Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is brindle? Is it just a fancy name for hypomelanistic, or is it more than that?

I just got a hatchling brindle 66%het whiteside, along with various other whitesides and hets, and I was just curious. This little girl to me just looks like a hypo black rat. I realize that she should develop some red as she gets older.

I would just like to know what I have.

Thanks in advance,
Brian Miller
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BC Reptiles
Reptile Breeders and Outfitters
www.bcreptiles.net
bc_reptiles@yahoo.com

Brindle has less melanin than a normal black rat snake. But I don't think it is analogous to the hypomelanistic mutant in the corn snake. The information I've seen on this forum indicates that brindle is a sexlinked mutant, and hypomelanistic in the corn is not sexlinked.

Paul Hollander

the same type as an Albino - no correlation to a Hypo. I have seen both male & female Brindles. They are simply defined as an animal that has a mixture (percentages can lean either way) of "Albino-like" & normal pigmentation. In other words reds & blacks(grey) mixed throughout the animal. The colouration is much easier to recognize in an adult animal than a neonate. Here is a pic. of my female.....

First an fyi, Brian's animals came on trade from us, so any opinions are not to be considered impartial Also, seriously, please don't hesitate to contact us directly with this type of question - ask anybody on this forum - we'll give you good answers.

I can confirm Michael's point that the brindle trait is a simple recessive trait. Yvonne and I have produced both male and female brindles both with and without the whitesided trait crossed in. I'm attaching a pic of our first yearling whiteside brindle and will follow up this message with a picture of a brindle. (Michael, are you still thinking about trading for some brindle whitesides?)

Myexotix

This male is also 66% het for whitesided, but the phenotype is still a brindle.

Myexotix

Manny,

I wasn't trying to "avoid" you. I was just interested in trying to find out more about the brindle gene. I was looking online and really couldn't find any info...so I decided to ask here.

I didn't even think of asking you.

By the way, all those babies I got from you look great! The whitesides are awesome!

Brian Miller
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BC Reptiles
Reptile Breeders and Outfitters
www.bcreptiles.net
info@bcreptiles.net

Oh, I didn't think there was anything wrong with your asking at all. On the contrary. I just wanted to invite you (and anybody else for that matter) to correspond with us anytime.

Glad you are enjoying our animals... I never get tired of hearing comments like yours.

Manny
MYEXOTIX

This doesn't answer the question that was asked, but it is somewhat related. I just thought I would share. The first ever brindle was WC and given to Dr. H. Bernard Bechtel. Not knowing what this new morph was, he decided to breed it to an Amel. As we now know, he got all het. for albino and het. for bridle(normal looking). The next year, he bred it to a normal male, and got all het for brindle again. I don't know what else was tried, but the point of the story is that most if not all of the brindles on the market originated from this single WC female and her offspring. Therefore a lot of brindles today are het for amel. I know a couple breeders that get a couple Amel babies out of their brindle clutchs. Lets here if anyone else ever experiences this? Another topic that was always tossed around was the fact that brindle is a sex-linked trait. I bred a male brindle x normal female which resulted in all normal looking babies this year. But one thing that I did notice about brindles is that the high white or very light colored morphs of brindle always seem to be males. All the female brindles I have seen are dark brown or black without a lot of white. I'd be interested to see some pics of your brindles if anyone has some.
Thanks
Jason Vasses

The first ever brindle was WC and given to Dr. H. Bernard Bechtel. Not knowing what this new morph was, he decided to breed it to an Amel. As we now know, he got all het. for albino and het. for bridle(normal looking). The next year, he bred it to a normal male, and got all het for brindle again. ...the point of the story is that most if not all of the brindles on the market originated from this single WC female and her offspring.

Not exactly true. The original brindle was in fact male. See:
Bechtel, H.B., and E. Bechtel. 1985. Genetics of color mutations in the snake, Elaphe obsoleta. Journal of Heredity. 76:7-11.

The original breeding was done in 1977 and a wild type female was bred to the brindle male. The results are listed on page 10 of the aformentioned reference. It wasn't until 1982 that Bechtel crossed the brindle to a tyrosinase positive albino.

I know a couple breeders that get a couple Amel babies out of their brindle clutchs. Lets here if anyone else ever experiences this?

I've been producing brindles for several years and have never hatched an albino. Guess I'm just not that lucky? Actually I'm glad albinism is not present in my bloodline. That would defeat the purpose right? If the goal is to produce brindles and you are getting albinos.... that would not be cool. There shouldn't be any differences colorwise between a regular albino and a double recessive 'albino brindle.' If there were differences it would be because the brindle might have a small percentage of yellow or grey rat blood in it since the original brindle was caught in an intergrade zone.

Another topic that was always tossed around was the fact that brindle is a sex-linked trait. I bred a male brindle x normal female which resulted in all normal looking babies this year. But one thing that I did notice about brindles is that the high white or very light colored morphs of brindle always seem to be males. All the female brindles I have seen are dark brown or black without a lot of white. I'd be interested to see some pics of your brindles if anyone has some.

I don't feel brindles are a sex linked trait, that's for sure. There is a tendency for males to be lighter than females, but its definitely not cut and dried. I've seen light females and also dark males, so you never know. Personally I've never bred a brindle male to a normal female, but I do know Dr. Bechtel did and his results are published in the reference cited above.

I'll post some brindle pics in a new thread.

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Dwight Good
http://www.kingsnake.com/obsoleta