MONARCH PROJECT
In 1999 Rance Meier, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, acquired a pair of very ugly looking pastels. Over the course of ten years the snakes did not thrive very well grew very slowly as both where very poor eaters. However in 2008 the pair for no particular reason began to eat like crazy and he put both together who mated immediately. The female finally laid but only two eggs where viable and Rance was disappointed to say the least after so many years this pair only produced two eggs. Rance then expected to have pastels hatch at best, however the (JOY OF KEEPING ROYALS) to his surprise both eggs hatched and what appeared was way and be honed his wildest dreams. One baby looked like a Genetic Stripe, but very light in colour, while the other had a more normal pattern. Their colours were a yellow orange, with a deep purple colour, and both lacked black pigment. He now realises that the parents are actually double heterozygous, het for the new gene Monarch, and also het for Genetic Stripe, both being simple recessive. The two babies ended up being a Monarch Pastel, and a Monarch Pastel Genetic Stripe.
That’s where the monarch project began and thanks to Rance I was fortunate to persuade him to allow me to purchase and begin my own Monarch Project with a Pastel Monarch male and a Het Monarch and Pastel Het Monarch females in 2014
Since then I have manged to produce my own Monarch combo collection with various hets and some visuals this is such an exciting year this year with a number of Combo hets now ready to breed, where a number of new Monarch visuals hopefully will be produced. This morph has such potential and I cannot wait to see this in Clown and Leopard to name just two, a huge future and a wise investment. Something different which is always a demand for all Ball Python enthusiasts to achieve and inspire too producing.