One eyed albino boa, should I kill him?

I have never bred boas,i only keep 3 as pets right now.now that i have read more of your comments on this i have to agree on keeping the snake yourself forever or eliminating the bad gene.

I still think if it can be done, get them fixed and re-homed.

However, my little Gracie came from Rich's problem litter this past year. I purchased her with an agreement to Rich to never breed her in case the problems with a few of her siblings were passed onto her. I have het Albino boas so will be producing my own in a few years anyway. I am so happy to have my little girl in my home, I am glad Rich did not cull all of the offspring from that pairing.

While it is a necessary evil to cull defects, in the same light it's only fair to give them a chance with a loving & responsible home.

If your still having issues with the decision, i'll trade you. My wife has been wanting an albino boa for the last few years. I have yet to be able to afford one. I have a gorgeous baby male hypo. He's a beauty. Has a temper in the cage but settles down once in hand. He's perfectly healthy. I'll guarantee you, with a contract or what not, that it will be a most beloved pet and never a breeder. It's just another possible suggestion. It would be an early X-mas present, and one to top em all Either way, don't kill the animal, appreciate it, love it, and care for it like no one else would.

Originally Posted by HerpLuver

If your still having issues with the decision, i'll trade you. My wife has been wanting an albino boa for the last few years. I have yet to be able to afford one. I have a gorgeous baby male hypo. He's a beauty. Has a temper in the cage but settles down once in hand. He's perfectly healthy. I'll guarantee you, with a contract or what not, that it will be a most beloved pet and never a breeder. It's just another possible suggestion. It would be an early X-mas present, and one to top em all Either way, don't kill the animal, appreciate it, love it, and care for it like no one else would.

If you new me you'd know Id never kill a snake like this as for the trade, I'm sorry but I'm rather fond of this guy hes my first albino boa shipping from Canada to the US might be a bit of a hassle as-well.

dont worry guys if I diced to continue with a boa breeding project I think I'll holed out for a nice male motley het albino for my male

but thanks for the offer

Anytime!

Nice looking snake. I voted to keep it given the circumstances. Why not? May live a healthy life just to spite everyone. LOL

I had a litter in April with some weird eyes. They weren't missing, but a couple of them were hemorrhagic, and bufthalmic.......






The vet thought incubation was the cause. I did cull them however. But that was an albino x albino litter too. The siblings are all doing great though.

I wish breeders would talk more about this when it happens though. Missing eyes have been happening for a while now. Some data on the subject on the subject would be nice, but would require some risky breedings (Alb x Alb) and possibly culling entire litters for answers. That would suck. Just culling 2 sucked for me.


Rick

For a while I used to keep track of all the eye deformities showing up in the ads. In my opinion the frequency of its appearance at that point was far from being something happening just by chance. It’s been almost three years now and you may find it interesting as it turned out to be a very informative discussion:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...lbinos+toll%2A

In the last post you will find a very interesting link which discusses most of the eye anomalies we see in boas but referred to albino humans. This is just a quote from that publication:

2. Albinism

Albinism is one of the most common forms of inherited visual impairment. A wide spectrum of genetic variants exist, many of which have associated metabolic or central nervous system anomalies, most commonly hearing impairment.

Anatomically, albinos exhibit excess decussation of optic nerve fibers at the chiasm with temporal retinal fibers that normally remain ipsilateral crossing to the contralateral geniculate body. This anomalous wiring limits binocularity as well as accuracy of fixation and pursuits.(5)

It is characterized by varying degrees of amelanosis due to a deficiency of the enzyme tyrosinase.

Ocular complications - Level of visual impairment is dependent on the degree of severity of these five factors:
Amelanosis of the iris and retina
Nystagmus
Foveal hypoplasia
Strabismus and impaired binocular vision
Astigmatism

Classification of Albinism:

Albinism occurs in two primary types, oculocutaneous and ocular. There are many genetic variants of oculocutaneous albinism in which both skin and eyes are affected. Most of of these variants are inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern.(5) However, the most useful division of oculocutaneous albinism for the eye care practitioner is based on the expression of the gene for the enzyme tyrosine because the degree of ocular involvement is tied to the deficiency of tyrosine and corresponding amelanosis.

Oculocutaneous Albinism:
1. Tyrosinase-Negative
The most severe form in which there is complete absence of pigment. Foveal light reflex is absent (complete foveal hypoplasia).
Nystagmus is moderate to severe.
Acuity is usually 20/200 or less.

2. Tyrosinase-Positive
Characterized by varying degrees of amelanosis.
Foveal hypoplasia and nystagmus is not as severe as T-Negative.
Acuity is usually better than 20/200.



Anterior segment presentation of a young black with oculocutaneous albinism



Fundus of the same patient.

Ocular Albinism:

X-linked recessive inheritance

Affected males have normal skin and hair pigment but show varying degrees of ocular depigmentation.

Visual acuity lies in the 20/40 to 20/100 range. (Correlates with the amount of pigment and nystagmus.)

Mother's eyes are affected. (Subclinical presentation.)

Some presentations of ocular albinism, especially in darkly pigmented individuals, can be easily missed because there is no iris transillumination and the fundus appears nearly normal. Slightly reduced acuity and mild nystagmus may be the only observable signs.

As for this particular case it’s difficult for me to cast a vote. Although culling is the more reasonable thing to do, I can see where someone that has bred these animals himself would have a hard time doing it.

Regards.

I'm curious if you've spoken to the original breeder about this? To spend the amount of money I'm assuming you spent to purchase them, that makes for mighty expensive pets....as well as other people purchasing outwardly normal babies out of this litter, and intending to use them for breeding in the future.

What puzzles me though is that we don't see that high of an incidence of eye problems in the Sharp strain. Maybe it's because they haven't been inbred too much thus far or maybe it's just because it's a different strain???

Regards

That may also have something to do with the pricing of Sharpe vs. Kahl. Since Kahl has always been the more affordable strain, just seems natural there would be more of them out there breeding, thus raising the chances of inbreeding albeit unknowingly.

Though it's probably going to make me somewhat unpopular, I fully intend to do some experimenting with the albino genes at a later date. This is the main reason I held back two from my litter. I want some definative answers that so far have just been speculated upon. Facts, numbers, son back to mom, brother and sister, grandson back to grandma, etc. etc. Things like this will reveal more of the nature behind the problem. As of yet, I don't think anyone has dedicated any breeding to this sort of effort.

Rick