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Hey all, I have seen where people have T positive sunglows in litters and really I cannot tell the difference between regular sunglows and the t pos ones...can someone please explain what the difference is or post pics of each and point out the diffinative trait? Thanks Andy
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ajfreptiles.com

Is there body markings?

Thanks
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ajfreptiles.com

I don't mean to state the obvious, but the biggest difference between a VPI T sunglow and a normal sunglow is that they come from very difference strains of albino, which are not compatible with one another.

Normal sunglows, or kahl strain sunglows, obviously come from crossing kahl strain albino with hypo. (obviously it's recessive so we have to have atleast 1 hypo that is het for albino)

The T sunglows work the exact same way, but with a difference strain of albino, being VPI T .

So essentially a T sunglow and a Kahl sunglow are the same thing, just using different strains of albino. That being said, you could even say sharp sunglows are the same as T sunglows and Kahl sunglows, only difference between them being the albino strains are different from one another.

In my opinion, the sharp and kahl sunglows are nearly impossibly to tell apart, with a few exceptions of sharp strains which are more extravagent. However, kahl sunglows have lipsticks and such from many years of selective breeding which are equally as impressive.

The biggest difference (in my opinion) of the T sunglows from normal sunglows, is they literally seem to glow at birth. they look very neon or fluorescent, which dulls out after they shed. They are extremely paper white inbetween the saddles.

Then, into adulthood, the difference between T sunglows and normal sunglows is much more obvious. T sunglows take more of a hypo appearance and seem to turn orange/light brown, meanwhile normal sunglows keep the albino "look" into adulthood.

I don't have any pictures of adult T sunglows to show what I mean, all of mine are babies and I don't want to use someone else's photo as my own without permission. But maybe someone can post pictures and help me out?

Hope this helps
Tony

I guess I left out the most important part of my explanation, so I'll try again...

We have to consider that there is multiple forms of albino out there to work with.... There is kahl strain, sharp strain, and VPI T-positive. All of them are strains of albino which are not compatible with one another.

Kahl strain and sharp strain look nearly identical. Meanwhile, the t-positive strain of albino looks much difference in appearance. The best way to explain a t-positive albino is a "less than complete albino." The black color pigment is reduced enough that a t-positive is obviously different from a normal wild type boa.

However, there is still black pigment present in a t-positive which is why it does not look like a kahl strain or sharp strain. Thats why it is called a t-positive, there is still presence of the gene tyrosinase, which produces dark color pigment.

So basically, a t-positive albino is stuck inbetween a normal boa and an albino, the t-positive is in the middle, which is why I call it an incomplete albino.

So back to the sunglow talk. A sunglow is basically the albino form of a hypo boa right?

That statement lies true with ALL forms of albino. So....

a kahl sunglow = kahl albino/hypo
a sharp sunglow = sharp albino/hypo
t-positive sunglow = t-positive albino/hypo

Genetically, it takes the same forumla to create them. All 3 strains of albino are recessive, so you need both parents to be atleast a het, and 1 parents needs to be a hypo

So there is not anything definitive to look for when recognizing a t-positive albino, you just have to know that the animal comes from a t-positive line of albino and not the normal strain of albino because they are completely different genes.

Hopefully this makes a little more sense than my last response.

Tony

Thank you...that is very clear...I guess I was thinking that there was Kahl albino in the mix and so I was wondering how you tell them appart. So from what I understand you saying is that the hypo and T pos actually make their own type of sunglow...no other albino forms in the mix...right?
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ajfreptiles.com

A T Positive is a Type of Albino it is a Caramel Albino

Another huge difference in a Kahl/sharp Sunglow is they often times only look good as babies and once into their young adult and adult life loose their flare this however does not happen with the Caramel Albinos they will not fade into a banana yellow snake with barely any pattern here are some adults.

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Brandon Nixon