Reptile & Amphibian Forums

. . . or maybe not. Do high contrast albinos fade or mellow out as they age? I have seen conflicting opinions. . . some say high contrast is a marketing spin only and others say it is genetic and can be reproduced. Any opinions?

BTW, I have a beautiful male albino I recently bought - thanks Chris Bianco!

Alice Cobb

decide for yourself. Just make sure the pics are of adults so there should be something next to the snake (like a phone) to show its size. Personally, I have not seen a high contrast adult. My breeding male looks just like the rest, except he's better looking - he's mine so I'm kinda partial.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

This is always an interesting question. I've asked it myself a few times. From what I've gathered, the High Contrast Albino and the original Albino are the same Albino gene. The difference is in selective breeding for the higher contrast appearance. After a few generations of selective breeding, the offspring are higher contrast. It's kinda like the selective breeding with Pastels. The Pastel gene is always the same, but the brighter colors of each generation are based more on the Normal female with which the sires were bred. At least that's how I understand it. Does that make sense?

BTW, that is one nice Albino -- thanks again & congratulations!

Chris
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mean people suck

Awe ... so you're the lucky new owner of Sundance! congrats - he's gorgeous! I have always been of the opinion that they do tend to fade out a bit as they age but that they are still brighter than normal albinos. However I recently saw a 1400 gram male down in San Diego that was THE brightest high contrast ball I have ever seen - can't remember who it was that had it. So I guess it's a matter of genetics - my guy started to fade a bit after he reached 600 grams but now he's sitting just short of 800 and still looks pretty good! Hope he doesn't fade much more - we'll see - he's almost a year old - so he might fade with age too. Good luck with Sundance and Congrats again - he's a great looking snake!

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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

Its called selective breeding, average Joe and his little sister picked up every adult female they could find, even those dark melanistic looking ones and made dark Het-Albinos resulting in faded adult albinos.

The selectively bred albinos from bright yellow/orange normal parents remain that much more bright, offspring from these are the high contrast albinos...

Actually the dark melanistic normals produce more high contrast albinos because of the brighter white left as a result of the original blacker backbround.

Thanks to everyone for their opinions.

Alice

Here is one of my breeder albino ball python (3 years of age). I do not have his current weight, but i can put him on the scale tonite. He has bred last year (loaned to Chris Simone), and here is a picture of him breeding a Rick Miller het female this year. (The eggs should be hatching next month for those who are following the Rick Miller fake hets Saga).

Thanks,

Nick N.

I've been producing mostly high contrast for years. By choosing high contrast breeders for my group.
It is genetic, but remember all Albinos look best as babies.
And even high contrast Albinos fade some as they mature.

Tom

It was great seeing you in Orlando at the FIRE show last weekend. Awesome snakes!

Alice
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