Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, I want to ask the experts here what really consitutes a RAPTOR.

The acronym says "ruby eyed patternless tremper orange". However, I see RAPTORs for sale that vary greatly in the level of pattern, from completely pattrenless to very patterned animals that just look like regular Trempers.

What exactly constitutes the "patternless" of a RAPTOR. Does this mean actually patternless, or no brown spots, or what?

I tracked the breeding of two Tremper albino het raptors this season (my first time with het RAPTORs). Most of the babies were normal Trempers. One was rubey-eyed with dark ruby red eyes, but not exactly what I would call "patternless" Would this be a Rubey-eyed Tremper, and not a real RAPTOR? One other was a beautiful very colorful and truly patternless orange baby. Would this be an APTOR?

Maybe I'm being picky, but are there a lot of Rubey-eyed Trempers out there being labled as RAPTORs just because they have ruby eyes?

What really constitutes a RAPTOR? or an APTOR for that matter?

I'll try to help but I am by no means an expert so anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I think that the "paternless" in the RAPTOR is a line bred trait, not the recessive paternless trait that often comes to mind, and therefore has a highly variable appearance. Therefore the degree of "paternless" can be different from animal to animal and you can have better RAPTOR's than others. I think the main things that it should posses are:

1. the eclipse gene that make the eyes solid
2. the albino gene
3. a reduced pattern, maybe not completely gone but much more reduced than normal

I believe, and I could be wrong here, that if it possesses these then it is a RAPTOR.
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"There is a grandeur in this view of life... from so simple a beginning endless forms most wonderful and beautiful have been, and are being evolved" - Charles Darwin