Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, I'm new to herping and have only a little over a year of experience keeping snakes. I currently have a Columbian red tail boa and a Peruvian Rainbow boa. I am very interested in the rainbow boa morphs but i have no idea how many there are or what the abbreviations mean. I would very much appreciate it if anyone with knowledge of the morphs could list them for me and spell out the abbreviations. Also i was wondering if there are different morphs as in Brazilian morphs or Peruvian or Columbian morphs. Any info will help, Thank you.

Luke

Currently there are only a few proven rainbow boa Morphs.

Hypo (Hypomelanistic) a recessive trait in Brazilian Rainbow Boas that results in a very light colored animal with no black and a yellow to peachy color.

Anery (Anerythristic) A recessive trait in Brazilian Rainbow Boas that results in a dark animal with no red and white crescents.

Both Brazilian and Colombian have their own strain of Albino. Not "proven" yet in BRB biut I believe they are being produced in Colombians.

Ghost - A recessive trait in Colombian Rainbow Boas. results in light gray CRB.

Several traits in the proving stages:

Pearl - Full crescent color side markings - believed to be either recessive or line bred.

Candy Stripe - Brand new trait in Brazilian Rainbow Boas resulting in a hypo colored fully striped animal. Possibly a co-dominant trait.

Zebra striped - a stripe that came out of the Pearls where the dorsal markings blend with the lateral markings.

Aby (Aberrant) line - a third line of stripes where the side markings are conjoined into stripes.

I'm sure I've missed some, feel free to add to the list....
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Some more comments in blue below.

In addition to the hypos and aneries listed above, a few ghosts (=hypo anery) were produced last year.

To be clear, the Dual Trait Ghosts produced last year were from Seib line Anery that appears to not be a single gene trait.

Not to be confused (although easily done) with the single gene Ghost trait in Colombian Rainbow Boas.

In development are albino (pure white) and calico (variable white coverage, often in patches).

OOppss, left out one of my own projects - Calico...
Fluffy in 2007

now looks like this

High red and high orange animals have been produced, but these have not yet been tied to specific genes….it’s still in the “line bred” arena.

Also High Yellow but that may be genetic, have some trials coming up in 2013

In addition to the traditional morphs, there have been numerous variants on top and side patterns attempted, some with more stability than others. For top patterns, there are linked spots and striped (as Dave shared); for side patterns, there are pearls (no black in the dot, as Dave shared), bullseyes (where the crescent has become a full circle around a black center), and eclipses (where the dot is all black).
So far my work with Bullseye and Eclipse point very much towards line bred - non single gene trait

-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Great information guys, I wrote it all done. I didn't realize there were so many different types. I really like the candy strip and the Abberant. Calico is really unique too. Seems to me that the Brazilians are by far the most popular species, but I'd have to say that I like my Peruvian much better. I would be nice to see some morphs from that subspecies. Thanks a lot for the info people, definitely glad I joined this forum.

Luke

Luke,
...Our Peruvians used to be a seperate subspecies. They are now the same species as Brazilians, Epicrates cenchria and there are no subspecies. The one morph that has not been mentioned is the amelanistic Argentinian, Epicrates alvarezi. AFAIK the lone animal, a male has been in the country over a decade and has not reproduced.
Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I didn't know that. I'm just starting to research the scientific side of my snakes lol. I did a ton of research on the care of them before i bought them, but now that i have them i want to know everything i can about them. Is there any books you would recommend for me pertaining to all the locality's and morphs of rainbow boas?

Btw i tried to search for a pic of AFAIK but i couldn't find one. Again thanks for everyone's input.

Luke

Also lucy Colombian rainbow boas, which we have proven co-dom.

Jungle colombian rainbow boas (new genetic project)
Patternless colombians
Granite Colombians

nice added it to the list. Just looked them up and I deff think its a snake worth putting in a collection. So perfectly white all the way around.

Luke

With any luck we will have some het's from him this spring..

We have been raising some females up to breed to him and they are looking good for this season...

We should have some pics of him and our albino brb up soon.

Nice, Can't wait to see them.

Luke Deer

By soon, do you mean never? I have heard all these claims so mainy times about "the elusive" albino brb, then claims of having it and reproducing with it, but still never any pics, but always pics on the way...........
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders (Dugo, Sultan, Roxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback (Nando) from Roxxy's litter of 25 on 8/23/10
1.2 100% het hypo BRB (Diego, Rasheena & Liddia)
0.1 Hypo BRB (Ireena)
Total collection of breeders and future breeders
4.6 Brazilian Rainbow Boas - Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria

Not the best pic, but he has been a breeding machine this season so we have not messed with him to much for pics.

He goes from darker to lighter colored from day to night, he is in his light phase here.

Our Brazilian project is housed at our breeding partners facility out of state to protect our investment in case of a disastern (Argentine is with us, Brazilian with him). Due to this I am not able to get pics of him like I would like to..

Awesome pic! I have never seen one like him before.

Luke Deer

He is the only one in the world...

is he a cross?
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders (Dugo, Sultan, Roxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback (Nando) from Roxxy's litter of 25 on 8/23/10
1.2 100% het hypo BRB (Diego, Rasheena & Liddia)
0.1 Hypo BRB (Ireena)
Total collection of breeders and future breeders
4.6 Brazilian Rainbow Boas - Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria

Gorgeous animal and really, really glad he's working on passing on those genes!!!
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks Dave,
I am really looking forward to seeing how nice the first c.b babies will be considering how deep red the mothers are, they should be insane looking!

Yay!!! My naysaying worked!! Seriously, thanks for posting up pictures for everyone to see!!! Huge things are in store for the BRB market, can't wait till you prove it out!!!! Now show us more pics ASAP, please!!
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders (Dugo, Sultan, Roxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback (Nando) from Roxxy's litter of 25 on 8/23/10
1.2 100% het hypo BRB (Diego, Rasheena & Liddia)
0.1 Hypo BRB (Ireena)
Total collection of breeders and future breeders
4.6 Brazilian Rainbow Boas - Epicrates Cenchria Cenchria

To own a snake that is one of its kind in the entire world, would awesome. Jealous!!

Luke Deer

Trust me, it is an awesome feeling!! Also a bit nerve wracking thinking about how to protect it etc.

At least they are already working on proving it and already have offspring. So while the actual albino is a one of a kind, assuming it is recessive genetic, the genes are already saved in the offspring.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

O man I could imagine. Im constantly checking the temps in my PRB's (well used to be PRB lol)cage. Worries me lol. Id prolly lose my mind thinking about a snake as unique as that. Hopefully down the road when my plan for breeding comes together, ill get to worry about it.

Luke Deer

Original snakes like the Albino and my Candy stripes are way beyond few and far between, They are almost non-existent. Look at it this way, think of every morph listed so far. in each case there is one or at most a pair of adults that produced the first visuals. I wouldn't even need all my fingers and toes to add them all up.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Brazilians at one facility, Argentines at the other. Not keeping all the eggs in one basket!!
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

They are pure.

We have a Albino Argentine as well as a Albino Brazilian, and we keep the projects in seperate states so in event or a disaster such as fire, twister, ect, and one project is lost we still have the other.

Since the albino brazilian and albino argentine are of compariable value and rarity we are at least some what protected on our investment.

That said, we do not have any plans on crossing our rainbows as we prefer to keep them pure.

Great idea, considering the random behavior of the weather these days.

Luke Deer