Posted by:
boaphile
at Thu Dec 18 10:18:38 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by boaphile ]
It is genetic but, however, unlike many people think about genetics, it is not a simple recessive, dominant or co-dominant trait. Contrary to what many people seem to think, genetics is far far more complicated than just a handful of methods or ways different characteristics are seen.
After 13 or 14 years of making Albino Boas, without doing a careful scientific study of this issue, here is my opinion on the matter. Albino Boas are more likely to have problems that cause the eye, almost always the Boas right eye by the way, that are rarely seen in non-Albino bloodline Boas. In fact, hets (For Albino) sometimes will have this same bad eye issue. There is some reason, unknown to me, why an Albino is predisposed to having this problem. Perhaps it is something to do with improper draining of they eye or some sort of blockage causing infection. By the way, I have never seen an Albino that was born with normal eyes have a problem with an eye later in life. Something goes wrong while still in Momma.
I also know that if treated immediately after birth, this can usually be cured. I learned of this the best treatment I use from Bigg Mike. Using Terramycin ointment directly on the eye twice a day till after they shed, usually results if the infection being cured and no loss of the eye. I have in the past also realized the same result using the tiniest amount of Amakacin I could inject, three times, three days apart starting immediately after birth. This worked as well. I emphasis the tiniest amount possible as it is very easy to use too much and kill the baby Boa.
All that being said, in about 2003 Joel DuBay bred a female Albino that was born with both eyes bad, to an Albino male with one bad eye. That's right. Just one eye between them. She produced a litter of 23 babies with only two bad eyes in the lot. This is the exact same result that may very well occur using two perfect Albinos. I think that proves that the bad eye thing in Albinos, though something that does occur, and is certainly genetic due to it's relationship to the Albino lines, is not a genetic characteristic that works like Albinism or any desirable "mutation" that we are familiar with. In other words, an Albino with a bad eye seems to be no more likely to produce an Albino with a bad eye than an Albino with two good eyes.
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It is genetic but it is not genetic... - boaphile, Thu Dec 18 10:18:38 2008
