Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are the belated pictures of my baby and the parents. The male is an albino Cal king. The dark spots on him are aspen, btw.

Here's the best picture I could get of the one that didn't make it out of the shell. It's darker colored, pretty much like a normal prairie.

By the way, This one has almost a perfect stripe down it's back, with two stripes of dots on either side. The pattern is very different from a prairie. I'll try to get better pictures, but they all show up very dark.

nate.

This is the kind of hybrid that should scare the crap out of people in this hobby. That animal looks like a standard, run of the mill, albino calligaster. Down the road some unknowing keeper/breeder might buy that snake not knowing that it's a hybrid and breed it back to their own calligaster thinking that it's a pure. Subsequent offspring could be further proliferated through the hobby and so on and so on... Do you see the problem or are you blinded by your own ignorance?

Chris

Do you see the problem or are you blinded by your own ignorance?

LOL!

Great, the only person who believes me is a hater.

Honestly, though, thanks for the help trying to track down the problem, but now I am still back where I was, and except for the possibility of parthenogenic reproduction, a hybrid is the only possibility. Again, though, I thought parthenogenic babies were EXACT clones of the mom. Am I wrong with this? Can a het "clone" herself an albino baby?

Thanks,
nate.

I don't know about the parthenogenic reproduction nor do I think anyone can explain it.
What I do know is I have crossed many different hybrids and seen trhousands hatch out. I have never seen one come out looking like one of the pure forms. When you have first hand experience like this all the armchair biologists can take back seat.

Agreed, "life finds a way"

Well, now I am even more curious than ever. Any suggestions about where I could get the genetics tested, and if the cost is even worth it? At this point, it is more for my pure curiosity. I know what DIDN'T happen, but I'm still stuck wondering what did. At very least I will attempt it again next year. Thanks again for the imput.

nate.

You need to ask FR for that on the KS forum (or PM him). FR is a pioneer to the pioneers. He probably inventrd snake breeding back in the 70's and he knows more about breeding reptiles than anyone else, EVER.

Hi Nate, I think your only problem is you think parthnogenetic reproduction is cloning, its not. Even cloning cannot predict color and pattern.

Back to the problem. Parthnogenetic reproduction, picks one(in your case)(whatever the number in the clutch, in most cases) gamates(sex cell) each sex cell has a different set of cromosones. For instance, like all hets(for albinism) some of the gamates carry the recessive albinism trait and some don't, yet all come from the same female. Some have this pattern and some have that pattern, still all from the same female. So indeed, offspring, parthnogenetic or otherwise are not clones and do not have to duplicate the mother. Hopefully this will help you get past your BRICK WALL about cloning. Its not a clone.

Its already been explained to you that at this point, all you can do to solve this is have the animal tested. Anything else is simply more guesses. You already have tons of those. Good luck FR

I would love to see it bred to an albino calligaster that would be great to see what the babies would look like.