"Het Snow" Sand Boas?
 

Apologies up-front if this is a stupid question. I have 30+ years experience with Corn Snakes but I'm new to Sand Boas and having difficulty finding reliable info on them. I keep seeing ads for Kenyan Sand Boas that are "Het Snow". In corns, Snow is a recessive trait combo of Anery and Amel. In other words, technically there is no such thing as a cornsnake that is "Het Snow", as you could only guarantee that you will produce Snows by breeding 2 Snows together. Certainly there are other ways to get Snow CornSnakes, there just is no such thing as a "Snow Gene".

Are KSB's advertised as "Het Snow" actually just 100% Het Anery and 100% Het Amel, or is Snow in KSB's different somehow? Any insights greatly appreciated.

I don't breed sand boas, but this (above) is my understanding of what 'het snow' actually is.

It is a bit misleading, since two single gene hets bred together will give 25% homozygous offspring. Since snow is two genes in combination, you'd get 6.25% double homozygous (that is, visual snow) offspring.

If in fact "Het Snow" is referring to KSB's that are actually Het Anery and Het Amel, then yes, I agree that calling them "Het Snow" is a bit misleading. Perhaps this is just an accepted shortcut in terminology among KSB breeders. Doesn't make sense to me though, as it seems like it would be better to say your snake(s) are het for 2 genes, rather than say they are het for something that is in fact not a gene, but a trait combo. Confusing! :)

If someone is stating that a sand boa is het snow they either don’t know what they are talking about or are referring to a double het. Snow is double visual of Anery and albino. So in actuality there is no het snow but there is double het snow which is just the simpler version of saying het albino and het anery

Het snow is just a simpler way to recognize the double het.

Saying "Het Snow" for cases where perhaps you have a normal KSB that is het for both Albino and Anery is fine, I suppose, as a shortcut if everyone understands what is meant, but it is technically not accurate. The real issue that I frequently see on this website (and on MorphMarket) is folks advertising KSB's that are "Anery, Het Snow". That is absolutely incorrect. An animal that is visually Anery is, as I'm sure you all know, homozygous for Anery and het for Albino. It's not false advertising or anything malicious like that, but it is very annoying that some folks don't pay attention to the details.

I am also very interested in it. But the information I found didn't help





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