I thank you Doug for posting that message I had sent you in regards to that hypoerythristic that was in question. I was extremely busy last night and having continuous problems with my internet and area network.
Again, I have no doubts that the animal Chris has added to his collection is indeed a pure hypoerthristic. Not only do many of my own adult animals (hypoerythristics) resemble this snake, I seem to recall the breeder, Josh Martin, having hypoerthristic sinaloans at one time; animals that originated from the adults that I had received from Dr. Pete Cragg years ago and continue to work with today.
Now as far as the history is concerned, Pete Cragg recalls his discovery of the mutation and progress with the animals in a document he had once written several years ago for his website.
In his own words, it reads:
"A single pale Sinaloan male was produced in 1997, from a pair of typical, average looking, oddish red colored Sinaloans. The yellow bands on this snake are white, the bright black bands seem to be unchanged, while the red bands are a pale orange. There is a pronounced black fishnet effect on the pale orange bands when viewed at certain angles. We were fortunate to add this hypo male, and his parents to our collection in 1998.
The original breeding was repeated in 1998, with the hatching of two more hypo-erythristic babies. These two hypo females are a much drabber, duller, darker orange color when compared to their older brother. Their color is fading with age to the same pumpkin orange of their older brother.
In 1999 the het hypo-erythristic female laid 7 eggs, five rotted, one skinny snake (a hypo) hatched three days early and died. Another even paler male hatched on time. That is two hypos out of seven eggs laid.
In 2000, the male has bred to the original het-hypo (mother) female, and two 1998 possible het-hypo anerythristic and a hypo erythristic females.
The red bands on freshly hatched babies may look pale red to even an off white. After the first shed they are a dull brownish orange color. With each shed produces a duller orange. By late spring these snakes become paler and more unusual looking. By a year of age they are a pumpkin orange. The older adult male has become even paler to a straw orange color. Until proven otherwise we are calling this mutation hypo-erythristic."
Great discoveries were on the horizon with these animals. Once it was proven that the hypoerythristics were recessive, Dr. Cragg began producing small numbers of double hets from breeding the original hypoerythristic male into Moody Line albino Nelson's Milk snakes. Before he was to move forward, he sadly suffered a stroke and was no longer able to care for his animals the way he wanted to. While recovering, Dr. Cragg graciously offered to me his entire collection. I guess he saw the potential to keep his work going strong.
Now, in moving forward to the present. All of the animals, with the exception to the original male's parents (who eventually died) are doing extremely well, producing several beautiful hypoerthristics over the last 5 or 6 years. Many of the older adults are now over 50 inches, continuing to get lighter and lighter as the years go by.
Although I won't get much into my future plans, I hope to see some exciting results with the hypos being integrated into the splotched, vanishing pattern, patternless and aberrant albinos.
Thanks to all that took the time to read this, hope it gave a few a little insight to the history of these marvelous looking animals.
Nathan Wells
