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I have a question for those of you who keep Leopard Boas.

EXACTLY how do the genetics work on these guys?

We picked up a pair of Leopard hets in Daytona this year because we really liked how the trait expressed itself as a het. Now we are wondering what is going to happen when we breed this unrelated pair of hets together. It is my understanding that we’ll get Leopards, Het Leopards, and Normals. However, the more we discuss the topic, the more we realize how little we understand it. So if any of you out there can share some of your knowledge on the subject, both Kathy and I would really appreciate it! I feel a little silly asking the question because at the time we purchased the pair of boas I thought I had a pretty good grasp of how their genetics worked.

Denny & Kathy Rimes

I also bought a Leopard this year, from Hans. Their genetics are simple recessive, although some debate that Hets are abberant and distinguishable (sp?) from the normal siblings in Het X Het breedings. Hans says there is no appearance unique to heterozygous Leopards, that he has had abberants prove not to be hets, and normals to be hets.

One exciteing factor about Leopard boas, is that they seem to be Polymorphic. Meaning that there a various appearances of homozygous Leopards. Some have very tight marbled patterns, some are blotched like the original, and some are striped. Others have an orange belly, and some are nearly black all over. Leopard X Leopard breedings can lead to very abberant Leopards, usually much darker and drastic in defineing traits.

Leopards all have black eyes, another unique factor, my 66% het female also has solid eyes. It may be something not connected to the mutation, or it may be. I do know there are hets that do have black eyes and others that don't. I do not know if black eyes means they are hets.

I hope this led to a little clearification. Personally this is a very exciteing project, just due to the possibilities. Thats why I am working the Leopard, Blood and Blizzard projects for my morphs though!

Take care,
Chris

We were sure that it was explained as a simple recessive. But then the more we looked at our pair and spoke about it the more confused we became.

The pair of hets that we have certainly has their own distinctive look, as do all the hets that Hans sells. And if you start looking at the Hets produced by others in their Normal X Leopard breedings then it is even more obvious that the hets that Hans sells have a “look” all their own. And that is why we started to second guess the genetics and how it works and if all hets were “visible” hets. I believe Hans and trust him to be an honest guy. However, I would also like to know if anybody on the forum has had time to raise and breed a pair of hets from a Normal X Leopard breeding and what the results were.

Also, is everybody loosing the “look” of the hets by crossing them with new blood?
Kathy really likes how the hets we have look, better even than the actual Leopards, and does not want to loose that in future breedings. That is, in part, her concern about the genetics and how they work.

I have a feeling we will just have to raise them up, breed them, and find out…..After all that really is half the fun of this hobby.

Thanks,

Denny & Kathy

that by crossing the original Leopard line into other bloodlines, the "look" will be lost. I think it is important to outbreed, but I also don't want the "look" lost either. I believe the most outcrossing we will see is going to come from Colombian Albinos X Sonoran Leopards. The other outcrossing with other morphs will be C.A. (or should be), maybe another exception will be the T-positive Albino Colombians.

Tom Burke produced DH Leopard Albinos this year from a breeding between his Albino Colombian male and a Sonoran Leopard female. The babies have maintained a "look" almost like there are hidden genes in the Leopard. (Not to start controversy, but kind of like a dominant gene.) I know Tracy Barker and Jeremy Stone produced two litters of Leopards, but so far I think these are all the U.S. breedings. I don't know for sure though. Outcrossing and breeding Het X Het and Leopard X Leopard will hopefully bring more answers.

we cannot answer the het question because we have none, and we have yet to successfully breed our adult male (2 seasons in a row). However, the variance between the Leopards themselves should keep this project going for a long time........Here is our male........he is super dark at 4 1/2 years old. He is probably 4' long and eats frozen thawed small rats (how cool!)

Old picture alert!

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Chris & Alliey
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