Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All, Don't get on here much anymore but I'm so excited I can't stand it. I bred a Het High Contrast Albino from Kev@ NERD to a female I adopted from a man in Madison County. She laid 5 eggs. This morning one normal baby pipped. I came home tonight to find an Albino with it's head sticking outAnti-jinx. I can't believe it. I'll post pics when my hands stop shaking.LOL There are 3 eggs left. WOOOO!!! Thanks Kevin.
Rob RK Konstrictors

Catch the fever!
Real good feeling.
Congrats.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

Congrats!

I've always thought that hets where fairly commonly (maybe somewhere between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000) in the normal population but this is only the 2nd unexpected het I've heard of.

I've always thought that hets where fairly commonly (maybe somewhere between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000) in the normal population

Where in the world did you hear this?

The big problem is how to account for localized inbreeding. Gets back to the question of if ball pythons are one big population with a fair amount of movement or if they are a bunch of isolated populations. I don't know.

I don't have the best feel for the data either but at one point I thought they where exporting about 150,000 ball pythons from Africa a year and about 3 or 4 of them where albinos each year. With one albino in every about 40,000 (picked an even number near the high end of the range) it would work out to 1 in every about 10,000 wild breedings is het to het. IF, the albino gene is randomly distributed, 1 in 10,000 het to het breedings would occur from 1 in 100 wild ball pythons being het for albino.

I've got to think that there is localized inbreeding and pockets of het albinos are more likely to breed so the real rate probably isn't as high as 1 in 100, but how much lower is it? I bet it's higher than 1 in 1,000 based on the two cases I've happened to hear of so far in captivity. Anyone have any more reports of unexpected het albinos?

Thanks, I still can't believe it. I hope all goes well.
I tried to post a pic but it says it's too big.
I have bred him to 6 diff females this season and last in hopes this would happen some day down the road. I figured 10 years 20-30 females later.LOL By that time though I would be breeding an Albino to the normal girls to increase the odds.
This is killing me waiting for it to come out. AHHH!
Thanks again, Rob

We know how hard you've worked with those animals & it's great to see something like this pay off, especially out of the blue! Very glad it happened to you!!

Thanks for the baby pics - can't wait to see it out of the egg!

K & K

Thanks Kara and Kevin, I've learned a valuable lesson and I'll share it with all of you:
Shelve the Barry White albums and have your Ball Pythons JAM to CROTALUS next breeding season. IT WORKED FOR ME.LOL ROCK ON!
Thanks again K K,ROB