Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was talking with another breeder this morning and he asked me what I thought of the "snow balls" that have been produced so far ( I won't mention his name but I'm sure he'll come forward). I replied, "I think the snow ball project was a failure!". I think everyone was expecting to see a white ball python with no yellow. All I have seen have some yellow remaining! Very light albinos but not "snow". Some are very beautiful, but still not white. I was expecting to see a pure white animal with pink eyes. I have seen "snow" boas that fit the description. They were produced by breeding the offspring of an anertheristic X albino, not an axanthic X albino as in the balls. I wanted to open a can of worms here and get opinions of what others think!

personally.....I think it can go either way...and we don't know yet........

I also think that the snows produced so far can be snows..even with the yellow........(how many are there?.....Joliff's.....VPI?.is that the other line?..are tere more?...)........

snows can have yelow in alot of snakes.......

sand boas....snow have yellow.....boas......snows have yellow ........corns........cal kings......bullsnakes.......all have yellow........

blizzard corns can even have yellow.....and they are supose to have all white only........

as said.....we don't know yet........

I know 3 people that think they are not out there yet........talked to/about them today)......

rigt....?

have fun...........

worms = fishing...........(what time we leaving?)

JYReptiles

what is this?............

snow?.........what color is it?........

I agree with you. Not to take anything away from them as they are truly beautiful animals, they are not as strikingly pure white as the snow boas, instead they resemble a very pale albino. And, correct me if I am wrong, but due to the behavior of the axanthic influence, theoretically the snow balls will probably gain more color as they mature. I guess you would need a true anerythristic, rather than axanthic, to produce a true snow?

I can remember artist depictions of the animals would look like before anyone had produced one and they were white with ruby red eyes! Striking! But they didn't turn out that way. Not to take anything away from the hard work people put into this project, but I would like to hear from one of the founders of the project. Honestly if it were me, I would have had mixed feelings upon seeing the first one stick it's head out of the egg, excited, but somewhat disappointed. Just my feelings.

I guess its back to crossing my fingers for a leucistic LOL! I would like to hear from one of the founders of this project as well, and see if the results were what was expected. It will also be interesting to see what effects these results have on future prices, such as axanthics, as I think there was a lot of people looking toward snow projects. I know the prices for double het for snows were incredibly high in anticipation.

I wonder if the axanthics out there are actually all hypoxanthics. That might explain why they brown out so much as they mature. Personally, I'd like to see a desert ghost crossed with an albino. Those desert ghosts are what I would expect a true axanthic to look like--black and white.

Jake

I expected them to be white as the white on a Pied. One big breeder told me that this was a dead-end street. Once you produce a Snow, there's really know where to go with it. Of course, I'm not really a big fan of Axanthics. They look spectacular as young and hardly appealing as adults.
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Jay A. Martin

I like mine.

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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.
What are we talking about?

Go to VPI's site and look at the Ball Python Gallery. Look and click on all the pictures. You will notice that the SNOW thumbnail is NOT the same.
This thumbnail was floating around as a picture of a snow. Then I was told it was a PhotoShop rendition of a snow. I was told that the concept of the PhotoShop rendition was done by VPI. I thought the concept of the thumbnail portrays what I thought a snow should look like.
Now when you click on the thumbnail it looks to me like an albino. But then again what would a person know about coloration who was a music teacher? Perhaps my eyes have faded at 58 - however I do wear glasses now.
Again, I do not think IMHO that no one knows what a "snow" looks like nor IMHO that none have been produced. I look at NERD'S web site and they have "faded" albinos that looks paler than what is called a snow on VPI's web site.
Perhaps I will stick to playing my clarinet. Either way it's all about scales!!!! Just seems so fishy! OK no more puns.
Thought:
BTW What would the thumbnail be called if produced? A paradox snow?
Yes, Bill and I spoke this morning on this subject.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.
What are we talking about?

Those are my ideas if the paradox proves out and there are snows made with it. Personally I think the snow is better with color. Would you hang a blank white canvas on your wall and call it art? The white snakes are cool at first, but after a minute you've seen all there is.

Eric

As long as my art work has pink eyes. BTW the point was not saying that a paradox albino is not a great looking animal.... I want one....they are odd. If you remember I asked you if it was for sale when you hatched it. What would you call the thumbnail if it was produced? Nothing wrong with an all white ball nor an all black ball.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.
What are we talking about?

Yea Eric but I live in Connecticut and see a lot of snow! The snow here is still WHITE! I learned many years ago that you don't eat yellow snow! By the way, your paradox is awesome! Good luck on the project. I'm doing some albino/IMG projects in the not so distant future. Maybe some more paradox type animals????

OK, I guess it's out now who I was talking to about it this morning! Didn't want to drag your name into what I knew would be a hot topic! Bill

No problem talked to JY in the afternoon about it also.
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.
What are we talking about?

you have lots of pictures of Ralph's snow that you took when it hatched.
I think that was one of the trips you made to Ralph's so he could sex your snakes for you.

yep.

What's the hubbub, bub?
Is it the name of the snakes? SNOW??

Until there is a sanctioned body of snake gurus that the snake community can trust to make such judgements, I'd say that we will always have people name snakes as they wish.
Some are named aptly, some have some pretty "interesting" names IMO.

The beauty of the hobby is that YOU get to choose which snakes you like and want to be involved with. Over the few years I have been into this, I see that really this is the way to go. What good does it
do someone who doesn't HAVE a particular snake to sit around and judge it? Trust me, I used to do it myself, and to a certain degree, I still look at the GARBAGE "Morphs" (term used very loosely) that are posted daily and wish that the scumbags who prey on newbies would just get flushed.
If it were my classifieds, I'd put a stop to all the wishful thinking we see by people who know better. BUT, buy what you want and pass on the rest. That's the beauty.

Good luck to you, Bill.

I haven't produced any snowballs. And I have never seen one in person, but from the pictures I've seen I would hardly call the project a "failure" No they're not a pure white snake... So what? I've been breeding corn snakes for over 10 years and have produced hundereds of snows. Not one was totally white. Most of them have yellow highlights, many have pink highlights, some even have coral or lime green colors to them. I would hardly call them failures, many are quite stunning. Many corn snake breeders even produce their own "special line" of snow corns as well as their "average" snows. Like I said before, I've produced hundereds of snow corns and there is an incredible amount of variation in an animal that some people think should just be an all white snake. There are what? half a dozen snow balls in existance? Thats hardly a drop in the bucket, no where near enough to be able to see what kind of variation the balls are capable of. How can anyone call a project a failure when it's still just getting started?

Mark

>>I was talking with another breeder this morning and he asked me what I thought of the "snow balls" that have been produced so far ( I won't mention his name but I'm sure he'll come forward). I replied, "I think the snow ball project was a failure!". I think everyone was expecting to see a white ball python with no yellow. All I have seen have some yellow remaining! Very light albinos but not "snow". Some are very beautiful, but still not white. I was expecting to see a pure white animal with pink eyes. I have seen "snow" boas that fit the description. They were produced by breeding the offspring of an anertheristic X albino, not an axanthic X albino as in the balls. I wanted to open a can of worms here and get opinions of what others think!