This is a pic of a year old 66% het for snow. What do you all think about a yellow belly and the white batch of scalls?
Thanks Tom
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This is a pic of a year old 66% het for snow. What do you all think about a yellow belly and the white batch of scalls?
Thanks Tom
Image
np
>>This is a pic of a year old 66% het for snow. What do you all think about a yellow belly and the white batch of scalls?
>>
>>Thanks Tom
>>
>>Image
The white scales which are purple on some boas appear to be some sort of genetic anomaly because of the large number of animals that have the trait.
Something similar was seen in Amarali and bred into the following generation but didn't and doesn't affect the rest of the boas coloration beyond that little throat patch. But why an inheritable genetic trait would only pertain to a dozen odd scales I have no idea.
It's very commonly seen in Dumeril's Boas as well (even mentioned in Reptiles recently). It seems to be fairly prolific trait in the captive population. Personally I own 2 boa constrictors with the trait(and have seen a half dozen others with it as well); they both have very yellow bellies along with the throat patch. But at this point I see that only as a coincidence. Also, the patch gets less and less noticeable as the boas age in my experience but never altogether fades.
Attached is a picture of the younger of my two, It's not great but the purple is evident.

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Jessica Curtis
unmeinohi.net
In my experiance most Boas have this area under the chin as this is where the mouth expands to accept food so it must be more forgiving. I have also found that yes, this area will darken up with age but, I feel this is a natural occuring issue, not a genetic issue. Ever look at newborn babies??? They have it as well as a spot where the umbilical cord was. As they get older that area goes away for the most part. Anyone else have ideas or comments?
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I don't entirely agree with you.
The spot has nothing to do with the extra folded area of skin on the neck in my opinion. It's merely a section of normal scales that appear "pied" in some respects.
And the spot where the cord attaches has a different quality to it than these throat spots. That spot is in the middle of the belly scute, while this spot covers entire, individual scales.
And perhaps in your collection all your animals have the anomaly but in my own collection and in my own experience many animals have it but not all. I wouldn't call it an every boa phenomenon, maybe a common one that it inheritable because of its frequent appearance in the captive population but not universal.
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Jessica Curtis
unmeinohi.net
I rechecked the pic and it does seem like it might be from some damage. BTW to insinuate my collection has defects is just totally unfounded.
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Thanks so much for your feed back.
Tom in NJ
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