In some of the pairings put together to produce sunsets there are blond babies born these look just like hogs. There has been other lines that produced sunsets paul at PM herps did it they are quite striking too I might add.. The line we are working with are D&M they were born along side of actual sunsets, and are what are called hypo hogs or "het sunsets"..



Here is what we belived happened in this litter. The supers (that are smokin) are a deeper orange color than the original sunsets. It was a bit puzzling to us, but generations can change looks, so we went with it for a while.. The male that produced these guys was bred the same season to a straight up hog female who produced a litter of babies that looked hog first and then there were a few that have the hypo traits too.. Most of them look identical to hogs.



So here is the scenerio we came up with and looking back at the other litters seems to back this. The male hypo hog is a co-dom hypo and a super blond (he's F2 born along side sunsets) the 2 pairings back this. The female hypo hog is also F2 from the same litter, but we believe she is a co-dom hypo and is not a blond gene carrier. So the supers in the "sunset" litter are super hypo but only co-dom blond (we call them lesser sunsets)



The babies from the same F2 hypo x hog male (we belive to be a super blond and co-dom hypo) bred with the hog (super blond) are what apears to be super blond and the few that were hypo are also co-dom hypos. I hope this is making sence...LOL...



There have been other litters of sunsets that had "super blonds" (babies that looked like hogs and nothing else) born along side of sunsets.



In hog X normal litters all of the babies have a lighter appearance, some better than others, but hey in a litter of anything some are better than others.



What does it all mean? I think it's really a bit more difficult to make sunsets than most would think. This info above along with looking at super blond hypo sonorans, and their identical coloring to hogs, is what leads me to believe that the great little hog island boas are a morph that most of us have and have kinda overlooked..



As far as poligenic looks go, I don't think there is enough variation in any given hog litter for their look to be based off of a poligenic appearance. With the numbers I have seen they seem to play into the dominant/ co-dom area text book style.



We belive strongly enough we are losing out on 8-10K what a pair of sunsets would go for. If I don't know for sure what is happening with a boa I can't rightly sell it. I think more breeding is needed and will further prove this out. But in the meanwhile it sure looks to be going in that direction.
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com

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