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It was asked below by jdillow, but I feel as it will get overlooked.

How does the amout of yellow in a normal affect the offspring of an axanthic?

With my SK Axanthic on the way soon, I guess it would be something I'd like to know.

Thanks!

-John

So think of it in these terms, axanthic is the drastic reduction, or absence of yellow pigment(most axanthics are more along the lines of hypoxanthic, rather than true axanthic).

So it would be much like an albino, if it is a very dark snake(cinnamon pastel, sable, etc.) and you make an albino version, it would contain large amounts of white(where all the dark pigment would be). In this case, a high yellow axanthic would make the snake have a "cleaner" look as an axanthic, since there is a higher concentration of areas that will be affected. Would be similar if you made a pastel axanthic(see the axanthic bee's that NERD produced for a perfect example of this phenomenon).

Hope this helps, and sorry if there are typos, was typing up real quick at work,

-Dan

I never looked at it that way. In other words, the more "stuff" that is altered the more the desired traits can show up. Thanks for the input.

In similar news, I have heard that cinny-albinos can makes some pretty nice patterns.

-John

would it be better to use a snake with high yellow and low brown (light) to make nice axanthics? Because although I have seen "axanthics" with small amounts of yellow it seems the biggest problem is with them turning brown.
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A bunch of healthy, happy snakes.

From what I can discern (and I am far from being any type of expert) Axanthism unlike Albanism does not eliminate yellow entirely and can show varying degrees of yellow (which may be why they brown out?).

If this is the case - I would think a normal with genetically less yellow would be better than one with more.

But I could be wrong - probably am - this is a great question for those working with the morph.
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Tosha

the brown on a ball is a mixture of all the colors that they can display but this doesn't make sense to me because I have seen axanthics that have no visible yellow in the white part of their alien heads near the belly but dark brown in the dark part.
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A bunch of healthy, happy snakes.

As far as I know, yellow is related, but not the cause of brown pigment. Yellow will cause the brown to appear lighter in color, and less like black, but does not CAUSE the brown.

Think of it like this, with the T albinos(Caramel albinos) they do not produce melanin(black) pigment, but they do produce the darker intermediary colors, such as browns(don't appear as a true brown though since melanin is lacking). Maybe this is similar to our situation we are discussing for axanthics, that this browning out is really just the tyrinase(sp?) expression.

Just came up with this in my head, only theory, but seems to make sense, if anyone wants to throw in some thoughts or refutations please feel free, since this is rather interesting

-Dan

"From what I can discern (and I am far from being any type of expert) Axanthism unlike Albanism does not eliminate yellow entirely and can show varying degrees of yellow (which may be why they brown out?)."

I agree with your point about the non-total reduction of yellow pigment(xanthic), which is why technically most axanthics should be called "Hypoxanthics", meaning reduction; but not total removal of xanthic chromatophores(color producing cells).

I do however contest your point about less yellow in a line making a better looking axanthic. Think of it this way, if you want the best contrast to an albino, you would want a more melanistic animal(so with the albino gene involved it would remove more pigment, creating a cleaner look). Same goes with axanthic, if you want to make a clean animal you need a line that has high yellow and low brown, then turn it axanthic and boom all yellow gone, only black and white/cream pigments remaining, for an example see the axanthic bees NERD produced.

Hope this makes sense, and if you see any holes in my argument please feel free to let me know.

Dan

"would it be better to use a snake with high yellow and low brown (light) to make nice axanthics?"

In short, yes the more yellow(xanthic aka pastel) the line has, the cleaner looking the axanthic/hypoxanthic would be, at least at birth. As I said before, look at the Axanthic Bees, witht he spider adding alot of yellow/gold to the color scheme, it makes the pattern much more contrasting between the black and white, with less intermediary pigments.

"Because although I have seen "axanthics" with small amounts of yellow it seems the biggest problem is with them turning brown."

Yes, this does seem to be the true definition of what a "Nice" axanthic is, with animals low in brown being the most highly sought. Brown pigment comes in with age, and this is displayed perfectly in the axanthics, they start out as black and white hatchlings, and end up looking as adults much like a dull normal because of the brown. A good example of this is comparing a hatchling Red Axanthic with a full grown adult Red Axanthic.

I would say that if you wanted to create the perfect "Axanthic" phenotype(all genes combined to create the "Look" that we see, example would be a Pastel Spider's phenotype would be "Bee" you would want to incorporate a pastel line, an axanthic line known for reduced brown pigment, and the fire line as well(these animals seem to get better with age, and don't seem to brown out at all with age, maybe they are the gene for negation of browning pigment?).

Just my 2 cents, hope this helps, and anymore questions let me know,
Dan

Yeah that's pretty much what I thought. Thanks for the reply.
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A bunch of healthy, happy snakes.