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Hello, I really enjoyed Krister's earlier post on the FINE looking Texas Hypo Baridi. I wonder if it could be a T-Albino, Do T-Albinos have dark eyes? I wanted to share afew picture of some Baridi in my collection. Below is a picture of animal that now after further reflection....may not be hypo.

Here the sire to my 05 albino Bairdi and my 100% het. female.

and last, my Adam Block Pair........

Thanks for Viewing

Ken Diehl
Central Texas

That top animal looks like a Mexican Bairds - a very nice one at that....

byron.d

I have to agree, lots of Mexican Baridi influence, if not a locality specific animal itself. My Adam BLock p[air also seems to have some Mexican influence....slate grayish head. Below is a copy of the only "real" documentation I have on her:

Per E-mail Coorespondance with Don Soderberg, South Mountain Reptiles (11/1/05):

I have no idea what she could be other than "not normal". I always wondered if she was hypo, but never looked into it. I regret never comparing her shed skin to that of a normal. That might be an indication of hypo. In corns, most hypos shed a clear skin like that of an albino while the non hypos show dark colors. If you could do that, I'd love to know what you come up with. Maybe I don't want to know. lol. Anyway, I have no idea what she might be other than she was much lighter and had faded patterns compared to other Baird's rats.

i've heard people say the Adam Block line does have some Mexican blood in it, which accounts for them being so light...

there are a few other locales that have very, very, light animals that are not in the Mexican range but look as though somewhere down the line alittle Mexican blood may have crept in.. i think that just like you can find pythons in Florida now locales of Bairds may have been crossed in the wild by no-so-natural means....

heres my F1 hwy 277 Bairds.... this guys parents have almost solid golden heads with the color going about 1/3 of the way down the snake. they were both W/C Hwy 277

byron.d

>>i've heard people say the Adam Block line does have some Mexican blood in it, which accounts for them being so light...
>>
>>there are a few other locales that have very, very, light animals that are not in the Mexican range but look as though somewhere down the line alittle Mexican blood may have crept in.. i think that just like you can find pythons in Florida now locales of Bairds may have been crossed in the wild by no-so-natural means....
>>
>>heres my F1 hwy 277 Bairds.... this guys parents have almost solid golden heads with the color going about 1/3 of the way down the snake. they were both W/C Hwy 277
>>
>>byron.d
>>

Wow! That one is gorgeous, as is the first one posted in this strand (that looks like a Mex). Hang onto those.

PS: I believe the hypos are just different forms of amelanism (just not complete). If it has dark eyes, I'd call it hypo, imo.

TC

I've always considered the 'amel' Bairds to be T or hypo and not really albino.... just my thoughts..

i'll post a recent photo of the pair - they look even better!!!!

byron.d

FYI: The terms hypo and albino are not interchangable. An "albino" snake (amelanistic or anerythristic) will have those classic pink eyes. A snake that is "Hypo" is one that has fully working pigment cells that do not produce much pigment. A shake that is "Hyper" is one that is much darker than a normal wild type.

A White Oak Snake is an example of a hypo Gray Rat Snake. I myself have a hyper Gray Rat that is much darker then you normally see. I also have her sister, and she has normal coloring.

I didn't exactly say hypomelanistic and amelanistic were interchangeable. I said hypo was similar to amel, but I should have clarified. Amelanism means "no" melanin, whereas, hypomelanism means "reduced" melanin. So, I meant hypo was an incomplete reduction of melanin, whereas, amel is a complete reduction. There's a lot of different forms of both of these mutations.

What's this?

It's a blue-eyed blonde Cal king. It's not an albino because of the eye and body pigment, but sure seems like a type of amelanism. Actually, I would call it a hypo.

What's this??

It's a Davis black-belly Cal king...hypermelanistic.

Hope you enjoyed.

TC

I too think that the "albino" Bairdi are hypomelanistic Bairdi. True amelanistics will not have black pupils or ruby pupils (like some corn morphs that have reduced, but not absent melanin). You wouldn't see the longitudinal lining at all. All of the "metal" should be lost if there is no melanin as well.

I've written on what I think of the "T plus albino" term before, so I won't dredge that up. Suffice it to say I don't use it and feel it is only pertinent if you are trying to tell the difference between an amelanistic animal with a functioning Tyr gene and an amelanistic animal without a functioning Tyr gene. An animal showing any amount of melanin is by default T positive since melanin is being produced.

On the hypomelanism front, keep in mind that there is more than one way to get the appearance of reduced black...only one of which is to simply have a faulty tyrosinase gene and have a reduction in pigment produced. In the corn world, there are currently 4 proven (and possibly soon to be 5) types of "hypomelanism".

I believe the "true" hypomelanism is the Ultra gene, which is an allele to amel in corns. It does not affect the pattern at all, just like amelanism. Its only effect is to reduce the amount of melanin. When an animal carries both ultra genes, it looks like a typical hypo (colorwise). When it carries an ultra gene paired with an amel gene (dubbed an "ultramel" ), the animal is much lighter, exhibiting a phenotype halfway between "ultra" and "amel" in lightness. These animals also often have deep ruby pupils as hatchlings, rather than black or red, again showing the reduction, but not lack of melanin. When the animal carries both amel genes at that locus, you get your standard amel.

The standard hypo gene (Hypomelanism Type A) in corns seems to me to be more of a pattern morph, almost like a failure of the melanocytes to spread out to their normal destinations during pigment cell migration, leaving an animal with thin to non-existant saddle borders, often bronzed belly checks (vs. black), and a cleaner "hypo" look overall. I wish we had more studies in this, but the most obvious example is to look at Hypo A Okeetees and standard Okeetee phased animals. The borders are greatly reduced.

Sunkissed (formerly Hypo type B) is obviously a pattern gene. Look up a few and you'll see that. They tend to have bizarre patterns, especially on the head. Their body shape is a little different as well.

Lava is the most extreme hypo I've seen to date, but again, is showing pattern anomalies such as a clear line down the belly, absence of black tiger bars at the mouth, and often a waxy overall look with extreme white sheds.

In these cases, I'd call Standard Hypo, Lava, and Sunkissed pattern hypos and ultra and ultramel color hypos.

Just some thoughts.

Lovely Bairdi, I almost picked up a pair of "albino" Bairi at the last Tinley show and am still kicking myself for not doing so.
-----
~~~Hurley

Thanks for the great info on hypo corns.

TC

I have a 277 male in the 30 inch range that has the saddles like that one but with even more orange. I thought it was a Alterna when I saw him on a cut just north of Loma Alta. I am loving the babies I got out of a wc females this summer also. These things really are the best kept secret of the rat snakes.

Later Jason