Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember about 4 years ago a friend of mine post a pic of a Albino Great Basin Gopher . It got kind of ugly of this forum , most because the way my friend (John Roylance)came a cross on the forum, I dont think he intended for it to be like .
Any way there was a discussion that some people thought it was albino Sonoran , which I agree it did look like a Albino Sonoran. Most of us all have seen especially on this forum have seen how close some of these subspecies look like one another . I have seen Sonoran , Great Basins, Pacifics and bulls that can be tough to tell from one another .
Ok back to the origin of the albino Great Basin . I was with my friend John when he aquired the snake , we when to a local guys house John traded a baby jungle Carpet python for the Albino GB . We ask the guy where he got it , he said he found it while fishing,and knew it didn't look normal so he keep it and took it home for a pet and raised it up for about 4 years so this snake is about 8 to 9 years old now .
The guy caught it at a place called Simpson Springs which is located about 50miles out side Salt Lake City (south west ).I live on the very out skirts of Salt Lake City and it takes me about 80 minutes to get Simpson Springs , its just out in the middle of the no where , so I think its a legit finding and I really beleave the guys story he sound true and had no reason to lie about it .
about 3 years ago John gave the snake to a my other friend Shaun Vought and he has been working with this snake , this year he finally produced a couple albinos . I ended up getting a one of those albinos and a het and know after seeing the albinos in person there is know doubt in my mind they are true .
Any way heres some pics . I would appreciate any feed back on this subject .

Jason

That albino is geat looking Jason. Put Del and I on the list. Are albinos exempt from Utah regulations like they are in California? W/C albinos are exempt from all the regulations in California. Captive bred albinos still fall under the possession limit regualtions, but you don't need a propagations permit. I don't know why so many people say sonoran all the time when pics are posted. Just about every gophersnake that is posted looks sonoran to viewers. I don't see any sonoran in the snakes in the pics. Even pacific gophers get tagged with sonoran. Anyway, great going Jason on getting a couple beauties to work with. Good luck.

Terry Parks

Hi Terry
Utah doesn't have albino law like most other states , but with a COR permit you can sell captive born offspring of Native animals to the state of Utah if the are on the noncontrol species list , Great Basin are noncontroled.

Jason

Thanks for the info Jason. I was curious how Utah handled native reptiles since they have several of the same native reptiles as California. I know a breeder in Calfiornia that bred a pair of albino Cal Kings. Unfortunately, he didn't know each had a different albino gene and they weren't allelic. All the hatchlings were normal looking. He had to get a Propagation permit to cover them for that year. If they had hatched all albinos like he thought, then he didn't need a permit. The albino exemption to regualtions can make it interesting.

Terry Parks

>>Hi Terry
>>Utah doesn't have albino law like most other states , but with a COR permit you can sell captive born offspring of Native animals to the state of Utah if the are on the noncontrol species list , Great Basin are noncontroled.
>>
>>
>>Jason

Yeah definitely looks like deserticola, especially the neck pattern on the albino. Albino Sonorans never really have that pink tinge to them. Nice looking snakes; first time I've seen one. I've always wondered why Geat basins aren't that common in the hobby. maybe this will help boost their popularity and produce more CB babies. Usually when you do see GBs for sale they are WCs.