Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took some new shots of my hypo-ish savana monitor. I am still not 100% on sex, but time will tell.Anyway, thought you all might be interested in this beauty.
Enjoy!

That's a beautiful monitor. I have one that looks almost identical, that I bought out of a group because of its unique coloring. I'm waiting with bated breath to see if anybody with more info on savannah genetics replies to this post to let us know if there's anything prove going on with these guys.

Kris

Cool! Do you by chance have any pics you can post of you sav? I am not sure if anyone is working with savannah morphs......? probably. Who else out there has experience or info on morphs/ possible morphs? Better yet.. experience with succesfully breeding savannah monitors? Other interesting colored or patterned examples?
Aera

Nobody breeds them now, or has sucessfully in a while, theres definitely no selective breeding for colors etc.
I wouldnt call it a hypo, seems like in the last year or 2 everyone has been calling anything thats light colored, HYPO.
Its a V.exanthematicus, pretty colors for a bosc to.
Good luck.

I had a baby sav years ago(15 or more) with the same coloration before they actually had a special name for it.She grew up and the "special" light color changed and then she was just a great Sav.

It only means less black. It does not set, how much less. So yes, compared the "normal" pattern and color most of us see, its hypo. Its just not very hypo, hahahahahahahahaha. Or hypo enough, or really cool hypo. Its just nice hypo. Cheers

Hipo-melani....Hepomelanis.....hypamonistec.....
guess I got a Hypo Typo.

Hehehehehehehe
I really crack myself up.

Those come in from time to time. Some far brigher and less back. There is no information on them. They are imported. They may be a recessive color phase, or a different local.

Most are collected locally around an exporter. But some come from other areas or even other states. Again, there is no information as to locality. And no one in africa is breeding them.

There is no one producing morphs or anyother kind of Sav. In the past ten years, I have only heard of 2 people that came to this site breed them. And it appears they are not consistant. That is, they tend to breed them one season, or two, then done. I have heard of a few others here and there, that bred them too, but nothing consistant or extensive. There is a fella that has some albinos, but hes a snake guy and may not be all that interested in them. Hes had them awhile and nothing has come from them yet(that I have heard)

So the value of morphs is non exsistant. That is until someone starts producing them and adding them together to achieve other morphs. You know, like ball pythons, etc etc. Until then, you have a lite sav.

You know, I'm not all that sure why people seem to love morphs so much.I admit, some of the ball python morphs look nice, but isn't there much more to the reptile hobby than keeping animals that 'look nice' (and keeping them in drawers...though I won't criticize that, as it seems necessary most of the time). I love keeping reptiles because I get to see what they do (though it is really only an extremely small portion of what they would do in the wild). I also like trying to make their environments as suitable as possible.

Just wondering. I own a ball python myself, and I plan on breeding him in the future (purchasing a female this summer...another normal). Every once in a while I get caught up in the morphs, but I have to admit that that's almost always because of thoughts of breeding them and selling the expensive babies, which isn't my goal as a keeper of exotic animals. I'd rather breed some normals and make some great pet snakes then breed reptiles for other people to buy as an 'investment'. The thing that attracts me to breeding reptiles is the excitement (waiting for eggs to be laid/hatch), and I bet it must be a pretty rewarding experience. Anyways, just something that I was turning over in my head.

By the way, I love what you do (with the monitors). I'd like to get a trio of ackies in the future in an attempt at breeding them, but I am too worried I wouldn't be able to provide them with a good enough environment (deep enough soil, mainly).

Well Ryan, One reason morphs are not in the monitor world is they are not so valuable yet. Most people are still learning to get it right with normal stuff, muchless morphs.

Also, monitors are very active and their entertainment value is watching and interacting with them. Not just how different they are. Of course people like that too. Cheers

A true Hypo is an animal that completely lacks any black pigmentation. So if your monitor has black anywhere on it's skin it's not a Hypo.

Very pretty monitor at any rate. I had two true hypos at one time. Still bummed I sold them.
Cheers
-----
Christine
Tails With Scales Reptiles
Happiness is biting my snake back!

Thanks for compliments! He actually does not have any black on him....at all. All of his darker colors are rust to brownish.
At any rate, I am still going to try and set up an established breeding colony over the next few years. I have four young adults, that were raised from hatchlings. Two are a year old and two are 1.5yrs old. I like the fact no-one is really trying to work with them. I really like savannas...one of the first monitors I kept..I don't know how many years ago. The fact that there are different color and pattern variations to build a group from, at a reasonable prices makes them all the better to work with.. for me.

BTW- If anyone out there is over working with thier plain old savannahs, especially if they are just really light (not hypo's) or really red (local variation) or ugly patternless, overly patterned sav's, shoot me an e-mail, I may be able to give them a really good home.
Thanks!!Aera

"hypo" means lacking "melanin" refers to the dark pigments in animals. So actually a hypomelanistic animal only lacking the dark pigments that would be present in the normal color type of that said animal. It does not mean it has none present, thus giving different grades of hypos.