Gorgeous! Those used to be my favorite snakes till I got my BRBs.. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you for the compliment on our babies! YES they are "nippers"... some are more like Jack the Rippers!!! And not just when they're born!! I'd say up until they are yearlings they tend to snap at anything that moves -- AND THEY ALMOST NEVER MISS!!
Two of ours have never bitten us, our two year old male and the still yellow baby, Lantash, I suspect is also a male.
The one turning green now, Selmak, I'm guessing to be a female, as she has bitten me on SEVERAL occasions. Aeryn our 1.5 year old female used to bite me all the time too. She hasn't bitten since she changed color.
It's just a personal theory of mine that the females bite more often than the males... it will be interesting to see if I'm right when these two are old/big enough to probe.

A lot of theories have been postulated but nobody completely understands how or why young chondros change colors. Some theories talk about feeding patterns and growth rates: however, Greg Maxwell, foremost Green Tree Python expert, says his feeling is that the DNA of each animal determines everything about how it will look and how it will get there.

I believe your question about a dormant color gene becoming activated at this time is a good assumption. There are some theories about the specific genetics that make sense: as the high yellow GTPs might be missing the blue pigment gene, which becomes active at this time and in some cases becomes more active in gravid females (horomonally linked??) Normal green females will tend to turn somewhat blue during pregnancy and sometimes retain some of the blue afterwards with the blue becoming more intense with every pregnancy. High yellow gravid females, on the other hand, tend to go very pale at this time... which leads one to believe that the blue color gene is either missing or not activated in these animals.

It's one of those great mysteries of nature and one of the things that makes GTPs such fascinating animals to keep!

Beth: you know I love BRBs too, but the one advantage the GTPs have over the BRBs (and every other ground-dwelling species) is that you can see them all day: hanging out on their branches. The only time I saw my rainbow boas were when I took them out. Other than that, I was lucky if I saw a nose or tail sticking out from under the hideboxes.
But for ground dwelling/semi-arboreal snakes, BRBs are also at the top of my list!
PS --haven't seen any recent pics of your new red female lately!!!

there looking great when u sending me one?? meet you at hamm to collect hehe.

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Try again in 3 years or so... we'll be expecting our first clutch around then if all goes well.

Thanks for the explanation Andrea. That is something I had always wondered about myself!
I am NOT even going THERE! LOL!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

My theory about biting, nasty females is mostly referring to GTPs, however I've found it equally true in many other species... my own included!!

I have noticed the same behavior in our Cuban boas...The female tags me while the male is a little more docile.They are yearlings but after they are full grown they dont even try to bite.

Very awesome!! I want one soooo bad!!

Great pics and info Andrea! Thanks for sharing!
You are on to something there... you should investigate further to support your theory about females, here's a working title: "Nastiness across Phylum"

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)