Multiple strains of Albinism?

[Seamus Haley]

I've got a friend who produces around 3000-4000 neonate colubrids most years, pet shop stuff for the most part, good number of corns, kings, a few milks and the occasional Pitouphis...

Got a proven pair of albino gophers dropped off on him (I'm not certain of the subspecies off the top of my head) prior to this last breeding season and he had a proven pair himself already (Gophers don't sell as well as some other species for obvious reasons, a single pair covered pretty much all the production he needed).

After checking them out and making certain they were healthy, he crossed up the males for a second round of couplings, both males bred with both females at some point, normally a good idea, just to add to the chances of fertalization as long as everyone is still in good shape.

Eggs are produced.

Eggs are carefully labeled.

Eggs are incubated.

Eggs pip, eggs hatch...

Slightly less than half the neonates are phenotypically normal.

So pretty much MY question at this point becomes... How many strains of albinism are there in gophers or specific gopher ssp?

At what point do the various strains interrupt the melanin production?

And just to cover my bases even though it's unlikely; has anyone had a snake drop that should be genotypically normal but had the appearance of albinism/amelanism (My thought is that there also exists a very VERY slim chance that the seeming albinism of the new male might be due to a physiological problem that developed during HIS incubation rather than having a genetic cause)?

[Shaun Roberson]

Well, if they are annectans, there are 2 known starins of albino that do not breed true with each other, one known as "applegate starin", which tend to be orange and white, and "Purple blotch", which tend to be more yellow and lavendar. I am not aware of more than one starin of amelanism in affinis. I'm not sure about Pacifics. I kind of question the purity of albino Pacifics and San Diegos anyway, because they can be hard to tell apart, especially striped ones.

[diablohogs]

...there isn't two of you shamey. that way the other one of you could attack you for trying to get an honest answer to an honest question much in the style in which you presented yourself on the thread where i asked about the pacific gopher i caught.

i would do this for you however i'd rather use my energy more wisely. y'know crossing dogs with gopher snakes.

[Snakelover]

Your friend either crossed two different subspecies, or two different albino strains of San Diegos! Any pics? As far as I am aware there is one strain of the Albino Pacific, and one of the Sonoran that vary a lot. The San Diegos however have four different Albino strains and if you bred any two together you would produce normal double hets. They consist of the Applegate, Purple Blotched, Striped, and Bechtel strain.

[John Cherry]

The animals you are referring to I bet are san diegos as someone in one of the other posts allruded to. Back when they were all first originated there were two wild caught animals that were owned by Randy Limburg and another guy that escapes me right now. I in fact owned Randy's animal till as accident last year and he was ancient. Anyway the two animals were raised and bred
together and produced only normal het babies. Meaning that the trait was on a different allele in each animal. Anway the hets were raised and each origianl strain animal was bred back to the original respective animals thereby producing the two separte pure strain animals. Someone mentioned a striped phase and a patternless phase below in San Diego's. I have not seen pure san diego's in those morphs, but rather have seen pacifics with both. Additionally the albino morph is present in the pacifics also. But when bred together all the pacific morphs I mentioned procduce morphs in those patternes and albino in the normal occurence basis.

Additionally the "applegate phase " gophers when bred to purple spot also still produce albino animals with varying degrees of white/purple blotching indicating albinism on the same allele and a selective color breeding situation for the applegate phase animal.

Anyway that is my input of the subject.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

[RNPreptiles]

I heard about two cases where someone supposedly breed two applegate strains together and came out with normal babies. They spoke of a possible "hidden gene" if they were in fact both the same type of albino and still produced normal babies. Genetics can be strange.

Hopefully, you have double hets. Now if you breed them to either albino, you should get half albino possible hets and half hets possible double hets.

[warriorprncss3]

I recently was given two pairs of gopher snakes and told they were a new strain called 'striped albino applegate gophers'. After being told on the kingsnake forum that they couldn't possibly exist and mine were pacific stock instead I ended up straight at the source! The Applegate family has indeed done it and they are the real deal!! It just proves that anything is possible and you can discover it with patience.