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The blond albinos are a new proven T albino mutation. The first babys were born many years ago. Me and Alain (Zenzinia) are working on this project and last years i had finally figured out what they are and how do they work genetically. Some of the babys have interesting pattern and those ale called zigzag blond albinos. These snakes are amazing and we cant wait to cross them with other boa morphs. Shortly i will finish an arcticle about T albinos and provide some explanation what the T albinos really are. Its not an easy subject. Hope you like the pictures.

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Gabor Kaminski

More pix.

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Gabor Kaminski

More pix.

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Gabor Kaminski

Congrats Gabor!!!!!!!! I am liking those a whole lot!!!!!! Beautiful zig zags!!!!!!!!

Andy
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Great looking animals! I especially like to two abberant ones.
It's amazing how many different lines of this mutation (or very similar mutations) there are out there now!

But one question..It was my understanding that no one had actually tested any reptiles to prove the presence or abscence of tyrosinase? According to the Barker work it's a simple test (involving dopa I think) but even with the results of this it would still not be conclusive regarding "T positive" being an accurate description for snakes showing this and similar mutations

I think that some of these T positive Colombians look like "classic" hypomelanistic animals to me. At least they look more like what's been called hypomelanistic in the past than they do the mutation that Caramel Ball Pythons, the Argentine Boas or the T positive Blood Pythons are exhibiting. I can see how with all the forms of dominant/incomplete dominant hypomelanism found in boas already it would be confusing to call them Hypomelanistic, but I think that's more descriptive of what they are...hypomelanism expresses itself in many reptile species as a recessive trait why not Boas? This is just my opinion, and it isn't meant as a slight toward ANY of these animals as I find them all to be quite beautiful and of course very desirable. And I reserve the right to 100% WRONG . Just a thought I wanted to throw out there to see if anyone else had any input?

Horridus

You are right, with the small exception that Rat snakes have been tested for dopa. There were two Albinos that appeared T-, they were bred together and all normal offspring resulted. Lab tests proved that one was T- the other T-positive.

I think these, the Prodigy, and possibly the Nicaraguan and Argentine versions will show to be Hypomelanistic type mutations. I think the VPI and Paradigm strains will be some form of Albino.
I also feel that given the result in the rat snake test that between Sharp and Kahl both are not T-negative.

For now it is important for people to realize we use these names to describe them and that we do not know what is going on on a chemical basis.
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http://www.GilbertBoas.com/

I will not talk about what I feel, just about what I have been workind on and see.
I think it would be to long and complexe to explain the albinisme in detail here, it will be done as said before. The first will be to explain that there are many forms of albinisme.
Back in the sixties, it's Dt Carl Witkop that has been the first to talk about (for humans) T positive albinisme also called yellow albinisme. Since, many form of albinisme have been described .....an albinos human is not only the common description of a guy with red eyes and white hairs, it's the same with cats,... and snakes !
One thing is true, by definition all the snakes that are not T negative are T positive...!? Yes, a pet boa is a T positive ! I could agree to say that this definition is not the best
Concerning this blood line, to make ot short, they don't have a pattern reduction like the hypo have, they have no black,( the picture don't do them justice), it's even more spectacular when they are adults, it's all about brown and lavender, the hypos have black. The blonds albinos' tongue is pink even translucide as shoxn on a pic I did, the hypo's have black tongues exept some patchy one .
There is lot to say ...but the day one get a T plus blonde albinos in his hands he understand .

Could you email me. chris.gilbertboa@gmail.com

I'd like you to write up something on your Magma Stripes for me to post on my website as well as a picture. If you have one taken outside or on a solid background that would be great.

Also, if you want to put something on there for this morph as well I can do that.
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http://www.GilbertBoas.com/

>>Concerning this blood line, to make ot short, they don't have a pattern reduction like the hypo have, they have no black,( the picture don't do them justice), it's even more spectacular when they are adults, it's all about brown and lavender, the hypos have black.

I am not comparing these to the incomplete dominant/dominant form of hypomelanism that is already established. It's obvious even allowing for some dark tones that resemble black as a photographic illusion that they are NOT the same thing. I am comparing these boas to the various other expressions of recessive hypomelanism in reptiles. Many of which have no black, some even border on albinism. There's at least four different non compatible strains of hypomelanism in cornsnakes for example...all are recessive (save the "ultra" which apparently expresses itself in the same manner as paradigm boas when bred to an amelanistic animal) I know there's many forms of amelanism. There's many forms of hypomelanism as well, and in my opinion these are better described as recessive hypos than amelanistics T positive or otherwise. Sorry if you took this as I was saying your animals are the same thing as the existing incomplete/dominant hypos, that was not my intention. I think Blonde Albino is a great trade name for them, I only wanted to hear other's opinions about tyrosinase being responsible for the appearance. Great looking snakes!

H. B. (Bern) Bechtel tested albinos in several species of snake. Rat snakes, corn snakes, and at least one other. For what it's worth, the amelanistic mutant in corn snakes is tyrosinase negative. But as far as I know, no boa or python albino has been tested for tyrosinase activity.

In my opinion, calling so many different mutant genes "T-positive" makes as much sense as calling every animal that is not a dog a cat. That would lump horses and mice into the "cat" category.

The pro geneticists give each mutant a unique name. In my opinion, each boa mutant should have a unique name. That would avoid arguments as to whether a mutant is hypomelanistic or T-positive albino. And eventually the biochemists with tell us exactly what the mutants are doing.

By the way, the evidence that I have seen indicates that paradigm boas have a Sharp albino mutant gene paired with a boawoman caramel mutant gene. There is precedent for this scenario in the black rat snake (tyrosinase positive albino and another mutant), in the corn snake (amelanistic and ultra), and a variety of other species of animals.

Paul Hollander

Paul, you are right on some points so you should have talked about DNA since in albinisme about 50 gènes can be concerned !

What is an amelanistique ? Wich melanine are we talking about ?
What kind of tests have been done ? Tyrosine ?.. Dopa ?.. dopaquinone ?.. DHICA oxydase ?.. dopachrome tautomerase ?..
Are the sharp T positive or T negative ? Any tests done ?
Considering that in the herp community the name used to describe the phenotype we have have often been given without having proper tests done, only understood with the basic Mendel dominant and recesive laws. I will stay humble and only compare existing phenotypes untill I can compare identical protocoles results done on the different morphs.
By this time, we will continue to work and breed them with different morph.

>What is an amelanistique ? Wich melanine are we talking about ?

An amelanistic corn snake has the red (pyridine based, I think) pigment but lacks the black pigment (eumelanin).

>What kind of tests have been done ? Tyrosine ?.. Dopa ?.. dopaquinone ?.. DHICA oxydase ?.. dopachrome tautomerase ?..

Dopa, I believe. Bechtel had a paper in one of the 1985 issues of the Journal of Heredity about rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta) mutants. That would have details of the test he used, because as far as I know, he used the same test for the corn, too. I'd give the corn snake paper reference, but I can point you to the rat snake reference quicker. I'd have to look up the corn snake reference.

>Are the sharp T positive or T negative ? Any tests done ?

Unknown because no tests have been done, as far as I know.

Paul Hollander

Thanx, im glad you like them.

So, we call them T+ albinos not hypomelanistic because : reduction of black pigmentation, brown/lavender/orange body colors, lavender/purple tongues, red eyes (only with a special light, normally black), lack of black on the snake shed, recessive trial... Hypo boas look like that.
VPI Caramel, boawoman caramel, Prodigy, Argentine T+, Nic T+ and our Blond albinos look similar, not the same but they all exibit the details that i mentioned above.
We could name the Blond albinos as hypos but in that case we would have to call all the other T+ albinos hypos as well. Is that make any sense? We gave the new blood line a new name but the basic thing is the same.
I dont think that any dopa or other tests will give us anwears on the question - hypo or T+ albino. Acually its almoust the same thing but they work biochemically in a different way. I will explain more in my article shortly.

Friendly

Gabor

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Gabor Kaminski

Why is this strain of animal being given so much trouble, when just the other day the "prodigy" was shown and not given near the arguements. I have no arguement, it's a very nice animal, but my point is the same. No offense to anybody, but it gets ridiculous when one breeder can produce a new strain ONE TIME and call it genetic, while the next guy can have a new strain from several breedings in multiple seasons and they're overshadowed with doubt. The magma gets doubt as well, but everyone jumped right on the Jungle train when we thought the Super Jungle was just a Jungle. There is no question the "Blonde Albino" is different and obviously genetic...is it a T pos? I don't know, but can anyone prove that Barkers are T pos? As far as I know this has just been an assumption. Just had to vent, feel free to tear me apart, it just gets old some times. Take care

Paul

I agree with you Paul.. It comes down to politics and people not wanting to kick up a fuss. If more people were questioned regardless of past production the Boa hobby wouldn't be slowly but surely working its way toward the Ball hobby where "if its different, and unproven you better label it before someone else does".
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

I thought about this before I posted the question
and I apologize AGAIN if anyone think I am saying anything to
slight this strain...I am not....and for the record I think
it's the same thing as the Barkers, and the Prodigy...and
I think they are all recessive hypos. I guess I should have
started a new thread rather than piggyback this on this guys
photos. I think they are beautiful, obviously genetic, I just
thought perhaps they might be exhibiting a different mutation
than the the originator obviously does, theres been quite a bit
of good thoughts thrown out there regarding this mutation now
but just to make it clear one more time....I don't think these
are anything but a beautiful genetic mutation of Boa...

who knew Hypo would get such a bad reaction

been known as t for a while? I ask cause I know others in europe with that line and they've been cvalling them T for a little while now? Anyways congrats on the litter they look great! Can't wait to get me hands on one!

Ruben Michel

me and my friend sold a couple of them in the Europe a few years back. They were known only as T . This and last year i have finally proved what they are so i named them Blond albino boas. My friends agreed that its a good name for this mutation...

Take care

Gabor
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Gabor Kaminski

Lets see some pics of the "origin" of all this " since it is somehting you work on for " many years " as you say ....

Alain Hotte ( Zenzinia ) Are these part of the "ONE " you sent me pics off in 2005-2006 .... The one you supposingly found in a petstore and that you thought was a T+ and asking me what I was thinking about it ? Let me guess .... its another "new line" not related to these guys and to any other line ?

Thanks

Stav