Just by judging at your pics you posted, I would be wondering myself if I see these hatchlings at a reptile show being sold as hypos with a couple of good reasons. FIRST reason is just the physical look of these snakes. It look to me that the first one is just a tricolor hondo, and if in person the second one looks like tangerine, well there is a tangerine phase honduran that doesn't have to visually be a hypo. There is a possibility that they could be "hets" for hypo but you will not know unless you are absolutely sure what the genetics of their parents are or when you breed test them in a couple of years or so. They both have way too many black tippings as well. The SECOND reason about my skeptism of these guys being claimed as hypo is that if both of them are from parents of wild caught, the chances of two hypos in the wild actually breeding to each other, or even let's say both are hets for hypo, are really very slim compared to controlled breeding done with captive bred snakes. You have to remember that the hypo trait is a known "recessive" gene, and in the wild it is not readily manifested or shown. Besides, a hypo in the wild tends to attract more attention and that is a huge disadvatage to the animal as a rule. It's like the albino trait...it has been documented that an albino tiger born in the wild has almost zeor chance of surviving to adulthood...so it is no surprising that it also applies to other species, including the snakes.

I am attaching a pic of my tricolor hypo with no black tippings and the bands are "hazy" looking and not vivid.

This are just my opinions, and hope others will give their own opinions too.

Thanks ! And your snakes look great to me...simply because I love snakes!

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RAY

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