Question on albino Boa constrictor strains

How many albino boa strains, unrelated genetically, are currently on the market? I remember examining 2 of 4 albino juveniles that John Ruiz had in 1983 (?) and even talked with him a couple of years later about obtaining one of the males on breeding loan, but left the hobby/business the same year to pursue a career in the medical field.

Kevin

It seems the market is flooded with albino and hets BC and I am wondering why prices have not fallen drastically? I remember how quickly the value of albino Burmese pythons fell in a relatively short time and will not even go into the albino Lampropeltis getulus and Elaphe guttata and E. obsoleta (Pituophis too) that we all were breeding in the early 80's. It seems that the albino BC are still holding a high market value in comparison. Were these held back from the market for some period of time? The first hets and albinos should have been available in 1986 if not earlier.

Sorry if the questions seem ignorant, but have been away from this community for a number of years and just wishing to catch up a bit.

Kevin

As I remember, the first captive bred albino boa constrictors were produced by Pete Kahl in '93 or '94.

What do you define as an albino boa constrictor? I call the Kahl strain and the Sharp strain albinos. They are claimed to be independent mutant genes. But you could, if you want, throw in salmon, orange tail, and a slew of "T-positive albinos".

I'd like to know who has a T-negative albino.

The Kahl strain and Sharp strains are what I call true albinos, guess these are all there are of albino strains currently available. If Peter Kahl did not produce any albinos until the time indicated, that means they have not been available as long as I assumed. Wonder what happened with the other 3 albinos from the same litter that John Ruiz and partners had back in the 80's? Guess I should have purchased that male John offered me for $15,000 back then (I think Kahl ended up buying it for $25,000!) since it appears that it was the only one to successfully produce offspring. With 3 more albinos out there, however, I did not think it would be a good investment at the time and was going to obtain it on breeding loan only.

Kevin

I read somewhere that breeding albinos to albinos is "difficult" or maybe not that successful. Is this true? I mean, breeding one strain such as Kahl to the same Kahl strain of homozygous albinos.

From what I hear on the forums, a significant number of Kahl strain albinos are born with missing or small eyes on one or both sides. The reason is unknown. My personal opinion is that it is caused by something in the environment, though there may be an interaction between the environment and the biochemistry of the mutant gene. If so, then some day we may figure out the environmental part of the cause and allow for it when breeding these albino snakes. Time will tell whether this is wishful thinking on my part.

Originally Posted by paulh

From what I hear on the forums, a significant number of Kahl strain albinos are born with missing or small eyes on one or both sides. The reason is unknown. My personal opinion is that it is caused by something in the environment, though there may be an interaction between the environment and the biochemistry of the mutant gene. If so, then some day we may figure out the environmental part of the cause and allow for it when breeding these albino snakes. Time will tell whether this is wishful thinking on my part.

I think it's due to inbreeding.

I agree with CARLiTO. I believe inbreeding is the result for deformities.

woops! I meant deformities are the result of inbreeding.

I'm not so sure the one eyes are from inbreeding. If inbreeding was the cause we would also get a lot of one eyed hets and Pos hets...but we don't. This deformity seems to be attached to this albino gene. There are a lot of inbred species out there like Dums and corn snakes that don't have this deformity. I believe this deformity is inherited from the original albino male that carried the defective gene. Also, many out-crosses have also produced one eyes so inbreeding is a unlikely cause.