Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys

I have seen a snake advertised as a pink T albino over here in the UK, can anyone shed some light on what these snakes look like and/or how they were produced?

Sorry that would be a T albino BULL

the T basically stands for tirosinase (the purple colours on albinos),theres T (positive)and T- (negative)so you will need to find out which one the snake is first.

Hope this helps mate.........rgds...AL

Cheers Al I understand T and negative (for some reason the signs havent showed in the original message) - can you explain the visual difference between the two strains?

Sorry the plus signs dont seem to show on the board, for the sake of clarity this is a T positive animal

Hi mate,good to see you on here

I know what you mean with the plus sign etc.
I don't own any bulls but im sure someone on here will post up some pics for you.

A tyrosinase( ) albino does not lack the tyrosinase enzyme like a true primary albino t(-). However, the amount of enzyme the animal produces is severely reduced. This results in very slow production of melanin (blue/black) from tyrosine. In some cases this means that the animal will slowly accumulate melanin during it's lifetime (I know this has been observed in boas) or the animal may appear to be cream/dusky colored where it would normally be black/blue

Thank you very much for the reply groberts - that's helped clear a few things up for me.
Hello to you too Al, should have known you'd be on here

Hi to you materemind me where i know you from my friend.

RGDS.........AL

I really don't think there are t albino bulls out there.There are some refined hypos that the brown (instead of black) has turned a light purple and the iris's are somewhat ruby looking.
I believe there are just hypos and albinos but no t amels.

L8r Shannon

Shannon is correct. In bullsnakes, there are two nonallelic forms of albinism. One form is so uncommon in collections now, that I'm not even sure they are even being bred any longer. Most (all?) albino bulls commonly sold are the Trumbower/Lubbock line. As far as anyone knows, these are T-negative albinos. There are also hypomelanistic bulls that are extremely variable. Some look like light brown bulls with lots of yellow and SOME are so light that the blotches are what Shannon describes. A few years ago, a large online vendor got some of the light hypos and tried to market them as T-positive albinos. Confusing? YES! Misleading? YES! I don't know if this was an honest or dishonest mistake, but it still confuses people today. These snakes, if what you are talking about is a hypo bullsnake, aren't true albino snakes at all - and they aren't a different gene, either.

There ARE two non-allelic forms of hypomelanism in bullsnakes, though.
KJ
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KJUN Snakehaven