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albino to albino???

T

ted zalewski

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is it a bad thing to breed boas(both albino)? does this cause any genetic problems? these are BCI by the way. thanks, and please help, ted
 
There are some anomalies/defects which have been associated with the albino trait (at least the Kahl strain, I'm not sure about Sharp) - most notably with the eyes: one eye, no eyes, different sized eyes, blindness. Since it is hard to know the genetic makeup of any albino, many people are opting to outcross - breeding hets from different stock to albinos or hets - to minimize the risk. Purchasing stock from different dealers/breeders does not necessarily guarantee that you will not have problems for a variety of reasons: babies from a single clutch can be scattered across the country (gotta love the internet), so you could unknowingly end up with closely related animals; Kahl strain albinos can be traced back to a small number of initial animals; many people have taken the quick/easy route, breeding siblingXsibling (motherXson, etc).
This is not to say that one cannot breed albino X albino and get strong, healthy babies...but if even one baby ends up with a problem, the entire litter should be suspect; and serious consideration given to further breeding of that pair.
 
Harald stated it perfectly.

Way too many people took the fast track back at the beginning of albino boas and everyone is paying the price now. You are much better off taking your time - outcrossing - and strengthening your bloodline.
 
the two albinos in question are definetly from two different breeders one in ohio,one in kansas. (thanks so far for the replies)
 
My albino females are from 3 different places as well, all good names...strong stock. But after weighing everything out, I opted to go with hypo het albino males...I didn't really want to deal with het babies, but felt it was a better option in the long run.
 
so what everyone is saying, (if i want to keep it small) i should have a pair of hets a pair albinos then just mix it up?
 
only you can decide what is right for you...depends on what you are trying to accomplish and where your priorities are. As I said, my initial goal did not include having to deal with het babies...but as I looked more longterm, I felt that I would prefer to do that than risk setbacks or weaker lines. The issue is that the eye deformities appear to be related to the albino gene, and (from what I have seen) seems to be most prevalent in albinoXalbino pairings. If I were to experience this with one of my pairings, I would feel compelled to restart my project because if there are problems with the babies it is likely to have come from the parents. That's 3-4 years down the tubes. Again, this is just my thought on the subject.
 
The other side of the spectrum.........
My F3 is one of the early Kahls. Bred in just such a manner. The original Kahl male, bred to a normal and produced hets....... 0.1 of these hets was later bred back to dad, and produced Aurora. She is now 7 yrs old, (this month) and has never had an unhealthy day in her life. Not one belly ache, not one bad shed, Nothing. So it is possible to have perfectly healthy babies from inbreeding as well.

Not to discredit what Harald or Mike has stated. It is very sound and good advise to line breed. I too believe in the strengthening of the gene theory, and this has slowed down My actual purchases significantly, due to Me wanting some proof of non sibling-ship. (is that even a word? LOL)

But these days, now that there has been a significant amount of breeding going on with albinos, I think the problem is pretty insignificant.
Now the problem hits the other morphs people are trying to make too quickly, like snows.

Just My $0.025
Rick
 
Back to the Hypo's....

OK, So I don't pretend to be a genetics pro, or even a long time breeder of morphs. I do not (any longer) question the salmon Hypo gene as being dominant.
But something about it just keeps Me thinking there is more to the salmon than mere Hypomelanism. As we know, the reduction of melanin allows for the erythrin to show through better in salmon hypos. They get redder with age.
Take a normal albino, versus a sunglow. We'll use kahl strain since that's what I am more familiar with.
A normal albino will generally loose it's red or orange with age.
A sunglow gets brighter, just like a salmon does.

Now to my feeble mind, in order for this increase in erythrin to come about, the gene would have to be affected in some way. Similar to some pastels which are concidered polygenic.

Anybody else have thoughts on this? Not trying to play evil scientist and discredit anything others have previously established, just something that has always bugged Me about this gene.

Rick
 
hhmoore said:
This is not to say that one cannot breed albino X albino and get strong, healthy babies...
Click to expand...
Got that one covered, Rick, lol. I agree with you entirely, but want to point out one thing, your female is from the original Kahl male bred back to one of his het daughters. That was back at the start of all this. Parent to offspring matings pretty much have to occur to prove out any morph. The problem comes when people continue to inbreed without enough outcrosses, as each breeding decreases the "individuality" of the DNA (daughter already has 1/2 her genetic structure from her father, breed her back and her offspring essentially get 3/4 from him). Then factor in people doing sib/sib breedings and you see the branches falling right off the family tree. I don't think anybody would argue that a generation or two of this type of breeding can be tolerated without causing significant problems, but without early and regular outcrossing things get ugly
 
No problem, lol. I don't have much experience with sunglows, but I will say that I have seen some 1-2 year olds that are pretty much yellow and light reddish/orange, so not all of them improve with age. Even among my albino females, I see differences in the color/pattern retention. I'll be taking pics this week and will post them somewhere - off to work now
 
ahhhhh, just leave it. You can always start a new thread on that subject if you want to generate new looks, but we've already bumped this up to the top of the forum list...the only thing different is that it won't get posted in the "lastest discussions" column
 
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