bad eye albino

Originally Posted by Lee Herps

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

So far I haven't remember seen one advertised. Odd isn't it?

Regards.

I saw a one eyed Snow for sale some time back, and have heard of others.

Personally, I'm with Paul. Many things could be tried to reduce this, or find more about it. It seems if it was recessive genetic like suggested, there would be a whole lot of eye defective hets, albinos on the market. I just don't see them, or here about many litters that show the trait.

Having had a litter of abinos recently, and some defective eyes appeared. (of which all died naturally.) Diagnosed as eyes being "bulphthalmic, and hemorhagatic" by the necropsy reports and died of Yolk coelomitis. My Vet who bred his way through college, seems to think it was because of the lower temps she was kept at during most of her gestation. (at the other guys place, not mine LOL)

This has caused me to want to know more "PROOF" about this. Some numbers, different angles that have been tried. Even with the same pair trying different things each time to see what happens. This info I believe would be valuable indeed.


Just my $0.025
Rick

Hmm So I wonder if it is not JUST a genetic thing. If it may have something to do with gestation temps. Just like in cubation problems can caused kinked tails and what not. I wonder if eye deformities could be linked to that as WELL as genetics.

well you got my attention i have an albino female with 1 eye but it looks like she has a scar slightly below where her eye should be .
anyone with any ifo on ths please let me know . e-mail is scotty93801@yahoo.com
thanks scott

So I wonder if it is not JUST a genetic thing. If it may have something to do with gestation temps. Just like in cubation problems can caused kinked tails and what not. I wonder if eye deformities could be linked to that as WELL as genetics.

Development can be affected by all sorts of things, such as chemicals, maternal nutrient supplies, diseases, etc, and with ectotherms, temperature fluctuations become a factor too. This is why you can and do see birth defects in wild snakes as well as captives: lots of things can go wrong, especially in the uncontrolled environment of the wild.

The key, though, is that the rate at which things go wrong appears, from what's been said in this thread, to differ between albino-line animals and normal run-of-the-mill boas. Since I doubt keepers are providing substantially different care for normals and albinos, the difference is likely genetic. Others have pointed out it's nothing like simple recessive, which isn't surprising; development is a complicated process involving lots of genes interacting spatially and temporally. It's possible it's a combination of several genes, or that the genes involved in eye formation have mutated to become especially sensitive to some aspect of the environment.

Regardless of the precse eitiology and mechanisms, it's Not Good with nice big capital letters. Developmental defects of this type should be culled out of lines (there's plenty of hungry king snakes out there), and IMHO, indicate that line is showing signs of significant inbreeding depression.

Henry