Astro

Astro is an Inc-Dominant mutation founded by The Seventh Serpent in 2012.

"So in 2012 I was searching Fauna-classifieds like any other reptile obsessed keeper and stumbled upon an ad for a yb male. Me being in the market for one and something cool had to jump on it, especially with the title of dinker, a cursed golden nugget of hope for any ball python keeper, no sweeter word known.

The ad was listed Justin McBrayer from TX, he listed the ad as Dinker WC line YB male. And showed pictures of the two siblings (3 egg clutch) father and mother. The mother of the clutch was a WC dinker. what I believe to be the original Astro. the father being a Ivory (Super yellowbelly) who was from average line Yellowbelly and a WC line Yellowbelly, that WC line YB I will get into later.

The original Astro clutch:
The clutch only had 3 eggs. Two males one female. One of the males being mine and the other a normal average run of the mill yellowbelly. The female in the clutch was extremely similar to my male but did not have the brightness and flecking in the alien heads my male did and something I regret not pushing Justin more to let me purchase her. Unfortunately, she was not for sale as he wanted to also work the project.

Proving Astro out:
So a few years after raising the male and my original black pastel female in 2016 I produced the first clutch of Astro’s. 8 eggs laid one went bad. But 7 snakes hatched out. All of which were female. Great and terrible news for supers to be made. As I wouldnt produce until three years later.
The clutch results:

1. Astro
2. Yellowbelly
3. Astro Yellowbelly pos Trick
4. Black Pastel Astro Trick
5. Black Pastel Astro
6. Bright Redish Normal
7. Black Pastel Astro YB Trick

So since these were all females I decided just to wait and put the Astro project on hold until they were breeding and I had more evidence of what was going on. Each animal with Astro development almost like an IMG gene but in reverse, if they were also carrying the Black Pastel gene. the bp astro and bpyb astro lost just about all of the black which turned a soft creamy orange.

So 2017 breeding season hits and surprisingly 1 of the 7 are up to size for breeding. The BPYB Astro which now lost 90% of the black on her. I paired her with her father the original Astro YB male in February 2018 so she could have a bit more weight and age on her. She ended up producing 5 eggs in August 2018.
The clutch:
2.0 Super Astro YB
1.0 Ivory pos Super Astro
0.1 Super Astro BP Yellowbelly
Great news for the 6 females right?

Then Unfortunately, at the end of August 2018, disaster struck my collection. Thermostat malfunction cooked half of my collection. I lost just about every adult female I had, including the mother of this clutch, her sisters, the Astro YB and the BP Astro Trick. This nearly caused me to give up entirely. Fortunately enough I had really good friends to keep me going in the hobby.

Anyways enough sadness, move to 2019 season and the super males are ready to go each grew fast and strong with plenty of attitude. I decided this year I would pair them up as much as possible to what I had to get a good sense of the best direction for Astro.

2019 Pairings:
Male:
Super Astro YB 1
Female:
Astro
YB (from original astro clutch)
Super Butter Spider Pos Super Pastel

Male:
Super Astro YB 2
Female:
Normal Female

Male:
Ivory pos Super Astro Pos BP
Female: BP Trick

2019 season:

Now to loop back to some points about Astro from the beginning of this write up.
Ever since I produced that first clutch I have been attempting to get ahold of Justin so I could buy the parents and siblings from him. I sent him messages on fauna emails and even start messaging anyone with his name on FB also creepily enough start emailing gmail accounts with his name. Nothing, until January 2020. He informed me he gave up keeping BP’s years ago and lives off the grid fishing full time and also keeping colubrids. He informed me he sold his bp collection to a friend in TX who does a ton of exporting to Europe and Asia. His friend confirmed he sold the female and original mother internationally but did not keep the record who he sold to, or just wouldnt tell me. So that ended my search for the siblings and parents to my male. But i have been monitoring all Europe markets for anything similar yet non have been found.

Now with the first clutch of 2020 season hatching that being from the Ivory Pos Super Astro pos BP to the BBP Astro pos YB hatching I got some interesting results.

I never really thought her to be YB I sort of assumed after seeing a lot of low expression bpyb’s and figured ok my WC line yb is super dark with little to no flames so that must be the reason, right? Out of the five eggs I didnt hit a single ivory or super black pastel (thank god). I hit five Astro combos which all are pos supers. But more refined and without trick

Results:
2.3 Ivory Super Astro x BP Trick
Astro YB
Astro YB pos Trick
Astro YB Trick Black Pastel
Astro YB pos trick
Astro YB black pastel

Super Astro YB x YB
Ivory Astro x2
Astro Yellowbelly
Astro

Super Astro YB x Super Butter Spider Pastel
Astro Spider Lesser Pastel YB
Astro Spider Lesser YB
Astro Spider Lesser

Hopefully this gives you some insight on the history of Astro and how Ive worked it over the years." - Zac Suhanec