The Fine Green Tree Pythons Calico Morph project is unique among all the green tree python designer morphs being produced today.   This page will describe the project, it's history, and the future goals for breeding this incredible color and pattern morph.

Project and Morph Description

Calico chondros are a beautiful and unique blend of colors, and speckled and blotched patterns.  Although there are at least two different color phases, the Yellow and the Chocolate, the speckled pattern comprised of many different colors is what distinguishes the morph as something different from anything else.  The  visual effect of the many individually pigmented scales is similar to viewing the pixels on a computer monitor, up close.  Calico chondros have up to nine readily distinguishable colors, including orange and orange-yellow, light yellow, dark and lime green, chocolate and reddish brown, black, white, teal, blue, and mustard.  The bloodline has also demonstrated a strong tendency for the head color to stand out in contrast to the neck.  In addition, the neck area contains different colors and patterning than the rest of the body.

Click an image for a full size view

I am not the first person to apply the term 'calico' to a reptile color morph.  Probably the calico house cat is the most familiar application of the word to an animal, and reptile morphs of the same name do not share the tri-color genetics or the gender specifics with the feline version.  (Almost all calico cats are females and have the same three colors.)  There are calico morphs described for Burmese, Reticulated, and Royal (Ball) Pythons, among others.  Calico chondros are different from other reptile calico traits.

To avoid confusion, and to maintain the integrity of the Fine GTPs Calico Project, allow me to also describe what calico chondros are not: 

1/  They are not half-changed Biak race animals.  Certain Biak Island forms and specimens can take a long time to complete their ontogenetic color change, in some cases several years, which is far longer than other races of chondros.  These animals can go through a rather gaudy period, displaying many colors including some of those associated with Calicos.  To the experienced eye, the typical Biak pattern of bold markings is easily discernible, and immediately identifies the snake as belonging to that geographic race.  However, immature Biaks are sometimes marketed as "calicos" to the uninitiated.

As pretty as this young Biak is, it is not a calico.

2/  They are not melanistic "highland locality" chondros.  While there is some evidence that chondros collected from higher elevations may show a tendency toward melanism (dark pigment), the calico line was started spontaneously by an animal produced from years of selective breeding, and that had no known relation to any "highland" specimens.

3/  They are not High Yellow.   Although the founder male does contain a lot of yellow, there are traits detailed above, which readily separate Calicos from other high yellow bloodlines.

4/  The beautiful colors seen on calico chondros are not the result of "improperly calibrated" computer monitors, as one detractor claimed!  While there is certainly some variation between individual monitors and video cards, to claim that these animals are "nothing new" is patently absurd.

5/  The term is not a catch-all for any oddball or unusual chondro that may show up.  While I haven't licensed or registered the term to describe this morph, it is professional and ethical to respect the use of a term or description for a unique combination of traits when used by the person who described it.  For example, there are a lot of high yellow chondros out there, yet most of the chondro community respects the use of the term "Lemon Tree" as uniquely referring to the line started by Tim Turmezie of CA.  The Fine GTPs Calico animals deserve no less.

History of the Calico Project

In the Beginning...

In January of 1993, Trooper Walsh produced a clutch of maroon and dark brown babies.  The offspring were fourth generation captive bred animals on the dam's side, and third on the sire's, and a total of six wild collected founder specimens can be found in the pedigree.  The blue Zulich female, and a male from Mr. Walsh's first successful chondro breeding in 1977, are also a part of the heritage of the line.  As the neonates that Mr. Walsh held back began to mature and go through their ontogenic color changes, it became apparent that one of the yearlings was going to be quite unusual.  It was wild looking, with many colors and a busy, speckled pattern set on a yellow background.  Gene Bessette started calling it "the popcorn chondro", and it was displayed, and almost sold, at the National Breeders' Expo in Orlando, FL in August of 1994.  I was at the show, but for some reason didn't get to see the animal, being occupied with my own displays.

The "popcorn" chondro on display at the Orlando Florida Expo, 1994  Photo courtesy of Tim Morris.

The following month, at the Mid Atlantic Reptile Show (MARS), Trooper again had the animal on display and for sale.   This time, I got a good look at the animal, and at the hefty price tag of $4000.   At the time I was building a collection of CB chondros, but had yet to break into the 'designer' or 'high-end' morph market.  In fact, there really wasn't one at that time, and paying that much money for one chondro was almost beyond reality, and certainly betrayed common sense!  Yet, I knew I had to have him...he electrified me.  We negotiated, I was sweating bullets most of that day as I tended my booth, and at the end of the show, I went home the proud new owner of what I called "The Computer Chondro", which I dubbed him due to the surreal appearance of his colors and pattern which reminded me of a computer screen when viewed too closely, allowing the image to break up into pixels.  Price:  $3500.  This animal is now valued at well over $20,000 - not only because the trait has proven to be heritable, but also due to the skyrocketing popularity and value of designer morph breeding.

In the months and years following, I began to be deeply interested in collecting and breeding high-end morphs of chondros, and in developing appreciation for them within the chondro community.  As I acquired several other desirable animals, and researched chondro genetics and morph development, I began to suspect that perhaps this special animal was more than just an oddball, or one-of-a-kind mutant...maybe the traits he so gloriously exhibited were heritable, a new morph.  I applied the term "Calico" to him for description on my web site, and made plans to attempt to reproduce the calico traits.  By happenstance, I had also purchased a female sibling to the computer chondro, almost a year earlier...Aquagirl.   Knowing that she possibly carried the genes for the calico trait, and that many captive morphs of snakes had been established by selective inbreeding, I decided to pair the two of them up in 1996, when they were three years old.  Copulations occurred, and the female swelled with ripening follicles, but nothing happened after her shed, and she reabsorbed them.  A subsequent attempt the following year produced a promising looking clutch, which I maternally incubated.  Tragically, some wet slugs inside the clutch ruined the entire pile, and caused moisture burns on the female.   Needless to say, I was crestfallen.

1999:  First Success

I gave the female a full year off in 1998, and then made a third attempt to breed the pair in the winter of 1999.  The female became gravid, and laid a clutch on January 10, 1999.  The eight young hatched after maternal incubation, on March 2.  One of them was the darkest baby chondro I had ever seen, with almost no light markings at all, and faint "tiger stripe" dark markings on its head and the first third of its body. 

Calico Junior, one day old                  Calico Junior, four years old

Another tragedy struck...the infamous kidney problems I suffered in the summer of 1999, wiping out much of that year's neonates.  Most fortunately, the little dark calico baby survived, and as the color change began to occur, I saw that something unusual was taking place.  In about a three month period, the juvenile developed the same "pixel" pattern of speckling his father had, but with different colors.  The areas of yellow were replaced with dark chocolate brown, with orange-red from the nape of the neck that spread down the first third or so of the animal.  Sexed as a male, he looked like a photographic negative of his father, and I called him "Calico Junior".  I refer to this color phase as Chocolate Calico.  This male proved that the pattern trait was heritable, although not necessarily recessive.

2001:  A Calico Odyssey

In late 2000, I paired up the original yellow male with a beautiful yellow, blue, and pale green female, Lemongirl.  These two animals shared some common ancestry between the male's sire and the female's dam, but were otherwise unrelated.  19 eggs were laid, and 18 hatched in early April, 2001.   I could tell from looking at them that the clutch was unusual.  Many were very reddish, and most of them had unusual markings.

Click to see the clutch photo full size.  Shown above are three females from the clutch.

All of the babies that I have been able to track from this clutch have become outstanding young adults, including a few truly incredible animals.  I have two females that will be crossed back into the project, and Tomm Phillips has promised a breeding loan of "Delilah", seen above center, and perhaps the best of the clutch.  Most designer clutches develop with mixed results, but I have never seen one that produced such outstanding adults across the board, as has this 2001 clutch.

2004:  Calico Junior Hits a Home Run

Click for larger image

Calico Junior, now a three year old male, was paired with Lemongirl in the fall of 2003.  The outstanding results from this female in 2001 provided strong motivation for me to use her in the first Cal. Jr. breeding effort.  The pair "hit it off" immediately, and after many copulation events the gravid female deposited a clutch of twenty five eggs in March, 2004 and the neonates began emerging on May 12.  Twenty two healthy hatchlings were eventually set up, and the results appear to be as good or even better than 2001.  Several color phases were represented, including some gorgeous red neonates such as the baby shown above.

Lemongirl underwent successful surgery to remove four retained eggs, following this clutch.  At ten years of age and having had two such procedures, she has now been retired to the Fine GTPs Hall Of Fame.

Future Goals for the Calico Project

I am attempting to breed the "Computer Chondro" to a beautiful and unique female, Rosina.  Attempts in 2002 and 2003 did not result in a successful breeding due to the female failing to produce mature follicles.  While not a calico animal in the strict sense, Rosina does show similar traits, including the unusual neck pattern.  The two animals share related ancestry between the male's dam and the female's sire (the opposite of the Lemongirl pairing), but are unrelated otherwise.  As with all such projects, breeding goals include the need to outcross the traits as much as possible, while still encouraging the improvement or strengthening of the morph.

The 2001 females will most likely be bred back to one of the two founder males when they reach maturity.  Of particular interest will be the cross of "Candy" the yellow female back to her father, which will likely be the first calico x calico pairing to take place.  Future selective breeding will hopefully establish both color phases of the calico morph as reliable bloodlines that can be counted on for consistent results.

Charlotte, from the 2001 clutch.

The Calico Project is without a doubt the most exciting designer morph project in chondro breeding today.  I am both excited and optimistic that future results from calico breedings will continue to produce some of the most beautiful and unusual chondros on the planet.