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Is there a genetic difference between reverse stripe and pearlescent boas? They look very similar if not identical, no dorsal markings with a dark thick stripe laterally.

Here's a write up by Jeff
Pearlescent Boa write up

So here is what we know right now about Pearlescent Boas !

("I" always refers to Jeff)

Pearlescent Boas !
These wonderful creatures have been living in the Black Hole since the first one was born here in 2000. He proved himself to be genetic in 2003, though I, and virtually everybody else thought it would not be genetic, and I haven't looked back since. You see, the fact is, inverse stripes are normally NOT genetic. In fact I have personally bred four different bloodlines of inverse stripe Boas and have only proven one genetic. And genetic it is! The Pearlescent pattern mutation seems to work in a Dominant or Co-Dominant manner. I have not been successful yet in breeding one Pearlescent to another yet, so I am not sure what will happen when I make that happen. Maybe this year that will happen. Who knows?
The Pearlescent pattern mutation occurs in Hypo and Non-Hypo offspring alike. Here are several examples of a Pearlescent Non-Hypos:

The heritability of this genetic mutation has been repeatedly documented since that first breeding in 2003. The inverse tail stripe is the characteristic that I look for most to reveal itself. However, like Jungles, it may very well be more complicated that just aberrancies exactly like is the case with Jungles. The offspring from these breedings have inverse stripes, aberrant patterns, missing saddle points and sometimes a different color that isn't seen often in Hypos. Many are more yellowish vs. the orange leanings that most Hypos have. I have much more information about these wonderful creatures at the bottom of this page. Until then, enjoy the pictures and critters below and feel free to call me with any questions

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Boas By Klevitz

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Until then, enjoy the pictures and critters below and feel free to call me with any questions you might have.
Here is an example of a Hypo Pearlescent:

Pair Breeding that produced April 12, 2008 litter !

The Non-Hypo mother of these babies is the Pearlescent by the way.
Since I have been breeding Boas as long and anyone except Sharon Moore, I have seen a lot of things come and go. I have seen several new "Morphs" appear, breed and sometimes after a second generation, just fade away. Here is what has happened in the past.
This has been the timeline of a couple of "Morphs";
1. New "Morph" appears.
2. The producer either claims, or allows others to claim, that his "Morph" is "Co-Dominant". This after a first breeding without any further trials.
3. Then others, who have spent good money on the project, breed these expensive animals and don't make any of them. Uh oh. Next claim;
4. Then we are told, "It must be a Simple Recessive trait". Next step;
5. Someone breeds "hets" and they don't make any either. Finally;
6. They just seem to fade away with everyone who invested in the project wondering what happened.
It should be noted that sometimes the people who in fact bred and proved these wanna be morphs not to be morphs at all, were victims of premature claims as well. I am not pointing fingers here. I just want accurate information out there is all. So I have waited long before offering a mess of these to the masses and have openly details all my breeding trials over these past years as it happened. I never ever want people to come back to me and say they were not given accurate information.

more next post
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Boas By Klevitz

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I have had a number of breedings of Pearlescent Boas over the few years since 2003. In every case when I used a Pearlescent Boa, that is where one parent had an inverse stripe, I produced approximately half a litter of offspring that also had that inverse stripe. This is in offspring whether Hypo babies or non-hypo babies alike. Many other aberrant babies have been produced at the same time. All of the breedings I have been successful with so far, have been using a Pearlescent Boa bred to either a Monster Tail Bloodline animal or a Boa from my DuBay Pastel Bloodline. The DuBay Pastel Bloodline happens to be my original bloodline of Colombian Boas so I have a lot of them. A lot of them. Many of my Pastel Adults are from this or related to this bloodline. I have tried to breed Pearlescents with Albinos, Motleys, Jungles and other completely unrelated bloodlines, but to date have not done so successfully. I expect the results of these breedings to be the same, but I have not actually done so yet. Also, it may very well be that the ultimate "definition" of Pearlescent will widen as it has the Jungle Boas as we learn more in the years to come. Remember it was more than ten or twelve years into breeding Jungles, before we more or less settled upon how to determine a Jungle from non-Jungle siblings. The same may be true of the Pearlescent Boas. In fact, I did get surprise Pearlescents from a female one year that did not have the inverse stripe. Neither did the male that bred her. This female is a sister of the original Pearlescent male. It's obviously in the genes and somehow was brought out in her second litter after being bred to a different male that was slightly aberrant and also a DuBay Bloodline Pastel. Moreover, it's a beautiful thing and a project that I have really enjoyed. It's time to share the fun!
I have literally hundreds of pictures of Pearlescent Hypos, normals, litters and babies right after birth posted on the web.

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

Pearlescent a history lesson

So the Pearlescent boas original male came from a Pastel Dream Fem bred by paired with an
Orangetail Hypo male ( first pastel Dream "OT" Hypo Boas Screamer Hypo Boas produced 2000)

The First Pearlescent male was in that litter.

First pearlescent Boa

PearlPaPa

First pearlescent Boa

Original Pearlescent Male Born in 2000

Original Pearlescent Male Born in 2000

Original Pearlescent Male's Sister Born in 2000

DuBay Litter 2 Daddy father of 2004 Pearlescent litter that Bred a Screamer hypo sister of the Original Pearlescent male
(From the First litter of Pastel hypo Boas “Screamer hypos” also mother of Scarlet hypos 2003)

pearl-pa-pa second Pearlescent litter

DuBay Litter 2 Daddy

Full Story continued at below link

Pearlescent a history lesson

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

I believe they are polygenic line bred traits. Yes you may take one of them and breed them to a normal wild type non related animal and produce a lighter variation.

But if you take an offspring from that litter and breed it again to a wild type boa you will again lighten it up and will end up with normal wild type beautiful boas.

I say polygenic line bred as if it were a genetic trait such as a jungle you could breed a jungle to a wild type and produce more jungles of varying degree and take a low expression back to a totally unrelated wild type and produce jungles better than himself meanwhile with the line bred trait you will need to continue breeding within that "gene" to produce more of that specific type of animal.

My opinion disagree if you wish but it's damn logical.
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Brandon Nixon

Brandon in the case of Pearlescent Boas they have been continually out bred
from the beginning that is since 2003.

So we know the Pearlescent is Not a Line Bred Trait !

Line Breeding is inbreeding for many generations !

Pearlescent Boas have been out bred in every breeding since 2003.

So much so that now there are Pearlescent Boas that are far enough
unrelated that they can be bred back to each other to prove
if this trait is Dominant or Codominant.

Even Jeff's DuBay Line and Monstertail line are continually out bred.
Siblings or Mother / son or Father / Daughter are almost never bred together.
I do not say never because in a few rare cases this did occur over the years.

I personally can only recall 1 of these breeding's and that
one breeding produced unfertilized ova.

I hope this clears up that question

. . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz

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That being the case...I would still like to see the offspring from one to a wild type pet store common boa with no other outside influene.
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Brandon Nixon

That basically happened this year. Donnie & Michelle Smith ,they go by Morti and Lady Dragon on another forum.

They produced Pearlescent Boas by pairing their common normal Boas
with a Pearlescent gene carrier this season.

Below is a Link to a litter that produced Pearlescent Boas

The Mother of this 2011 Pearlescent litter was the Daughter Of the Original Monstertail fem
and the first original Pearlescent male That daughter was born in 2003

Below is the litter of that Daughter paired with a normal EBV Hypo male.
Litter #3, Heylia tops Vaneeta!

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org