Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you get? Are the two types compatible? My friend has a female 100% het. albino and I am thinking about buying a male 100% het. high contrast albino. I assume they are compatible.....
thanks
Jessica

It may be hard to tell the difference as babies, but I truly beleive there are 2-different lines.

I had to adult ALBINOS, before I sold my collection. One was a NORMAL ALBINO the other was a HIGH-CONTRAST.

As adults the yellow does fade, but you could clearly see the difference, even though the yellow is faded.

You could see the pattern in the high-contrast animal were in the normal line the pattern sorta blends and is not as distinct, making the adult look more of a blended banana color.

I've heard that breeding both lines together will result in a mix of some high-contrast, and some normal contrast, either way I think it would be hard to tell them apart as babies, only when they pop into the 1000 gram range will you get an idea on what they will look like for life.

Both are beautiful in there own ways. I sure miss my snakes, but I DONT MISS the GIANT rat-colony that use to exist in my basement!

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Mike and Eric
Captive Bred Reptiles

Crossing an albino with a 'high contrast' albino will give you all albinos. It's the same mutation in either case. The REAL question is 'what is a high contrast albino?' Many people, (myself included) think that 'high contrast' is just a marketing gimmick to get more money out of the standard albino mutation. Others like Damon think that it's a legitimate lable for a more colorful animal. In actual fact, we're probably both right. Ball pythons, even as normals, are highly variable. It's no surprise that albinos can be just as variable as any other morph. Most baby albino ball pythons are fairly brightly colored when they're still young but their bright colors will fade with age. Some will fade more and some less. A 'high contrast' animal is supposed to be one that will keep it's bright colors as an adult. Now while you will probably have a better chance at producing a high contrast looking animal by breeding two high contrast adults together, I personally don't think it's a sure deal. Certainly not enough of a sure deal to justify the extra expense. I just don't think that the albinos have been line bred long enough to make sure that all offsping will be able to be considered 'high contrast' You can also produce high contrast animals by breeding together two 'regular' looking albinos so I think it's just whether or not you get lucky. I just don't think that the genetics are well enough understood to be able to guarantee that any given animal will be 'high contrast'

Mark

>>What do you get? Are the two types compatible? My friend has a female 100% het. albino and I am thinking about buying a male 100% het. high contrast albino. I assume they are compatible.....
>>thanks
>>Jessica

Yes. I agree. But where on Earth are you going to find an Albino without the "High Contrast" label? In other words, who sells the plain ol' Albinos anymore? And for less?

Chris
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"I don't know about you...but I find comfort in that." -- Cowboy

less than what? $........

last saturday.....at least 5 tables with albino balls on them.....at least 2 were advertising them for $2000 each..and I know at least one of the other ones would have taken $2000 if you held the cash up to him.......(*the other one not sure and the last I don't think he'd go under $2250 but you never know....I didn't ask)....

males and females too..........

yep......

......oh....and I didn't see the words "HIGH Contrast " on any of them I don't think........

everyone has normal albinos......*
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