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How to tell between Sharp and Khal?

smith710 Jan 18, 2010 07:08 PM

I just picked up an albino boa locally, sold to me as a Sharp, for only $200. I didn't really care whether it was sharp or khal, it was a good price either way, and I've been wanting one for a while. They said they paid $450, but they were getting rid of a ton of their collection.
Seems like everybody is selling their albinos as sharps now, but how can you tell the difference? I'll post some pics later on, maybe make a little easier, but I'm just curious for the most part.
From what I've been looking up, it seems like the sharps have less tail coloration than the khals, but maye just be from what pics I've seen.

Thanks,
Matt

Replies (6)

smith710 Jan 19, 2010 12:07 AM

Ok, here's the pics of her.




Ruben14 Jan 19, 2010 01:16 AM

"From what I've been looking up, it seems like the sharps have less tail coloration than the khals, but maye just be from what pics I've seen."

Not even close! It can actually go both ways with either Kahl or Sharp. It use to be a lot easier to tell the difference between the two but there are a lot more being produced these days. Did you ask the people abotu the parents or where they picked up the boa from? Info like that will have you track down your answer.

smith710 Jan 19, 2010 02:32 AM

I e-mailed them a few more questions about where exactly the boa came from. The best info I have as of now is that they bought the boa from a friend in Florida. They sold it to me as a Sharp, like I said, it didn't matter to me anyways, but they did say it was a Sharp, but that's really all I know as of now.

I've been trying to find pretty much any info I can to tell them apart, I've seen a few places where people say that within a year or two it gets much easier to tell them apart. So what exactly are the differences?

Ruben14 Jan 19, 2010 04:29 PM

Like I said in the other post,it is harder to tell them apart these days cause there a lot more out there now. The best way to tell is knowing where they came from and where the parents came from. I do understand thats not always available, like in your situation. What you heard about it being easier to tell once the get some size is probably gonna be your best bet at this point. Majority of Sharps tend to grow in to very vibrant yellow animals body color wise with any whites on the body being very crisp a distinct also. Kahls yellow tends not to be so vibrant(not all Kahl guys but most!)and the whites on Kahls tends to bleed into the Yellow where on Sharps you can se where the yellow stops and the white starts scale for scale. Just keep us posted with pix as your Boa develops and i'm sure one of us here will have an answer for you once it hit's the 3 1/2-4ft mark as thats when Sharps usually really start showing that vibrant yellow and crisp whites. Feel free to e-mail me also if you want and i'll take a look at some of your better pix of her/him once it sheds and settles in. I'm somewhat of a Sharp enthusiast myself! Here's a after and befor pic of the same Sharp female for example. Her as a baby and her around 3 1/2-4ft

Jeffrodgers Jan 19, 2010 12:04 PM

I have a question for you Ruben. Why is it that sharp albinos have been around just as long as the Kahl strain but their hasn't been half as many designer combos with the sharps as the Kahl strain?

I've been waiting to year to see a sharp albino Arabesque, sharp sunglow arabesque, sharp albino jungle, sharp sunglow jungle just too name a few....

Ruben14 Jan 19, 2010 04:07 PM

Although they were both around at kinda the same time, there was a lot more success with the Kahls in the first breeding trials and i'd have to assume thats why there were so many and a lot of combos done first with the Kahls. In the early 2ks there was still very few Sharp strains around and it seems like the first step people take with newer or less available morphs is to breed it to a Hypo to go for that Sunglow or Hypo version. Also,a lot of people had a bad taste in thier mouths with the early Sharps cause a lot of the people that had them didn't have good results which may have been do to not enough early outcrossing. I'm sure people tried to get the Arabesques,Motleys and Jungles Het Sharp early but with not that many out there and then take in consideration those Morphs were pretty expensive at the time also, there wasn't that many trials going on which would make production slow. Think of it like this, we all know breeding Boas isn't as easy as it seems. So,given the price and availabilty of both Sharps and those Pattern morphs in the early years not many Sharp x so and so breeding were actually going on. Most people only had one shot at Sharp X something where in the Kahl world there were ten times the amount of people trying for the combos cause there were plenty of Kahls to go around Male and Female wise. So, to answer your question after all my rambling...i'd say it was do to lack of supply and a slow start in the begining. I'm glad they did lag though! Gave me time to catch my a$$ up!

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