By Dave Dee
Name of Line: Tiger Stripe Line
Founding Breeder(s): Rico Walder of Signal Herpetoculture
Founding Animals: SH00111 (PNG x Sorong) and SH01049 (Biak)
Notable Descendants: SH04095, SH09123, SH10060
Characteristics and Traits: Tiger Stripe chondros are known for their golden yellow coloration, often with scattered green scales and bright yellow diamonds along their backs. Their diamonds can be outlined with lavender-colored scales.
Who is Working With It: Marcial Mendez, Justin Wilbanks, Rod Love, Eric Rollins, Jason Brumley, Ryan Reisner, David Dendinger and others.
Brief History: In July of 2004, Rico Walder hatched a clutch of twenty babies from a PNG/Sorong cross bred to a Biak. Six of the babies were yellow and the remainder were varying shades of red. Several of the red babies had elongated black lines on their sides. Because of these markings, Rico dubbed this clutch the “Tiger Stripe” clutch. Several of the snakes in this clutch retained a significant amount of yellow as they matured. The standout of the clutch, SH04095, was special in that she was one of the first high-yellow chondros that was red as a hatchling.
In 2009, Rico paired SH04095 with a “Moken”/”Scarab” male named “Thong” and produced a clutch of thirteen babies, most of which were dark red. In 2010, Rico paired SH04095 with GM0732, a nearly solid-yellow male that was red as a hatchling. Their clutch of sixteen babies included three that were yellow, six that were red and seven that were brown. One of the babies, SH10060, was a deep brick red with glowing orange triangles. As she got older, SH10060 went through a prolonged color change. Her coloration slowly faded from red to dark orange before finally turning a golden yellow when she was about five years old. One of her offspring, VV1613, is still an orangish color at four years of age.
The Tiger Stripe line is very intriguing. While the original 2004 clutch is the only one that had babies with the namesake markings, the line has proven to predictably produce extremely dark red babies that turn into stunning high-yellow, multicolored and gold adults. Outstanding results have also been achieved when the Tiger Stripe line has been paired with snakes with Calico and “Merauke Outcross” lineage. There have only been about a dozen clutches involving the Tiger Stripe line and, to my knowledge, no one has ever bred two Tiger Stripe animals together.
Incredible animals!