Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Guys, these boas are incredibly beautiful ! Congratulations on the newborns. Now I know the formula for sucess on sunglows but what kind of genetics give you a shot at snow?

To raise a snow boa is a two generation process.

first breed an Albino to an Anerythrystic boa.

This will give you a clutch of normal looking boas that are Het for Albino and Anery.. or "double hets"

Then breed two "double hets" together.

for every 16 offspring there should be

1 Snow boa
3 Albinos (that have a 66% change of being Het for snow)
3 Anerythrystics (that have a 66% change of being Het for snow)

...and 9 Normal looking snakes...
1 genetic normal
2 Het for Albino
2 Het for Anery
4 "double hets"

Great break down thank you very much ) I can see now why they are so very rare.

What happens if you cross a pair of Snows do you get all Snow? or 2/16 can be snow. LoL it gets very confusing.

SNOW X SNOW 100 % SNOW I BELIEVE
if im wrong im sure someone will correct me

Yes Breeding Snow x Snow will give 100% snow boas...

However its not recommended. While not a lethal mutation it does have a tendency to produce birth defects (the most common ive read about are missing eyes)

Once you create your first snow boa, everything you breed it too will produce "het" for snow, so what is recommended is breeding a Snow back back to a normal looking "double het" for snow.
That cross should yield. (out of 16 offspring)

4 Snows
4 Albino (het for snow)
4 Anery (het for snow)
4 "Double hets" (normal looking)

Thank you again for the information. This is all very exciting. I have been scanning through the classifieds and noticed the 66% DH Snow are rather inexpensive and understandibly so. Does anyone have any type of price indication on pairs of the DH or are they simply not sold very often?

I think they are relatively cheap simply because its such a crap shoot as to what genes you will get, and to produce a snow from hets they both have to be double hets.

Ive been reading quite a bit on the snow boas. I think they are incredible looking and I want to start a project to produce them. However I dont have boatloads of spare money lying around.

So I found a reputable breeder, who is crossing double hets to produce a snow. I have reserved a pair of the normal looking snakes from that cross breed and they cost only slightly more than a normal boa from a pet store or shipped from a breeder.

Thank you for the info. I would also like to get into this project as the odds of snow boa are slim at least you have the albinos as a back up. Are the ones you spoke of that are reserved double hets?

They Could be Double Hets
They could be Het for Albino
They Could be Het for Anerythristic
Or (and god I hope not) they could be genetic normals...

that gives me 4 different possibilities for each parent when I breed them, resulting in 16 different possible outcomes.

I have them mapped out what potential crosses I could have, and I have a 50% chance of throwing a morph on the first cross.

If you are buying offspring of a DH snow x DH snow you will be buying Possible Hets...not 100% hets, which makes it a "crap shoot." If you want assurance that you are going to produce a snow...you will need to buy a pair of DH snow (around 1200 a pair) or start with an albino and a anerythristic-breed them to produce DH for Albino and anerythristic (snow) and then breed the siblings together. Mathmatically snow should be 6.25% of the litter (or 1/16).

Good Luck, Chris

The missing eye "syndrome" has yet to be proven to be connected to poor genes of the albino boa. It is more likely due to the high level of inbreeding that has occured and pushed out the less desirable traits. All of the albino to albino litters I have seen have all been viable healthy 2 eyed litters. So do not worry about the albino trait causing this. I do however suggest getting animals that are from diverse blood lines when possible, and avoid purchasing dh snow litter mates.

Later
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com
.

Inbreeding eventually brings out less desired traits....beware...

Chris