Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found this amelanistic Pacific gopher near where I worked in Richmond, CA back in 1987 as a hatchling. This crappy pic was taken some years later. I bred her a couple times and introduced the striped gene into the line before giving my breeders to a friend. He outbred them and really advanced the line. I got a couple hets back and finally bred a striped het amel female to a blotched albino this year. Hatched 7 eggs and decimated the odds by getting 6 albinos with all 7 being striped. Yes the striped gene is dominant in Pacific gophers. As I posted in a thread further below, I have seen no evidence that the stripe gene is co-dominant, just straight dominant.

Along with the ones I have produced over the years, I have caught many stripers from where they occur near where I live in the wild. The degree of striping varies considerably. Some are nearly patternless while others have a complete center stripe. Here are a few hatchlings.



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Rick Staub

Great looking stripers! That original albino was an incredible find. Wow!
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Thanks. I found her on the back door step where I worked. Lots of gopher snakes in that area. I know of three albinos caught there so definitely a hot spot.
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Rick Staub

Don't know how I missed this thread! I would love to find a striper in the wild!

I love the striped Pacifics, and have three, a brother and sister and an unrelated male, all het for albino, anery and snow. It seems a long wait until 2013, when my babies will be old enough to breed, but time flies when you're having fun! LOL!

Stripers are fairly common in the wild within their range. They represent about 20-30% of the population. Their range does seem to be expanding.

Do you know the origins of your het Pacific gopher snakes? I am curious to know if there are any other pure Pacific albino lines. The original ones going back to the 1980s were produced from crossing an albino catenifer with an albino annectens. They got a bunch of double hets as the 2 genes were not compatible. Thanks
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Rick Staub

I got a pair of brother and sister 09's from Jason Nelson, so possibly he would know the origin of their genetic line. My lone 09 male I got from New Age Reptile in Southern California. All captive bred. Jason's snakes look more red and shinier than the New Age one, who is more of a dusky tan. I will post some pictures in a few days; just fed them today and don't want to bother them yet.

My plan is to eventually breed the female to the unrelated male. I don't know what I will do with the little brother; I guess he will be a bachelor, as I don't have a lot of space for too many snakes.