Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bred a T-negative Florida king to a Peanut Butter brooksi morph and was expecting hets. Instead i got these new "Jelly" morphs. They don't look or have the pigment the PB's do and they don't have the red eyes the t- albinos have.

I assume there is more to the eye on the PB trait and something must have been allelic. But the babies look so different they appear to be a whole new morph.

Any suggestions?

Do all of the babies show this "jelly" appearance? It sounds more or less intermediate between the peanut butter and the albino. Is this correct?

It is possible that the albino mutant gene and the peanut butter mutant gene are alleles (different, slightly changed versions of the same gene). And the "jelly" snakes are heterozygous peanut butter//albino (a peanut butter mutant gene paired with an albino mutant gene). If so, it would be the first case of multiple alleles I've heard of in kingsnakes. Multiple alleles are old hat in other species, such as the domestic cat and the lab mouse. In both of these species there are several mutant alleles of albino.

If peanut butter and albino are alleles, then the following breeding results can be predicted:
albino x peanut butter --> all "jelly"
jelly x albino --> 1/2 albino, 1/2 jelly
jelly x peanut butter --> 1/2 jelly, 1/2 peanut butter
jelly x jelly --> 1/4 albino, 2/4 jelly, 1/4 peanut butter
jelly x normal --> all normal looking babies (1/2 heterozygous albino, 1/2 heterozygous peanut butter)

Please follow this up. It would be a significant increase in our king snake genetics knowledge if it pans out. Good luck.

Paul Hollander