Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is anyone breeding albino helenas?

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Interesting notion. Is anyone keeping albino trinkets?

althea

Frank:
The only hypo (or possibly hyperxanthic) helena I've ever seen was in a ratsnake book by Jerry Walls. It was a beautiful juvenile that was a vivid and striking yellow with reduced melanin. I asked about that snake a year or two ago and no current keepers had anything like it.

Sorry

Regards
John

Is anyone breeding albino helenas?
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>>Frank
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>>"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

John,

I think that I know of wich photo you're talking about. I read somewhere once that it was a doctored photo. I think that the photo at least is very overexposed. Don't you think we wouldn't have seen more of these bright yellow Trinkets by now, if they really existed?

Regards,

Bert

Although he has no photos of hypo or light helenas, Schulz does reference one in his book. I don't think there are enough people bringing trinkets out of India to know whether there are any interesting morphs out there. Even the other subspecies isn't available here in the US. So it's hard to be sure.

Regards
John

>>John,
>>
>>I think that I know of wich photo you're talking about. I read somewhere once that it was a doctored photo. I think that the photo at least is very overexposed. Don't you think we wouldn't have seen more of these bright yellow Trinkets by now, if they really existed?
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Bert

Thanks for the replies.

I have seen reports of albinos in some of my books but with no pictures to back it up.

The only morph(?) I have seen of these is a specimen I just turned up. It is gray-olive in the center stripe and a bit to the brown in the head but the body is all grey with black and white markings and the venter is solid grey.

Is this unusual? I have only seen the brown (normals) before.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

You're not the only one to try to source that animal or it's descendants. It appears that it died young and never bred, although I have to say that I was told this by a breeder in the states although who I can't remember, too long ago. I don't believe it was a doctored pic, there are similar high yellow animals in closely related species such as radiated rats which are available. As for albino trinkets, I've never seen or even heard of one but I have heard of people with hets that never produce albinos...

Interesting. Maybe it's not a simple recessive trait like albinism. When I saw that photo I was hoping it was not an albino but a high yellow phase. Oh well.

But at least there in Europe you have the montecollaris subspecies represented. I've seen a german website with photos of them. They are very attractive.

I'm breeding regular trinkets, from het albino parents...

Have you seen the albino adult? Does it resemble the radiated rat albino in appearance? Sounds interesting.

>>I'm breeding regular trinkets, from het albino parents...

No i have'nt. Sorry.
The only thing i know, is that the albino sire died, shortly after mating. The owner supected that it was due to a weakness caused by inbreeding...

That's too bad. It would have been interesting to know. Well, good luck with the hets. Hopefully they'll throw some albinos for you at some point.
Regards
John

>>No i have'nt. Sorry.
>>The only thing i know, is that the albino sire died, shortly after mating. The owner supected that it was due to a weakness caused by inbreeding...

I have heard of a german guy, who crossbred albino Radiata's and trinkets to create hets...

I'm interested that you've produced normal trinkets from het parents. I've been dreaming of producing an albino trinket from my eggs - I'm sure the parents aren't het, but what if they were?? etc - except now my hopes are dashed because no one seems to have produced one even from known hets! I'm impressed that your female laid 14 eggs - that would seem unusual in a helena. My five eggs (one turned out to be a slug) are due to hatch any time. Day 70 today, but last time they took 74 days to pip. It's always such an exciting time.