pix of this snake have been posted here before, i think. jeff brought it by tonight for a photo session.

what is it?

1. I don't know. Not for sure.

2. If I HAD to guess, i'd say it's an extreme hypo, the prettiest, lightest extreme we've seen so far.

3. the other possibility is it's the first of something we haven't seen before--a "lavendar" albino, for ex?

But i think truly new things show up so rarely--(what NEW have we seen in hondos in the past decade--one calico, and a couple handfuls of "extremes", neither of which we're certain about the genetics of yet?) So I figure

a) given the alternatives, when something different shows up it's more likely a variant of something we've seen before, than it is something entirely new. That's certainly open to debate, but it's a premise I choose to start with.

and

b) this animal clearly isn't snow white in the light rings, the way an albino would be. but the light rings DO have that very-pale-gray shade of some of the lighter extremes, so by that logic this one would simply be an even lighter example of the "extreme".



what do you think?



jeff and i discussed it in these terms: Consider the possible variation in hondurans with reduced melanin. Use 10 as an example of a dark original or "regular" hypo, and use 0 at the other extreme, where melanin is eliminated entirely--an albino. We figured this animal might come in at perhaps 1 1/2 or 2 on that scale; some of the lightest "extreme" hypos seen otherwise, have been maybe 3s, or 4s? How would you rate my female that i posted on this forum a day or two? Her head's very light gray, but not nearly so light as this one.



But it does seem to me this animal presents an extension in that paleness, so an improved degree of something we've already seen--the extreme hypo--more so than an albino. Like i say, just my opinion. Maybe that purply-gray is just capillary blood showing thru the skin, and when the skin thickens it'll turn white and the animal will be more obviouisly an albino. But it is a couple weeks old already, i think, it's eaten a couple times at least, so that thickening would have started by now, i'd have thought. It'll be interesting to watch it as it ages.



This animal came out of a pair of triple hets i produced and sold to jeff. Mike Falcon's extremes came out of animals he got from me, though not from triple hets. A line of connection could be drawn there. But it's not something i would have EXPECTED out of the triple hets i produced.



So, a couple pix (and a few more below)



and





peace

terry

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