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What might be the possible offspring produced by crossing a striped albino caliking with a banded albino caliking?

Banded is the normal appearance of the Cal king. Striped is produced by a mutant gene that is dominant to the normal gene. A heterozygous striped king (with a striped gene paired with a normal gene) may show considerable variation. A heterozygous striped Cal king could have a nice stripe, a series of short stripes, a series of dots instead of stripe segments, a series of stripe segments with some bands, etc. Richard Zweifel has some good pictures of variations in his paper back in one of the 1983 issues of the Journal of Heredity.

Anyway, crossing a striped with a normal (banded) Cal king should produce some striped or striped variation babies. It depends on whether the striped snake is homozygous striped (with a pair of striped mutant genes) or heterozygous striped (with a striped gene paired with a normal gene). If your striped snake is homozygous striped, all the babies will be striped or some sort of variant striped as above. If your striped snake is heterozygous striped, the statistical figure is half the babies will be normal (banded) and half the babies will be striped or some sort of variant striped as above.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander

Sorry, I left off the albino. I would expect albino x albino to produce all albino babies. However, it is possible to get normally colored babies if one snake is albino and the other is (lavender albino?) Not sure of the exact name people have for the second type of albino.

A striped albino x albino will produce all albino striped babies if the striped snake is homozygous striped.

A striped albino x albino will (statistically) produce half albino striped babies and half albino babies if the striped snake is heterozygous striped.

Albino = albino banded.

Paul Hollander

Thanks, Paul. From reading other discussions, I was hoping you'd answer my post.

The male is striped normal albino and the female is banded albino, perhaps lavender but you'd really have to use your imagination on that one. The lady I purchased her from did call her lavender but I'm not so sure.

So, am I correct to assume that the lavender gene part of a different chromosome than the normal albino?

And so, if the offspring did appear normal, they would most likely be striped, correct?

And if the offspring were normal looking striped, would they would be het for both normal and lavender albinism?

Thank you for sharing your understanding.

Rodney Kress

>So, am I correct to assume that the lavender gene is part of a different chromosome than the normal albino?

I'm not as up on Cal king snake mutants as I'd like to be. However, as far as I know, the albino and lavender mutant genes are located on different chromosomes.

>And so, if the offspring did appear normal, they would most likely be striped, correct?

A normal Cal king has both dark (brown to black) and light (pale yellow to white) pigment arranged in bands around the body, two eyes, smooth scales, a single anal plate, 9 large scales on the top of the head, etc., etc.

A striped Cal king is not normal. It is like normal except that the light and dark pigment are arranged in stripes along the body rather than bands around the body.

Both lavenders and albinos are not normal, either. They are like normal Cal kings except that they have the dark pigment greatly reduced or absent.

>And if the offspring were normal looking striped, would they would be het for both normal and lavender albinism?

There are at least two and possibly three different mutant genes in this cross. So there are many possible outcomes.

If you have seven babies from this cross, then the odds are 99% that you will get at least one baby that is striped or some variation of striped. And all of the babies may be striped or some variation of striped.

If you get one or more babies that have the normal colors rather than being albino or lavender, then those babies are heterozygous for both lavender and albino. Those babies might be all striped, all normally patterned, or some striped and some normally patterned.

Unfortunately, I do not know of an easy, reliable way to distinguish lavender from albino.

Paul Hollander

This is the first year that I bred this pairing (Lavender x Albino). As expected, I got "normal looking" babies. So the babies are now double hets. Which means when bred back to each other later, 1/16 will display both Lavender and Albino at the same time........ Also my Albino was a High White (a tint of cream), so the babies are aberrant & banded.

Here is a pic of the parents breeding this spring.

Kerby...

Some of the babies have a "transparent" (for lack of a better word) look to them. So although they are double hets (Lavender & Albino), they look different. When bred back together, I should get Lavenders, Albinos, AND hopefully statistically speaking an Albino Lavender. I hope that will be obvious, as right now it is obvious what a baby Lavender looks like compared to an Albino. Then add in the combo of aberrant (High White)....

Paul, please comment.

Kerby...

When bred back to each other, I should get Lavenders, Albinos, & "normals that are hets for each", etc... as well as hopefully some that show both traits.

Paul can actually give you the breakdown (%) on breeding double hets together.

Sorry about leaving that out.

Kerby...

Wow!

Well, you've got a couple of double hets for albino and lavender there, but they sure aren't normal. The top left snake has some sort of pattern mutant. And the bottom right snake is even further from normal.

Is the albino parent striped? I couldn't tell from the picture. If so, then the high white baby might be a combination of striped and whatever pattern mutant that top left snake has.

Mating two double hets for albino and lavender should produce
9/16 normal looking
3/16 albino
3/16 lavender
1/16 albino lavender

IMHO, there is a strong probability that albino will hide the effect of the lavender mutant gene. Which would make the albino lavender look just like the albinos. If so, about the only way to tell whether a given albino is also lavender is to breed it to a lavender.

Paul Hollander

The father is the banded Lavender. The mother is an Albino High White (more cream) with hardly any patter at all. If it wasn't albino, then she would have been an almost all white snake. Anytime I breed the High Whites into banded, the offspring come out aberrant.

We will see what an Albino Lavender will look like in a couple of years. I am hoping it is something different

Thanks for the breakdown.

Kerby...

Kirby,

Will you be breeding the pair again this year?

I will be breeding my lavender banded female to my albino striped male next spring.

Perhaps we could trade a little to broaden our bloodlines next summer.

Let me know what you think!

Rodney
rodneykress@yahoo.com

Yes, that is possible.

My new site is not complete yet, but I am working on it every day LOL

New site: www.lonesomevalleyreptiles.com

Old site: http://myweb.cableone.net/azmilk

Kerby...

That's great!

I looked at your site. Keep up the good work.

I will keep your site bookmarked and contact you when/if things go well next season.

Rodney

Only I crossed my T- brooksi(only true T- I beleive)to the Tim ricks/Osborne lavender and got all (you guessed it) normal babies. I was hoping there would be an allelic happeneing but all I got was double hets.

Should be an interesting 1/16th . The t- is white with straberry red on top and the Lavender I used was a sulfer lavender.

The sulfer lav was created by out breeding to a sulfer yellow brooksi to produce hets and then lavenders. The sulfer lav is what I used to breed to the T-.

Now I got all thse hets and its to hard to sell for what they are worth because "most" don't have a clue to what I am talking about sulfer brooksi ect.

Striped snake you refer to is called Lavender Cal. King Snake (albino) you have nice breed of snakes the babies they had are very nice colors..