. Chance will be placed into the 2007 breeding program and it will be extremely interesting to see what kind of offspring he produces.

“Piper”

Piper is another example of the high quality stock produced by the Swiss Line. As a hatchling Piper was just different and stood out from the crowd. Lighter in ground color than the bright yellows that Chance possessed, Piper's ground color was almost a white or light cream color. Piper is another suspected Hypo in the group. Almost two years later he still maintains his bright and clean high contrast appearance. In November Piper went off feed which is very unusual for a Blackhead. Perplexed but not overly concerned, we watched him and finally came to the conclusion that he may be in breeding mode. We had just started the cycling process and the hypnotic female pheromones were probably starting to swirl around in the python room. One of our 2003 females from our Wagner-Hamper Line ( Cecilia ) seemed to be ready for breeding so we placed Piper in with her just to see what would happen. Two hours later after much new cage exploration we saw Piper spurring and then breeding Cecilia! It was our hope that this out-crossing would be successful. The final outcome of their pairing is unknown at the time of this writin.

“Ingrid”

Ingrid was held back for future breeding because of her beautiful yellows and red colors and nice wide banding. We hope to put her in the 2007 breeding program.

“Chelsea”

Chelsea is just another example of a very desirable Blackhead-headed python. Chelsea has maintained her brilliance and contrast just like her siblings Chance , Piper and Ingrid. Chelsea will make a great breeder in the next year or two.

2006 Offspring of Winston and Olivia

Year 2006 was Winston's year to prove out as breeder for the “Swiss Line”. This pairing produced a nice mix of pure Eastern baby Black-headed pythons as can be seen below.

Goergan Line

"Matilda"

We purchased an additional breeder female ( Matilda ) from Rare Earth Inc. in September of 2004. Joe Lewis of Rare Earth purchased this animal as captive born offspring from Dick Goergan Reptiles in September 1999. We have been told second hand that the Goergan line of Blackheads had its origins in Europe but have no specific information as to who Dick Goergan purchased his breeding stock from.

This acquisition allowed us to add more genetic diversity to our Black-headed python gene pool giving us the chance to out-cross between unrelated lines. As 2005 was going to be Olivia's year off to regain body mass we used this as an opportunity to breed Granger (Swiss Line) to Matilda (Goergan Line) in 2005.

Out-crossed Swiss Line:
Granger x Matilda 2005 Offspring

“Isabelle”

Isabelle was a complete surprise to us as Matilda's 2005 clutch began to hatch. It was a time of great joy and sorrow as this clutch was riddled with complications which we attribute to a simple but serious malfunction in our setup prior to egg laying. This was later recognized and corrected after the clutch was laid and in the incubator. The surprise was that Isabelle was Hypomelanistic! Additionally, two other eggs contained full term Hypomelanistic baby Blackheads. Unfortunately, these additional Hypo baby Blackheads were severely deformed and did not survive. Isabelle and her sibling brother Roscoe are the only surviving animals from Matilda's 2005 clutch. Aside from being Hypomelanistic, Isabelle has bright white milky blotches distributed over large areas of her belly. These are “paper white” blotches and are nothing like the clear, clean bellies seen on our previously hatched Hypomelanistic Blackheads. Whether or not this could be a form of Piebaldism remains to be seen but we certainly want to fully investigate this phenomenon before jumping to any conclusions. Both Isabelle and Roscoe will remain in the Split Rock Reptiles collection for future breeding trials.

“Roscoe”

Roscoe is another fine example of a nice looking Black-headed python. His good looks were easily inherited from his father ( Granger ) showing some key Swiss line traits like orange and red coloration and good clean banding. Roscoe also has a very small amount of milky white blotching on his belly and we are hoping to breed him to Isabelle in the future to see if this trait can be further developed.

Wagner-Hamper Line

We purchased a pair of hatchling Wagner-Hamper animals from New York Reptilia in 2003. These were our very first Blackheads and remain in our colony for increased genetic diversity and out-crossing opportunities. Both animals were mature enough to be placed into the 2006 breeding program. The male ( Fletcher ) was bred to Matilda and as of this writing Matilda appears to be gravid. The female ( Cecelia ) was bred to Roscoe as he was “in the mood” at the tender age of 19 months. The success of this breeding is currently uncertain.

“Fletcher”

“Cecelia”