Albino Nelson originating from Sinaloan blood?

I heard this rumor a few times about Albino Nelsons originating from Sinaloan blood. Any truth to this? Any proof?

I would think we'd be seeing a lot more amel Sinaloans for sale every year if that were the case

When I bought my albino nelsoni, the breeder labeled the box L.t. sinaloae. I questioned him about it - and he informed me that one of the big names told him that many, if not most, of the Nelson's in the country were likely sinaloans (or at least crosses). I did some looking on line, and did find a couple of articles that reflected this. Unfortunately, I didn't save them so I can't post the references

I would think it was the other way around. The whole triangulum complex needs a lot of work. I have heard that someone is doing some work on milksnakes, but I don't know if the project is covering all ssp. or what, so I don't know what to expect. I hope to hear more about the project(s) in the future.

I read this in a forum on another site and it intrigued me. I will see what else I can dig up today on the subject.

As the story goes, a single L.t. nelsoni was collected in Colima, Mexico in the early 80's that was most likely the founder of the albino gene leading to the first 2 albinos being produced in 1991. A gentleman by the name of Doug Moody produced these first albinos from the pairing of two normal looking adults which themselves derived from that single wild-caught animal. The first mating of these adults produced normal looking offspring, which unknowingly happened to be 2/3 chance heterozygous for albino, but were accidently sold off as normal nelsoni. The breeding of the same adults produced the first pair of albino nelsoni the following year. It didn't take long for albino nelsoni to be one of the most beautiful and desirable snakes on the market.
Due to the rarity of pure locality nelsoni in the states and the value of the first albino nelson's, many breeders soon started cross-breeding sinaloans into the mix to produce more albinos and hets, since the sinaloans were more attainable. Although much of the information and history is hard to track down on when they were first produced, albino sinaloans (although not 100% pure) are indeed seen in the market today.
Nathan Wells

There's no doubt in my mind that there are many sinaloae x nelsoni intergrades out there,...but, part of the confusion is that a large majority of people cannot tell the difference between the two,....including (probably) that guy that labeled the box "sinaloae".....when you have intergrades on top of this,..it undoubtedly gets more confusing. Here are some of the very basics to look for between the two,.........good examples of nelsoni usually have 13-18 red dorsal rings(from neck to anal plate)....(sinaloae 10-16)... also, black bands in nelsoni are substancially wider than sinaloae....they also tend to taper more abruptly towards the top dorsal area......the red bands in nelsoni are usually about twice as wide as the triads (white-black-white rings) that seperate the red bands....in sinaloae, they are two and a half, to three times the width.......First black ring behind neck in nelsoni is often incomplete (broken) or at least almost tapering to nothing at the bottom. Also, nelsoni tends to have more black, and less red banding in the dorsal area beyond the vent.........keep in mind, there can always be some variation in certain characteristics between individuals. I have been into snakes since the age of seven (am now 46) and have had many of the twenty-five subspecies of milksnake, and have read many books regarding milksnakes (including Systematics and Natural History of the American Milksnake) and to some degree, it seems the more you read, the less you actually seem to know about these complex animals, especially when the book you are reading discribes a snake there is a photo of next to the discription,...and the photo looks nothing like the in depth discription at all !!!!! .....that really kills me !!!!!!....................anyway,........I hope this will help a few people out in identification between the two subspecies.................Doug

I agree 100% on everything Nathan Wells posted ,.....word for word.... you know what's funny, is that I had one of the first few nelsoni (before they were common)that came from Bob Applegate's bloodline,.it was an awesome "textbook" example of a nelsoni...not like many you see now, where you can't quite tell if it's one, or the other.