It’s all about semantic in the herp community ! Some examples:
Melanine is commonly used to describe a black pigment, that is not correct, what about phaenomelanine ? Some collorfull albinos are called amelanistic, what is the correct definition of an amelanistique ? Without eumelanine only ?
What is an hypomelanistic ? Wich % in reduction of black melanin is acceptable to call a boa a hypo ?
Hypo just means less than the “normal” as hyper means more, so we can say that :
- Pastels are hypo’s
-Hogg islands are hypos.
-Salmons are hypos
-Carmels are hypos
-VPI caramel are hypos
- Blonde albinos are hypos
...........
They all have more or less reduction of black melanine but they all are really different both in phenotype and genetic. Some are polygenic and not very predictable, some are dominant and some are simple recessive.
Albinos ? What is the definition of albinism?
How many form of albinisme for humans ? Mouses, cats, fish ?
How many T negative formes?
How many T positive forms ?
With a little reseach you will get the answers.
The different forms of albinism have now been understood and classified by the genes and the progress of DNA sequences and not only with chimical tests. We are not talking about 1 gene but about 50 in some cases. So with reptiles, we can only learn from studies done on other species . As far as I know this has not been done for boas.
With boas we have to draw upon one’s own ressources to understand what is going on. We have 3 ressources, their phenotype, the breeding, and the description of the different forms of albinism studied in other species, human, mouses, cats, .... There is T positive cat, you all have seen it and don’t know it is one, wich one ?
Sharp, T positive or not ?
Carmel hypo, T positive or not ?
Since they are compatible they have to share the genetic answer that could also explain why Kahl and Sharp stain are not compatible !? More breeding with other strain will give us answers.
As said before, there are different form of T positive albinisme, with different phenotypes, more or less dark pigment, in some it allow the devellopement of dark pigments with age, in some cases that will only be located on specific places.
So, how a T positive boa should look like ?
First of all, the phenotype should be inheritable and only expressed in it’s homozygote form, recessive genes. So, pastels, salmon, ... are not T positive.
About the color of the eyes, 2 things ; first the color of the iris, second the color of the retina and not the pupil (as often said) wich is trabslucide and let by dilatation more or less light go to the retina;
Does he need to have red iris ? Retina ? Or both ?
Does the T positive human have red eyes ? NO ! Some T postive mouses even have black eyes !
So a T positive boa doesn’t not need to have red eyes . Surprise !
Something special about T positive because of tyrosine problems, it allow more or less devellopement of dark pigment and some part can be without dark pigments while others will have some.
Some examples with the “blonde albinos” :
-What is the color of the tongue of a boa ? Black, right ?
All the blonde albinos have a pink translucide tongue, there is no melanine. They share that with the Kahl, Sharp and VPI stain. I alleady have posted pics on the forum.
-Do boas get darker with age ? Yes, all of them because they devellope different melanines with age and we would be happy to avoid that, isn’t it ?.
The “blond albinos are not darkening like” normal” boas, because they don’t devellope dark melanine with age, like the othe T positive stain.
- Where do we find the most concentration of black on a boa ? Around the tail and the most on the side . In the blond albinos, even adults don’t have black on the sides around the blotches.
Here is one of my pair, the darker and less collorfull one. Breeding pic at 4 years, not the pair that produce my previous litter. Grey lavender, no black, just like they were as babies exept for the yellow, blonde, caramel color that they devellope with age, like the other stain..
Here is a new born, 2 days old, no black, grey and lavender on the tail, it will not have more when adult and it will not get darker.
Why did we called our strain “blonde albinos”?
How is also called the positive albinive for humans ? The yellow albinisme.
With age, our strain devellope phaenomelanine, they get more yellow, caramel, blonde, carmel, .. Whatever the word used, they also share that caracteristic with the other strain.
In conclusion, if you did not felt asleep, these are some of the reasons that lead us to say that the “blonde albinos” are T positive. Not to mention, that like for the VPI, they produce abberancies, widow pics, a special pattern, and it also appear that, I produce in my litter some clean and collorfull one that remind me the so called “pink panther “.
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Our strain has not been refined yet . I just did a F2 homozygote breeding. We are just scratching the potential of the T positive blonde albinos,, with red pastels, they will have no black, will keep their colors and will not devellope dark pigment with age ! They will clean up blood lines without adding colors like the salmons do.......
Remember how you see them, on pics, through a more less adjusted sreen, having them in hands makes the difference !
PS; Please excuse, my bad English.
