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These are some of my ruthvens from justin mitcham. Definite het. for stripe. But I've noticed that one seems to be hypo or have some discoloration. She is not in the blue either. They are both yearlings and I have noticed this difference for some time now. What do you all think? Maybe it is common with stripes since they can be rather variable.

It would seemingly be more dramatic if it were.

they dont like hypo, they look like normal Ruthveni. Neat snakes though. In what we call "hypos" the look of a hypo is having the black bands have that "brownish-lavender color", the black still looks black on both of those snakes,
jeff

I have noticed the same thing...some come out with a very slight grey black look, with very narrow black bands.. usually only 1-1.5 scales wide with no crossovers etc..interesting to see what happens through selective breeding.
On that note I would like to remind the posters of what the very 1st hypo hondurans looked like, in fact even today some hypo's can easily be mixed up with normals and you would never know the difference unless you knew what to look for.. saying all "hypos" should have a certain look no matter what species or ssp. is not correct. For example just look at the differences between hypos and vanishing pattern hypo's etc.. Through breeding certain traits can be enhanced.

Hey Justin are you still breeding the stripe Ruthven's what I mean is do you have anymore that are Het for Stripe??
thanks,
Joe Acosta

I was going to say the same thing. Also with my hypo coastals some look like clean normals and others almost look albino. I think that particular charactoristic is worth working with!

I agree, hypos do not all look the same. In every ssp. of hypomelanistic animals, there are darker ones to lighter ones. I have talked in detail about this with many people. Take Honduran Milks, some are almost black, and seem to have normal colored eyes, then you have ones with ruby eyes and lighter dark bands, then look at the "extreme" hypos. They all come from the same animals. I think its just a matter of what genes line up. So there is a whole spectrum of the gene and how it shows itself. I have seen many different looking hypo strains of Cal.Kings too. Same with the Az.Mtn.Kings, the hypos from both strains-(BHB hypos and Sentz line hypos) can be vary much from one to the other. Just wanted to be clear that I dont think hypos have only 1 look and they have to fall into that look. I just think, and to me and could be from the pics, but it doesnt seem hypo to me. I've seen different shades of black on pyros before.
Jeff

here's a better pic for you..now tell me if this doesn't strike you as possibly being hypo...super clean, no tipping , black bands only 1-1.5 scales wide. Pretty neat.

here's another pic..this is of a striped notice how dark the black is on this particular animal.

Here's a pic of a possible hypo striped, although she is in blue in the pic you can get an ideal of how reduced here black is compared to another sibling. I think it is safe to say something is going on here..

Ya know simple reccesive is a common term. One day I was speaking with a well known Honduran breeder about vanishing patterns and I mentioned the term complex reccesive. He kind of gasped and said he thought it was funny how he'd never summed it up so simply as things that are complex take a lot of explanation.

It's a good way to say there's the possibility of more going on than you'd see with typical hets. I think of this with a few colubrids out there, and sometimes wonder if things that are more so complex reccessive over ride the influence of selective breeding. In other words it may be why we see variation within a clutch as far as the degree of what we hope will prove to be Hypos.

Look at Tangerine Albinos. I have heard some call the ones which are not screamers "low grade" Tangerine Albinos. It is still the morph, but the degree in which the screaming bright sheen expresses itself can be muted or turned up to its maximum brightness. Also consider that some gorgeous snakes came from average looking parents. I would not be surprised if a very reduced black version of Justins snake appears. It would be great if it could be reproduced with consistency. It'd be a Hypo in my book. If that's so we'd look back at these pics and see this is where the line started. Like in Pyros, the Amel and Hypo would come from the same line[ I think some of these are het Amel are they not justin?]....with striping to boot. Tom Stevens
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