Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings Everyone!

No doubt we've all seen the beautiful portraits of granite burms with the full, unstoppable granite patterns. But, lately, I've seen far more of those with areas of bald or patternless splotches intermingled in with the usual granite pattern.

Is this a genetic trait that pops up no matter what or can it totally be eliminated when pairing two granites that have solid patterns all the way?

Just curious.

Hugs!

Amanda Rose

I hatched out a couple clutches this year and the Granites from each clutch had fully patterend granites and some with about 5-10% patternless areas. The mother of one clutch was a fully patterened granite and the father was an albino het. The other mother was an albino het bred to the same male.

The results would lead me to believe that patternlessness is not genetic, but may may be influenced by incubation temperatures, the position of the snake in the egg, or the location of the egg in the incubator. Some patternless areas are on the back half of the animal in triangular shapes starting near the spine and widening toward the belly. This looks like where the sides would be creased while the snake was in the egg. So that may have something to do with it as well. The light patternless splotches usually occuring on the upper half of the body don't seem to have any shape or pattern associated with them. Genetics or temp, i have no idea, but i will guess it is temp. My incubation temps were pretty consistent throughout, so that would leave me to believe that the ones with slight patternless spots were closer to the sides of the incubation container where the temps would fluctuate more. This is speculation though, since i did not record the location of each baby after they hatched.

I really don't think there is any conclusive evidence either way, but a single clutch can have highly varied results.