Some of you probably know about the litter I had back on May 9th from my Ivory anerythristic female which was bred by my EBV Red Group hypo. The result was a litter of truly mind blowing babies, both hypos and pastels. But the kicker, is that even though I can find NO history of anerythrism in the males lineage, and I have done a bit of digging, there were three anerys in the litter.

16 babies total. 6 RG pastel hypo het Ivory ghost. 7 RG pastels het for Ivory, and three Ivory anerythristics. Another funky tidbit is that the three Ivories were all premies, all female, and were the only premies in the litter.

The most obvious thought to me is that the sire is a het for anery, and I just totally crapped out on the odds, seeing as how there were NO ghosts and no more anerys at all. I will just have to breed him to another anery at some point in the future to see what happens. The other thought is more of a stretch for me to believe, and that is of parthenogenesis,which can only be proven through genetics testing of mom, dad, and the three, which will hopefully be done within the year.

Since I am new to breeding in general, I do not have the experience to back up any thoughts I may have on this matter. I do have one baby from my first litter ever, produced last year, which was also a premie, the only one from the litter, and also a female. And she is the ONLY one from the litter that truly has her moms color.

Anyhow, even the slim possibility of parthenogenesis opens up a HUGE bag of worms, which might not be a good thing for some,as it means there are a bunch of animals out there that may not be what they should be genetically.

I would truly appreciate everyones' thoughts on this.

Sincerely,
Jesse Van Atta
Forever Boas
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"Continuing to cling to the patterns you know, inhibits your ability to discover what you don't know." - Eric Allenbaugh

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