Reptile & Amphibian Forums

chocolates, albinos, aneries, nuclears and a snow

Below a nice little Bell Albino. Next year I should produce the first ever Nuclear albinos and I'm hoping they will have even wider brighter orange than this one.

and below, some wide backed Nuclears

Below Paradox albinos

Below Paradox snows

Hi there Ray -

How well do those "nuclear" Kenyans hold their color as they age? Could you post some photos of the males and females as adults? I'd sure appreciate it.

-Joan

Hello Joan... I'd be please to respond.
Nuclears are my line, selective bred for high orange over numerous generations. The founder stock was from Tom Huff of the former Reptile Breeding foundation in Picton Ontario Canada.
The snakes start off a mild orange and this colour intensifies over the first couple of years. At maturity females tend to dull down, and more melanin developes. This doesn't seem to happen to the males which stay very bright right into old age.
I've tried to breed out this tendancy for females to darken, but it seems very deeply rooted in their genetics. I assume females require more heat for gestation, therefore they exhibit more melanin at maturity.
Below are pictures of two adult gravid females.


Below is an adult breeder male Nuclear with a female Chocolate

And Below the offspring produced from the two gravid females above

sorry to mis-type your name. Very nice color into adulthood on those animals. Thanks for the photos.

-Joan

All Very nice. I love to see the pics, keep them coming.
Thanks for sharing, and I hope to some nice nuc. albinos next season!!
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Steve Perry
North Idaho.

Cool photos. Whats thde story of the paradox gene? Is the black heritable or just a chance thing?

Thanks,
Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

The paradox gene arrived in the USA in a shipment of Tanzanian Flame Race Sandboas. Dave and Tracy Barker owned the first specimen. It was believed to also be a flame Race.
It's a completely different mutation and not compatible with the other Albino Kenyans developed by Mark Bell and others.
The Paradox albino gene is obviously unique and called such to the unusual way the albino mutation also exhibits weird black blotches. The genetic mechanism causing these melanin spots on otherwise albino animals is not understood.
While the original founder animal was a Tanzanian flame, the paradox mutation has now been bred into other KSB lines from unknown origin.
The black blotches don't happen accidentally. They are connected to the albino gene and the two go hand and hand and are a simple recessive trait, just like most forms of amelanism.