Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so for the most part my dum has the normal pale yellowish white belly scales, but under his head on his throat the scales are almost leusistic white. i should post a pic, anyone else seen odd colors like that?

The white scales under the jowls are present in all Dumeril's Boa as a rule. Wouldn't be surprised if MTB and MGB did as well since they seem to be derivatives of a common ancestor.

Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula

Actually a good question about the white patch is, "Did it serve or does it serve some purpose?". I have never heard any speculation on the patch origin and its apparent vestigial nature.

Matt

Wow thanks for the response! Thats pretty cool they all have that. I only had this guy for a month, course kinda bummed out thaught maybe he was some different pattern, Thats another thing I had read not alot of gene morphs with these snakes. Is that a small gene pool issue? Oh I noticed the plastic box setup. How does that work out for you? care to share that setup? Thanks again!
Ian

Well as far as color morphs go with Dumerils I would say it has to do in large in part to the complete lack of wc animals available from Madagascar. Unlike the boas of SA which are imported in the one hundred thousands, all Dumerils boa that are available to the trade are the result of captive collections in which only one mendalian trait is known(yet unproven as far as I know), the albino(t-pos?), that resides in Germany. There are a few projects going among 3-4 of the breeders that post here but so far none of us have produced a sellable offspring that gets the rubber stamp for a legitimate color morph.

All of my shelve systems are custom built... melimine shelves with a routered out channel for heat cord. Up to one year in a 4 quart, 1-3 years old in 22 quart, 3-8 feet..if I still have you by then you get moved up to a vision 322/400. Deep substrate of localized moss dens along with aspen.
Later-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula

Awsome! Thanks for your informative post.

I don't believe that wild dumerils have that patch under the chin. I am pretty sure it is a deformity that is the result of severe inbreeding early in the captive line. Like you said, there were very few wild caught founding animals.

I have seen dums from european lines that don't have it.