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At a recent reptile show I came across a complete litter aberrant boas. These kids were killer. Some had complete stripes, similar to jungles and not Kahl's stripes, and every one had major aberrancies. They had very high contrast as well. These babies came from two normal appearing adults. My best educated guess being that these babies were the result of stress while the female was gravid (I'm guessing inadequate heat and premature birth for reasons I won't get into). Obviously, these snakes are not jungles. I did not purchase any mainly because the best ones had been purchased and I doubt they will prove genetic. The question I have is how many people out there have produced aberrant babies from aberrant parents besides Swedish line jungles and Kahl's stripe line? What else is floating around with Colombian BCI? Also, can the stressors while gravid lead to genetic aberrancies? Do we know that the female being stressed while gravid does not lead to aberrant babies that can pass the trait genetically? I.E. Did stress cause albinos, jungles, tigers, motleys, etc.?

Phil Goss

with abberant parents.

Dad (old pic)

Mom while gravid last year..(minor abberant saddles, abberant tail)

almost the entire litter was abberant to one extent or the other

sorry about the quality of some of the pics, took them with my old camera. I wish I would have taken more pics of the normals....I wholesaled them out a little too quickly Im afraid.

Thanks
Bob

I love the one second from the bottom! Very nice.

Did you take any pics?

I believe genetic mutations occur in boas much like many other reptile species.the old urban legend/myth, that one can induce pattern anomolies through manipulation of the enviromental factors,stems from decades old reports of non-genetic pattern abnormalities in egg laying species,which can occur due to suboptimal temperature conditions(higher/lower than optimal) between gestation & hatching,(based on stages of development,it is presumed that this occurs during incubation,post oviposition,rather than pre-oviposition.)In my opinion,in order to cause mutation of pattern in live bearing species,temperatures would have to reach extremes that would also dramaticlly affect physiological development & mortality,to the extent that very few of these theoretical neonates would escape serious deformities internal & external. as far as "stress" being a factor in genetic anomolies,my opinion is "no",true genetic anomolies are caused by various biomechanical/biochemical malfunctions,or deviations from the original "blueprint".much like getting the cherries to line up on a slot machine...getting the right genes to line up simultaneously requires continually "pulling the handle down". numbers & chance to find it,applied genetic theory to isolate it when you do...just my 2 cents.
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