Well I am pretty sure I have figured out the mystery! I have poured over all of my detailed records and pictures and done a lot of comparing, reasoning, and deducting and there is ONLY ONE conclusion I can come to. It is another Hypo Harlequin Litter! I bred a Hypo Harlequin male to a Super Hypo Harlequin female who had babies on 4/7/09. She had thrown me for a loop as well because I had her ovulation listed as 10/24/08 and her POS as 11/6/08 making her due around 2/16/09 - 2/24/09 but then she shed on 2/5/09. I knew she was gravid and getting closer but just had to wait for her to drop them on April 7th. The thing about that is that since I thought she was gravid I would have removed the male between the ovulation and the shed date. I failed to notate that in my "detailed records". I also did not notate the Sharp male going in with Kist, the mother of this mystery litter, until 11/15. I was waiting for an available male since all of my other pairings were higher priority and I was saving the Sharp male for a het Sharp female that I wanted to get a few more meals into. Unfortunately, she didn't want to eat during breeding season so I gave her the year off and decided to put him with Kist. I now seem to recall putting the Hypo Harlequin in with her for maybe a week before I made the decision to wait on the het female. I somehow failed to enter either that I put him in or took him out into my "detailed records" as well. I was still in very bad shape from my injury at the time and in a whole lot of pain. I spent less than 2 hours a day out of bed so I guess I let one slip by me. All other hypo males were accounted for the whole season so he is the only one it could have been. I also found a paper I had put all of my potential pairings on with 2nd females for some males and had listed both the Hypo Harlequin and Sharp albino males as mates for her IF they finished with their first pairings. She was the left over female and the only one who didn't get a mate on 10/15/09. I also noticed this funny attribute in the first litter from the Hypo Harlequin male in which there are little dots between the dorsal saddles on several animals. This "mystery litter" has some with the same thing. The Harlequin gene would also explain some of the aberrancies and the fantastic color! Here is the picture proof I put together minus the smoking gun; the picture of them together. I can now guarantee that the litter her sister has WILL be Hypo Jungles. Any day now I think!
This is Screamer, Kist's sister from today. She is the one due Monday officially.
Here she is with the Hypo Jungle.
This is Kist with the Sharp. See the differences in these girls?
Here with the babies.
This is the Possible Super Hypo Harlequin litter. Notice the spots between the dorsal saddles?
Do these look familiar? This is the "mystery litter".
I think the mystery is solved! Now I suppose some of the normals 'could' be het for Sharp albino but I won't even entertain that idea. They (non-hypos) will be sold as normals.
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Ty Hege
Rat Race Solutions
www.ratracesolutions.com
I bet it's a releif to have figured it out and now you know what they are. Have a nice weekend,
