Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It finished coming out of the egg yesterday. I'm not sure on what to call it, maybe someone can help me out. I contacted Ric blair and sent him a few photos when it was just starting to come out of the egg but he has not seen this. This is way to cool! If anyone has any ideas, you can call me at 540-657-7614

Thanks, Curtis

I would guess that it's hypomelanistic. From my experience, hypo
graybands are variable in how light they actually are. The eyes
often have a slightly pinkish cast, but often look similar to
normal eyes. I can't see any red/orange on the photo, but it
looks like the snake might be an alterna phase with little or no
orange in the pattern. Can you see any orange up close? Can you
post or email me a higher resolution photo. Thanks and congrads!
http://www.io.com/~danjohns/herp/

Do you have pics of parents???????
Thanks
John Lassiter

.

hell, yeah!

Please tell us what it is when you find out!
Thanks,
Kevin

Congratulations!
Can you see any color at all on the snake in person?
If not, it looks like a leucistic to me.
Are the eyes normal or blue?
Thanks, LMS

It is not likely to be Leucistic, that is actually an abundance of white pigment. Exactly like Melanistic is an abundance of black pigment. I would expect a Leucistic animal to be a very bright white and pattern less in appearance.

This animal seems to be missing pigments, not overproducing it. I tend to side with Dan on this because the animal does not seem to have the characteristic pink eyes of an Amelanistic (albino) animal. But reduced black, on an exceptional scale seems to be one that fits.

Nice animal, I would love to see some of those high resolution pictures that make a dial up connection faint.

Leucism is NOT the over production of white pigments, but the absence of the cells which produce pigments.

~Katt
-----
~Katt

Actually, the basis of leucism, to quote H. Bernard Bechtel in "Reptile and Amphibian Variants Colors, Patterns, and Scales" states: "Microscopic examination of leucistic skin revels no visible melanophores or xanthophores and only a few iridophores. The manner in which the organism reads and processes the information on the mutated gene is unclear, but experimental evidence gained from axolotls indicates that the defect is within the white skin itself. In albinism and axanthism, the defect is inherent to the chromatophores themselves. In these two color defects, the chromatophores are present but non functioning. If normal chromatoblasts are transplanted into albino or axanthic skin, normal pigment cells establish themselves and synthesize their respective pigments. This is not the case in leucism. Evidence indicates that the tissue environment of the white skin is defective in some way and cannot support pigment cells. The exact nature of the defect is undetermined."
This snake appears to be completely white with darkly pigmented eyes.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
LMS

Here are the real questions...
1. Did it come from two wildcaught snakes?
2. If not, are you sure the parents are 100 percent alterna?

I think it looks a bit snowy to me. I don't know about hypomelanism but if anyone will know it will be Dan Johnson.

Get your wallets ready.

Steve