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So...follow along if you will...

We all know that the various lines of axanthics out there have proven to be incompatible. I presume we know this because someone bred a Jollif axanthic and a Barker axanthic (or TSK, whatever) and produced all normal appearing babies.

It dawns on me that all of these babies would have been het for both strains (yep, this leads to the question......).

Did it end there? Did anyone ever breed those double hets out? People talk alot about which strain of axanthic is "best". Isn't it possible that a "double axanthic" might be even cleaner, or nearly 100% without yellow even as adults? We have no idea why each strain does what it does, so...Isn't it possible that a "double homo axanthic" could lead to a perfect snow, pure white with red eyes? What about a triple homozygous axanthic?

I think I understand why no one has poured alot of effort into this, but it is intriguing, no?

I'd love for the Barkers or Sutherlands to chime in on this topic...

I'm not sure anyone has bred the homozygous versions of the different strains together. At least with the VPI to Snake Keeper test I heard about there was a het on at least one side of the test. Not sure what the VPI to Jolliff test was or if any of the other possible line crosses have been done at all.

I think it would be worth a try to see if the double homozygous axanthic would be better. Maybe there is a different source to the yellow that creeps in with age to different lines and two lines would compliment each other. However, the hard part might be identifying that 1 in 16 double homozygous even if someone was willing to breed the two original homozygous axanthics from the different lines together to produce for sure double hets to kick the project off. If the double homozygous wasn't stunningly different at hatching you might have to raise all of the axanthic babies up and do lots of breeding experiments to confirm that you probably have a double homozygous.

Hmm...if the original tests were homo of one type to het of another, how do they know they didn't just miss?

As far as telling the difference between a double homo baby and a single hom baby of one type or another, I was thinking that could be a problem. I suppose its also possible that a double homo would look different at hatching. I wish someone with the resources would give this a go. It's the "science" of this hobby that keeps me interested....

I think there where quite a few babies produced with no axanthics so while it's possible they just missed on the het VPI X TSK cross (can’t remember if homozygous or het on the TSK side) the odds where pretty low if the het VPI was a real het.

The good side of lower prices is that more people now have the resources to try something like this. It would still a fairly pricey endeavor to dedicate an adult pair of visual morphs to just to be certain. You would be tempted to use those animals for a more profitable project.

It also might be complicated by the fact that the original cross was done some years ago and if you where to pick up one of each line today it could be a descendent of the original cross and het for the other without you knowing it. There may actually be unidentified double homozygous animals out there already.