Posted by:
DMong
at Thu Jun 5 22:09:53 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by DMong ]
It certainly appears to be amelanistic(albino) to me.
One thing that seems puzzling however, is the eye color you're mentioning. I would be willing to bet good money that on closer inspection under a strong light source, that the pupil is actually a deep deep "ruby-red", or blood-red coloration. There are many deep red eyed snakes that appear to be black at first glance. I even have a hypo Lavender corn that has eyes that are such deeply colored red, they actually look black unless looked at under good light from the right angle.
I also have a leucistic Texas Rat that has very deeply colored red eyes,......so much so that I wasn't even aware of them being red until a couple months after I purchased it as a "normal" leucistic.
Take yours outside and hold it by the head, and turn it in different angles in good sunlight, and see if the pupils are indeed deep red.
This is probably a tyrosenase posetive albino, meaning it has the enzyme protein that sythesizes melanin, but cannot do so properly. These animals are somewhat darker that Tyrosenase negative albinos because they cannot produce this protein/enzyme, leaving them much whiter than the tyrosenase posetive animals decribed previously. Additionally, this can very often leave the eyes darker looking as well. This could VERY WELL be the case here with yours.
BTW,...that's a VERY cool find!,.....I'd just love to find a freak mutation like that in the wild!
best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"
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RE: Wild Caught Black Rat ...albino ???? - DMong, Thu Jun 5 22:09:53 2008
