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I've had this girl since she was a baby, when she was small she looked just like any normal BRB. the thing is, she has gotten much lighter over the years (she is three) She never really had much black on her, now she has none at all. She has mostly grayish-brown where it should be black. the rest of her is as normal as can be, nice bright orange crescents and overall rust-orange color. The pics aren't the best. I'll try to get some better ones if need be. Thoughts anyone?

Your snake does look a little unusual. But it doesn't look like any of the Hypomelanistic animals I've seen. I'll post a few pics for reference ( I don't know how to get more than one pic per post. Here's one of a baby Hypomelanistic animal. You can see that they look nothing like normal babies.

Here's an adult hypomel and a normal one in the background

This is what your picture reminds me of the most. I am told that this is an anerythristic BRB. It is lacking the red pigmentation. I think that these animals are grey and black as babies. The snake has developed some brown but there is definately a lack of red. You could have a particular "morph" of BRB. Also, your snake may be just going through some kind of color change. I have never experienced this with my own animals but I have read quite a few posts on this forum by people who say their animals are becoming darker or lighter or more or less red as adults. You may want to browse the archives to look for some of these posts. Hope you like the pics,

Mike

>>Here's an adult hypomel and a normal one in the background
>>

Great contrasting photo. Are these your babies?

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~ Noel ~
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Thanks, these are my babies. In fact, this bloodline started with a pair of Normal looking Rainbow Boas that I bred in 1992. They must have both been carrying the genes for Hypomelanism. This is a condition where melanin (the darkest pigment in their scales)either isn't produced in great amounts or isn't reaching the places that it needs to be. I think there is only one other Hypomelanistic bloodline in the US right now. If anyone has any info on this or others, I'd love to start a little thread.

Mike

>>I've had this girl since she was a baby, when she was small she looked just like any normal BRB. the thing is, she has gotten much lighter over the years (she is three) She never really had much black on her, now she has none at all. She has mostly grayish-brown where it should be black. the rest of her is as normal as can be, nice bright orange crescents and overall rust-orange color. The pics aren't the best. I'll try to get some better ones if need be. Thoughts anyone?

I am not real familiar with all the breeder lingo ... hypo, het, 0.5.9.2.4.5...? all that jazz... but I think you have a lovely girl there.

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~ Noel ~
My Email
My Photos