Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw a post the other day asking whatever happened to the VPI Snow, so thought I'd post some pictures from my collection. Below are three photos. The first is an adult VPI Snow next to an adult albino. The second is another comparison of the adult VPI Snow to a few miscelaneous ball pythons in our collection. The third is a photo of three female VPI snow hatchlings we produced this year.

The VPI Snow is definitely not for everyone, and it certainly takes a lot of time and effort to produce from scratch. I'm not sure I'd agree with those who say it just looks like a faded adult albino - I think it's prettier than that. Still, below are the photos so obviously anyone can judge for themselves and of course personal preference always varies. But aside from it's visible phenotype, it's certainly a very useful snake to have in a breeding collection.

For example, last year we bred our adult male VPI Snow to a pastel clown female and produced pastels that are triple het for albino, axanthic, and clown. We're excited about what those can produce in the future. In general, any time you can put two recessive genes into another animal at the same time it tends to produce offspring with powerful breeding potential, so I still view the VPI snow as an animal with very powerful breeding potential.

In any event, hope everyone enjoys the photos.

John Whalen
Hudson Valley Herpetological LLC

I am one who thinks they look like faded Albinos, and do not find them visually pleasing at all. I like the neon yellow high contrast Albinos much better. That being said, I would take a NICE Albino over a Snow to LOOK at, but would take the Snow for what it could produce vs. just an Albino.

I think the Snow took a big hit because of the nicer looking white snakes that were produced...Ivory, Black Eyed Lucy, Blue Eyed Lucy, and maybe even throw in the Crystal and some of the Silver snakes.

Everything seems to be cyclical, so the people getting laughed at for producing Snows now, might get the last laugh later on...

Dave

What is the snake on the far right in the second pic?

>>What is the snake on the far right in the second pic?
-----
Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Yes, that's an albino piebald, another double recessive we're fond of.

John Whalen
Hudson Valley Herpetological LLC

That's what I thought. Thanks, and great looking animals.

Totaly agree with you, breeding a pair of Pastel triple het for albino, axanthic and clown will be incredibly rewarding, I can only imagine the possibilities.

Don't get me wrong, co-doms are great BUT recessive projects are where its at