bad eye albino

The problem is that the eye abnormalities in BCI have shown 99% in albinos. I
have yet to see one ad showing any other boa showing eye problems.

And yes, you are right. Vitamin A deficiency will lead to eye defects, including
blindness. That's why livestock require vitamin A to be added to their diet to
avoid such problems. Boas on the other hand obtain their vitamin A from the
liver deposits contained in their prey items. You lost me with your rationale
behind the need for a low fat diet. Fat is required for normal absorption of
vitamin A (fat soluble vitamin) and it's metabolites.

Originally Posted by paulh

I wish someone would raise a pair of albino boa constrictors with one or both eyes missing on a low fat, vitamin fortified diet and then breed them. The result might help give us a handle as to whether the problem is genetic or environmental.

As was mentioned in the previous post. Why is it almost exclusive to Albinos? I believe if it was something as simple as a vitamin deficiency, that there would be an even greater occurance of one eyed/no eyed normals, since more of them are produced.

Ambient light, even at low intensities, can cause irreversible degeneration of
the retina in albino rats. They apparently need 12-h cycles of light and
darkness to decrease the incidence of the problem. A 24-hour period of
continuous light will cause some damage, and after several weeks of continuous
exposure, there is complete degeneration of the retina leading to blindness.
Maybe we should learn from this, and maintain albino boas under lower intensity
light, and by no means use incandescent lamps for heating purposes. Of course
this does not address the problem of the inherited condition whereas animals
are born blind or even with the absence of one or both eyes. One other thing,
please don't fall for the traumatism story; albino boas are not that "dumb" to
suffer ocular accidents so frequently.

Originally Posted by The BoidSmith

The problem is that the eye abnormalities in BCI have shown 99% in albinos. I
have yet to see one ad showing any other boa showing eye problems.

Perhaps albinos need more than a normal does to develop properly.

One thing that I have wondered was whether both Kahl and Sharp albinos show eye abnormalities or whether it was restricted to the Kahl strain.

Originally Posted by The BoidSmith

And yes, you are right. Vitamin A deficiency will lead to eye defects, including
blindness. That's why livestock require vitamin A to be added to their diet to
avoid such problems. Boas on the other hand obtain their vitamin A from the
liver deposits contained in their prey items. You lost me with your rationale
behind the need for a low fat diet. Fat is required for normal absorption of
vitamin A (fat soluble vitamin) and it's metabolites.

It might not be vitamin A deficiency but some other deficiency. The vitamin A deficiency was simply an example. Or boas' normal diet in the wild might include more vitamin A than they get from the diet of rodents that we usually feed them.

As for the fat, I'm not aware of any good studies on the proportion of different prey in boa constrictor diets in the wild. At least some prey, like iguanas, would tend to be considerably leaner than the rodents we feed the snakes.

Unfortunately, I have a lot more questions than answers.

Paul,

I have yet to see advertised one Sharp albino with eye deformities. But we also have to remember that the Kahl strain has been in the market for quite longer and thus there has been more line-breeding taking place.

As far as having more questions than answers, welcome to the club!

The problem is that the eye abnormalities in BCI have shown 99% in albinos. I have yet to see one ad showing any other boa showing eye problems.

I just looked at a CB jungle BCI on Friday. One of the jungles in the litter had one eye larger than the other. It was very noticeable. The guy is not selling that one but it was the first time I had seen a BCI with one eye larger than the other eye on anything other than an albino.

An anomaly every now and then is possible, as with any other species. The problem is when it shows-up consistently in one particular strain of that species. The lack of melanin in albinos does not protect the retina. That’s probably why they may be more susceptible to turn blind even when born with normal eyesight. A different issue altogether is congenital eye deformities or even animals born without one or both eyes. A similar problem using rats as an animal model is called inherited retinal degeneration. It’s also an hereditary trait that affects humans as well. The only solution we seem to have with albino boas is to avoid inbreeding as much as possible and never use animals with notorious eye defects in our breeding projects. But how do we convince someone who has produced such animals not to sell them at a discounted price? How do we convince the brokers not to sell in turn? We all have seen ads where the animal is advertised as having had a trauma in the eye early in life..."a rat bit him in the eye". We always ask ourselves why so many nigerian scams keep showing up. The answer is because there is people that still fall for them. Why do albinos with eye deformities show-up in the ads? Simply because there is a market for them.

This is a much larger problem then most people want to admit or believe.

As time goes on, the results of breeding these animals multiplies exponentially.
However, the larger problem here is the passing on of the genetics through siblings that probably carry this defective gene, but do not display it.

They are even more likely to contaminate breeding projects, then their one-eyed siblings. Conscientious breeders who would never allow a one-eyed animal to reproduce, may be unknowingly passing on this same genetic material through the breeding of their siblings.

With all of the morphs being produced, the eye deformity issue can (and most likely already has) spread well beyond the albino boa.

A little disturbing, isn't it!

Has anyone seen or heard of this deformity in other morphs the use the albino gene (snow, sunglow, etc.)?

I can't comment on other morphs, but yes albino are now off my wishlist. After hearing some of these practices I'll now opt out of the albino thing. I was familiar with the eye deformities in albinos but somehow thought breeders of the past had learn't from their mistakes--Breeding a deformity over won't make it go away, deforms should be culled!