Year of the Enchi!

We have a lot of enchi ball pythons breeding for 2019 so here is some info about the origins of the enchi morph. 

In 1998, Lars Brandell of Sweball imported some "special" ball pythons from Ghana along with a shipment of farmed ball pythons for another project. In 2002, Lars bred the two golden ball pythons he received and proved that the color was genetic. He named it 'enchi' after a town in Ghana that was known for it's gold mine. The first super enchi was produced in 2003, proving that the gene was incomplete dominant. Today, enchi is a popular morph because of it's gold color and rich copper tones.

In our collection we have several enchis that are ready to breed:

Titan - Male Enchi

Panthera - Male Pastel Enchi Leopard

Phoebe - Female Pastel Enchi

And one that is not quite ready yet but will be in 2019:

Stryder - Male Pastel Calico Enchi

We paired Titan with our big mojave girl, Hera, this year and they produced our first clutch. Our first clutch did not go well. We had 9 eggs laid but 4 of them had no veins and went bad shortly after being laid. We had one more go bad about half way through incubation, and a final one that was stillborn. We were left with 3 babies out of a clutch of 9 but one of them was a beautiful enchi girl that we are keeping as a memento of our first clutch.

Our enchi clutches this year may also suffer from low hatch rates for several reasons. Panthera, Phoebe, and Medusa are all first timers who have never bred before. With first breedings, females tend to produce smaller clutches and males tend to be slightly ineffective. However, we have a small chance at producing a super pastel super enchi leopard. Its a 1 in 32 chance but if we hit it then it is likely a world first! No matter what hatches from our enchi clutches this year, they will be some beautiful animals and we can't wait to see them.

Another exciting enchi pair should be ready this fall, Stryder x Sonja. Sonja is one of our multigene black head females and should produce an amazing clutch with Stryder.