Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone try and breed albino burms with dark eyes? They are beautiful snakes but could be improved if they had the lovely dark eyes of the naturals.

I think that would be scientifically impossible.

Albinism=amelanistic=no melanin.

Melanin is the dark pigment in our skin (and animals' coloration). The reason that an albino's eyes are red or golden is that it is lacking the dark pigment throughout it's body. When you see red eyes, you are seeing the blood vessels in the eyes (very rich blood supply), not a red color.

That is why people differentiate between an animal between leucistic and albino. leucistic=white (and can have dark eyes) whereas albino=not dark

Laura is right. They wouldn't be albinos due to the melanin in their eyes. Leucistic is the term for white snakes with dark eyes. Google "leucistic Burmese python" and "leucistic reticulated python" and take a look. They're beautiful!

It's said that two "hypo" Burmese pythons bred together can produce leucistics. I believe most of the hypos around are too young to reproduce this year but hopefully we'll see some leucistics a lil' over a year from now.

You also might want to take a look at some of the leucistic rat snakes. Some have bug eyes but there are some breeders that have magnificient breeders that produce gorgeous babies. Contact me & I can guide you to at least one. That's most likely my next snake purchase & will have to do me for several years for the price of a leucistic Burmese python to come with my price range.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Oh I have a young albino Texas Rat snake. Milk white with torquoise blue eyes. He is not violent tempered like the others we have around here. AKA "Piney Woods Pythons" Tex Rats grow up to 7.5'. If you find one in your chicken house it is cornered so they will rear up chest high and then its hand to handless combat. They will bite you bloody. So you have to fake them out with one hand, when they go for it and strike past you try and catch them behind the head with your other hand. Its quite an adrenalin rush. They are fine animals. I like a creature that will defend itself. They like to eat eggs, and also rats. You probably have something like it where you live.

Oh, its a LEUCISTIC rat snake that I've got.

OK I googled leucistic burmese and they are white and with the dark eyes. They are very beatiful but impress me as rather beady eyed. I was thinking of the lovely yellow patterned snakes such as my albino girl Honeybutter, but with colored eyes instead of pink. I like to see the vertical pupil. Isn't it interesting how the faces of other beings are important to humans?

I understand that albino means no pigment but ferrets, horses and rats come in dark eyed white. I am not talking about grey horse that have turned white. They are pink skinned horses with dark eyes. Somehow someone has added back into the albino dark eyes.

Hey, what about purple albino burms?

I knew you meant yellow Burms with dark eyes, but unless someone figures out how to genetically engineer the snake so that it has melanin in the eye but nowhere else, it just isn't going to happen.

I don't know about ferrets and rats, but I do know just a bit about horses. There is no albinism in horses because it is a lethal gene. There are gray horses that turn white, and white horses that are a sort of leucism, and quite rare. They typically have blue eyes but can have dark eyes, too, and pink skin. The white gene in horses is dominant Ww, homozygous WW is also lethal. People don't breed white horses together because of the risk of a dead foal.

Just a little off-topic. I can never post about snake breeding and snake genetics, so this just made me feel really good, HA HA!

Yes, you are a very good 'splainer'. I am talking about leucistic brown eyed horses. We can talk horse color genetics til we both fall over backwards. I have a tall Saddlebred palomino mare. Also a cremelo miniture horse stud. He's one frustrated little guy.

I went to classified and looked at purple albinos.(pythons) They are gorgeous. They look to have a little color in the eye. Can someone 'splain' purple albinos geneticly?

Darn, there goes my good feeling....just kidding! My jr high crush was my dun Welsh cob with the dorsal stripe and zebra striping on the hind legs. He was such a lovely, prancy big boy!

I have never heard of a purple albino...only green. Have you tried asking on the retic forum? I believe they are bred more than the Burms. I know you are asking about Burms, but there is more breeding/genetics talk over there.

Oh yes, theres lavender albinos and purple albino Burms you can see in the classifieds. I would not want a Retic. I hear they are aggressive.

And while I'm at it, why are people so obsessed with ball pythons? Who would want a fat stubby little shrimp?

you don't have to get a retic, but the breeders over there will luv to talk genetics.

The only albinos that come in the purple and lavender phases are retics, Burms only come in the normal albino phase, but i have heard of some hatchling burms coming out looking kind of lavender and change to a regular albino color shortly after. it would be awsome if they did though.

Rats.

"Rats."

No. Retics, not rats.

Since ya'll are horsin' around:

This is Blackfoot Traveler. A 2yr old 1/2 American Saddlebred & 1/2 Arabian stallion.
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

I accidentally posted that last post before I was finished.

Here is Diamond, a Quarter Horse, with her newborn foal, Rosie, a mule. This photo was taken about 8 yrs ago.

Rosie & my daughter.

Ya'll take care!
Mike
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Aww, all those pics are great, HH.

I miss being around horses. But the sad reality is that I don't have property and boarding is outrageous in the suburbs.

"I miss being around horses. But the sad reality is that I don't have property and boarding is outrageous in the suburbs."

HappyHillbilly has an answer for everything.

You really don't need a whole lotta space to keep horses as long as you give them plenty of exercise.

The story behind that photo is: When we first moved back to this area our house wasn't ready so we had to scramble to find a place to rent. That house was sooooo small I felt like a sardine in a can. Ugh!

Anyway, my mom & dad (pictured) were visiting from FL and I let Casper, the horse, out of his pasture to graze the yard. Casper LOVED dog food and would walk up the two steps to get on the front porch to eat it out of the dogs' bowls. I was inside the house & saw Casper standing at the screen door looking in, scoping things out. I jokingly opened the door and said, "Come on in!" And he did. Just as pretty & casually as you please.

I got my camera & took a picture, then my dad put my two kids on Casper, for another photo op. Casper was super smart & loved kids. He finally died of old age at the age 35, about 5 - 6 yrs after the above photo.

To show you that my sense of humor is hereditary, take a look at this next photo.

That is "Pooch," the family dawg from a 1963 photo. My dad dressed him up & put him in the pedal-car. Being the youngest of two boys, and a dawg, I was used to hand-me-downs. So it came as no surprise that I got Pooch's pedal-car when he outgrew it.

I hope these photos made you smile. Enjoy life! Share a smile!

Ya'll have a great day!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

The greatest horse of my life, and I have known 10, was a "pie eater". She was bay quarter horse thorobred cross mare who lived 40 years, most all of it with me. She raised me actually. Two wild fillys living together on the edge of a 230,000 acre park, the Point Reyes Natl. Seashore. She was the bravest and also the fastest of any horse I have known.

A pie eater, for those that don't know, is a cowboy term for a horse that breaks out of the remuda at night and eats from the cruck wagon while the hands are asleep. This mare had a liking for human food. You can imagine the hijinks.

I have a big BT who has strangely turned out to be a pie eater.