Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....can anyone think of something?

Linda

Latest word is that the bidding has ended at a little over 50K and the albino Rainbow is going to someone in the northeastern US.
Jeff

>>....can anyone think of something?
>>
>>Linda

but I usually have an opinion whether I know something about it or not.

Okay...50K..about 49K over what I would be able to pay. Northeastern US...not me...not you either.

One albino Rainbow...likely to not be able to reproduce (assuming it's adult) in '05. Unless some double streak of supreme miracle it was captured gravid and produced a fair amount of CB hets. Now you've got 20 hets of which you must keep and raise successfully until maturity and then breed them back to mom and within themselves.

4 years later(assuming everthing worked out perfectly) you have 50 hets and 150 possible hets....so now you have to raise 200 to maturity and breed them back to one another....

8 years later(assuming everything worked out perfectly) you have 150 double hets (darn, still no albino) and 750 possible double hets (many with just one eye! LOL)

12 years later...you get 2 albinos, and 1 is stillborn. Now you have spent all of the 50K...in fact you are down 3500.

I'm just making up numbers and scenarios....but, is that not just a little bit true?

Linda

That by the time I retire I possibly would be able to own an albino BRB. That would be a dream. You would have to sell albino BRB at first for Over $50K, And then after 10 more years after there are some on the market, the price would drop to $25K, and then 10 more years under $5K, and then pretty soon Less than $1000. Its amazing how the market goes. But still it would be pretty cool. The hypo seems to be the only other morph I see on the market. I guess we will just have to see what happens. I hope whoever got him/her is able to produce, and it doesn't Die on them.
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"Life is a Safari"

Just thinking out loud here.

Worst case scenario. Snake dies enroute and there is a fight over who loses the money on the deal. The exporter/seller? The importer/US dealer? The buyer?

Almost as bad case scenario. The snake dies arfer arrival here before reproducing.

The not such a bad case but still really sucks if you spent 50 large case scenario. The snake lives but does not reproduce.

The slightly better case but not what we were hoping for scenario. The snake gets breds to BRBs and produces hets which are not too attractive because they are half BRB and half Guyanan.

Best case scenario. The snake breeds to BRBs and produces pretty full BRB hets in 2006 and they produce beautiful albinos in 2009.

Even better than best case scenario scenario. Best case scenario in big numbers.

Guyana Rainbow, Epicrates cenchria ssp to a Brazilian Rainbow...and any other combos such as BRB to PRB.

I think the breeder has an obligation to the purchaser to identify the sub-species as accurately as possibly. So an amelanistic Guyana Rainbow bred to a Brazilian does not produce what it most closely resembles. Sure, undeniably, it would be a remarkable looking specimen, but is it a BRB? I say no. To this date it seems that Rainbows are not cross-subspecied (is that a word?). The differentials of the sub-species are too vague and are not scientifically published in a way that holds true. Since identification of ssp is so...almost nonexistent, how can any individual claim it to be a specific ssp? Jeff, I get the impression that what you are doing with the most recent post is just that--trying to identify a ssp based on differences in number/and or appearance of specific scales. It is indeed different by appearance, but do the suspicions actually hold any merit? Is it reproduceable? And what are the actual variations in those criteria? I certainly don't know the answers. It's obvious that a CRB is CRB. But, IMO, the others are much more vague...including the PRB..that I am wanting so badly.

So, I ask myself, don't I have an obligation to make certain that I only breed same ssp to like ssp? Absolutely. I would not knowing choose to do it another way, but how can I know with absolute certainty that I am doing just that? I don't know the answer to that either. I have a pair of adult Rainbows purchased as BRB's. The male has larger and fewer scales than the female. I counted them once and (I can't remember the number) I think it was 43 at mid-body. This fellow is larger than the female, and it is possible that they are siblings. I POSSIBLY could have bred a male that would classify as a PRB to a BRB. But I just don't know...I sold the offspring as BRB's. I could have been not counting the scales correctly or just flat out miscounted them. Since this forum is supported by Jeff...who has more experience than I could ever have..unless he just bails out of Rainbows, and it's a few decades later, I personally still have lots of unanswered questions, and choose to follow those that have gone before me, even they don't have all the answers.

Those unanswered questions are a primary reason why I am so passionate about Rainbows. They are a new frontier, we are are still pioneers of the ssp. I love this aspect. I just can't get enough. I know I only see the tip of the iceburg...that's why I keep coming back.

Lots of stream of mind stuff...no real stuff..oh well, it's Saturday.

Linda