Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what does this mean. what do you need to breed to get them. what do they look like.
thanks for your time

I don't have the time to explain it but regular albino's are considerd t negative. I know that doesn't help much but i'm out the door. Here's a pick of one.

How do you know that that’s a T boa? Is it the bleached out saddles on the upper half of its body. What do you get if you breed two T or is it the same as an albino and you don’t want to weaken the bloodline? Is this basically what they all look like?
Thanks for your time.

I've seen this T in person.

I LOVE that snake Ruben!

doing great and hopfully will have a lat year for me. He could've gone now i'm sure but he's female was a lot bigger then I thought. Well.....you know the story but for anyone else who's wondering.

T positive is a name without biochemical significance. It is what people call a couple of mutant genes that lighten a boa constrictor's color. As I understand it, these snakes are roughly halfway (or maybe a bit lighter) in color between normals and albinos. There are probably photos on the web, but I don't have a link off the top of my head. As far as I know, despite having a similar effect, the mutant genes have no biochemical or genetic relationship. Which is why they would be better off with unique names.

Both mutant genes are reputed to be recessive to their normal versions. In other words, to get either one, both parents must have at least one copy of the mutant.

T positive comes from "Tyrosinase positive". Tyrosinase is one of many enzymes required to make melanin (black pigment). Since these "T-positives" have some black pigment, they must have a functional tyrosinase enzyme. Albinos (no black pigment and pink eyes) are believed to lack the tyrosinase enzyme, which is why they are called tyrosinase negative.

Unfortunately, this scheme is too simplistic. Some albinos lack all black pigment because they lack tyrosinase, and other albinos lack all black pigment in spite of having a functional tyrosinase enzyme. Instead, they lack some other enzyme required to make black pigment. Nobody has tested Kahl and Sharp albinos to see which has functional tyrosinase and which lacks it. Maybe both have functional tyrosinase.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander

Just to add to what's been said already. If you look at a T albino, many times the black that would be surrounding the tail saddles will often times be more of a purple, or faded black than an actual black. (like some hypos)

This happens because, though they are able to produce the Tyrosene in amounts, it is not properly synthesized, do to some deficiencies, and rarely turns an actual black.

At least, this is the way I have learned the difference. I'm hardly a biologist though. LOL
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

>>Just to add to what's been said already. If you look at a T albino, >>

Should have read T
-----
Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

POSITIVE, PLUS,
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

Here are some pics as well to give you an idea.

Pics with a Pastel for comparison.

Pics with a Hypo:

Here is your average PK Albino.

Very nice looking snake, now I can see the difference. I tend to see T nic but haven’t seen any BBC's that look like this for sale. Or am I just missing them or are they that rare and so probably quite pricey?

VPI has them as I believe Caramel Boas or Caramel Albinos and occasionally offers a few for sale along with hets.

Mike at Basically Boas has them as Paradigm Boas which he produced from breeding a Sharp Albino X Caramel boas (Hypo line)from Boawoman.

They range in price from $10,000-$12,500 for VPI's line and $12500-$17500 for Mike's line. I think that's about right...