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We bred a female Leopard to a beautiful 18-month old male Sunglow in hopes of producing Hypos het Leopard and Albino. Last year the same female Leopard produced our Double het Leopard Albinos when we bred her to one of our high contrast albino males.

Well, about two weeks ago, our female Leopard gave birth. The young male wasn't really sure what he was doing during breeding season and since it was his first time, we figured she might slug out. We ended up with a lot of slugs, 1 live Hypo het Leopard Albino, 1 stillborn Hypo het Leopard Albino, 1 normal Double het Leopard Albino and ONE LEOPARD!! The female that gave birth to this litter has NEVER been with a male Leopard. Last year was her first year breeding and she was ONLY with the high contrast albino male because we really wanted to make sure he was the one to get her. This year she was ONLY with a male Sunglow.

So, any ideas as to how this could have happened????

Below are some pictures of the Hypo het Leopard Albino. The color is intense!! I took these pictures myself and I am terrible with the camera, so most of them came out dark, but the first and second picture are accurate.

The Leopard from this litter hasn't shed yet but I will post some pics when it does. It's the weirdest thing! lol

Thanks for looking!
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Amanda Burke
Email
Burke Reptiles Website

Is the baby leopard a female??

I bet the leopard is a female, parthenogenic birth maybe.. I was just talking with someone else who had a lot of slugs and 3 live babies that don't look the way they should, but might be parthenogenic babies??

Maybe males too young to get the job done right are enought to stimulate a female to get things done on her own...LOL... Not the best news for men..
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com
www.reptileinsider.com

VERY WIERD AMANDA, We had the SAME thing happen.

We bred our Leopard this year to a Sunglow, and similar results but we didn't get any live babies, and the female is still full of slugs and babies, so I guess we have to take a trip to the vet.
The weird thing was one of the Still borns WAS ALSO a Leopard. We couldn't believe it. We also had 1 still Hypo het leopard, and the rest slugs. That Hypo Het is KILLER!!!!! Congrats on that. I was shocked about the Leopard too.

This SAME female bred 2 years ago to one of the T positive CA's and gave a small litter of just DH T pos Albino Leoaprds. So, she didn't produce a Leopard from 12 babies before, but this year when bred to a Sunglow she did? WEIRD.

I have had some odd stuff happen. I guess that is the fun of the Boas.

Thanks for sharing.

Jeremy Stone

What a beautiful Triple het you have there its color is amazing! And the surprize in your litter is confusing as well...

Greg Reinert

thanks again Amanda for sharing this valuable information with us.

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Eric Tersteeg
http://www.boaconstrictor.nl

Those are some awesome animals you produced and the genetics package to go with it! Congrats! The Sunglow must have the ability to unlock the gene as Jeremys did as well. Very interesting for sure! Andy
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Hi Tom & Amanda -

I have a simple answer to your finding ... your unpredictable, unexpected neonates just goes to show how little we all really know about the Leopard boa genetics and their origin ... as best as I can recall, they just "poped up" and have not been outbred or out-crossed all that much. Maybe you all can figure some of this out before mine reach breeding maturity.

Thanks for sharing, and I wouldn't mind seeing a pic of the Leopard neonate.

Bill

First of all I LOVE the result of the Hypo and Leopard genes in that baby. Het Leopards have always been noted for their uniqueness. I expected good things from Hypos, but all I can say is I CAN NOT WAIT for a Hypo Leopard!

I have another year (I hope) before I can pair up my Hypo and Leopard!

On the note of the Leopard neonate, I am going to say parthenogenisis. It might be a coincedence that Jeremy also had a Leopard, or maybe Sunglows are the cause.
Correct me if I am wrong, but are these two sunglow breedings the FIRST time Leopard X Hypo genes were crossed? If so, the Central American heritage of Hypos may hold the gene. WOW!

Jeremy had the two T-plus Albinos from his Motley X T-plus litter, you and he had the Leopards, others had Albinos in Harlequin X litters, unexpected Anerys (and Celia's wierd Hypo Jungle? litter). All of these things are just too much. Either there are hidden hets, which would make it a whole lot easier to understand, or thanks to morphs we have learned how prevalent parthenogenisis is in boas.

In breedings with one mutation or wild types it is very hard to conclusively say parthenogenisis occured, but in cases like this it is a viable theory.

BTW, sorry for the bad spelling/grammer I typed this kind of fast.

at least you can keep the whole litter!

Maybe you can figure this out. We also may need some advanced DNA testing for Boas to help us solve our problems and questions.

I know the first thing I am doing when I get to school, talk to the herpetology professors about parthenogenisis in snakes!

That boa could be het for jack nada and its still an amazing keeper. Puts your standar hypo to shame. Can't wait to see it after a few months!

Really sweet work.
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recycle your pets

.....Hypo Het Leopard Het Albino Amanda & Tom!
I do know that a couple years back, 2004 if I remember right I got a call from Mike @ Dragon Herp and he was telling me how he got a single Leopard Boa from a breeding of male Hypo X female Leopard.
I bred a male Leopard X female Ghost back in 2004 and got a small litter of some very Aberrant Double and Triple Hets. I do not think there was one normal (non aberrant) looking baby in the bunch. Here is a male Hypo Het Leopard Het Anery and a female Het Leopard Het Anery I plan on breeding together this upcoming season.

Take care,
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BASICALLYBOAS.com
'Specializing in only the Highest Quality True RedTails & Designer Boa Morphs'

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... a cool pair of het leopards that should produce some really interestin offspring for you!

awsome! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do me a favor...
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
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When you see me in daytona...
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
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Lay your hands on me...
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
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AND BLESS ME!
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
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PLEASE!!!
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
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