pink red tail boa?

[herp_web_design]

recently i purchased a 4 month old red tail ( about 2'). i picked him out of 20 or so red tails that were available because he has strong pink coloration (ecspecially near the belly) and extremely rosey cheeks unlike the others that had only small amounts of pink highlights or no pink at all. is this a color phase? it has dark markings and a brownish red in the tail saddles. most of the other saddles along the snake are connected and make circles down the back. any feedback would be very much appreciated... no pics at this time.

 

[BrianB]

Well, since this has gone unasnwerd for a while, I'll take a stab at it, though I'm by no means an expert.

If only one boa out of a litter of 20 was showing significant pink coloration, it is very likely just a very nice normal. Genetic morphs are usually the result of a recessive or co-dominant gene. However, it may be possible to line breed for that trait to reinforce it. That'd be the difference between a recessive breeding and selective breeding, though that's kind of a simplification.

 

[Seamus Haley]

One other item of note on this is the differences in coloration between juveniles and adults, and individual animals depending on the origin of the line...

A lot of captive animals aren't really any specific locality or from any specific origination point and, much like long term captive GTP stock, have become mixed with animals from other areas or of seperate subspecies to produce whatever you may have purchased.

Boa constrictors also tend to change color pretty signifigantly as they age, mostly getting darker.

Those darker neonates with the reddish and orange along the ventral plates and the sides of the face aren't really too uncommon if it's the patterning I think you're describing and they don't usually retain much of it into adulthood.

The phenotype of any given individual animal is the result of a number of factors. The geneticly "normal" patterning of the species/subspecies/locality, any screwey recessive or codominant genes they may happen to be homozygous for of course and the conditions the animal was incubated in (or the gravid female was kept in with oviviparous species). I have personal suspicions that many of these darker neonate BCI are likely the result of lower incubation temps in many instances, the pigment cells are some of the last to develop in reptiles and it has been shown that higher temperatures result in lighter animals in any number of species... Combine that with a tendency I have noticed (but never specifically verified, merely a casual observation) of these darker neonates to be smaller at birth (with all the additional potential consequences of that) and the likelyhood of temperature being a major factor is increased.

I know Clay Davenport and Clay English wander around these boards from time to time, along with any number of other highly reputable, experienced and knowledgeable breeders, hopefully a few might have some more specific information that might verify or disprove my suspicions on the matter and additional information or confirmation is always good.

 

[Seamus Haley]

One other item of note on this is the differences in coloration between juveniles and adults, and individual animals depending on the origin of the line...

A lot of captive animals aren't really any specific locality or from any specific origination point and, much like long term captive GTP stock, have become mixed with animals from other areas or of separate subspecies to produce whatever you may have purchased.

Boa constrictors also tend to change color pretty significantly as they age, mostly getting darker.

Those darker neonates with the reddish and orange along the ventral plates and the sides of the face aren't really too uncommon if it's the patterning I think you're describing and they don't usually retain much of it into adulthood.

The phenotype of any given individual animal is the result of a number of factors. The genetically "normal" patterning of the species/subspecies/locality, any screwy recessive or codominant genes they may happen to be homozygous for of course and the conditions the animal was incubated in (or the gravid female was kept in with oviviparous species). I have personal suspicions that many of these darker neonate BCI are likely the result of lower incubation temps in many instances, the pigment cells are some of the last to develop in reptiles and it has been shown that higher temperatures result in lighter animals in any number of species... Combine that with a tendency I have noticed (but never specifically verified, merely a casual observation) of these darker neonates to be smaller at birth (with all the additional potential consequences of that) and the likely hood of temperature being a major factor is increased.

I know Clay Davenport and Clay English wander around these boards from time to time, along with any number of other highly reputable, experienced and knowledgeable breeders, hopefully a few might have some more specific information that might verify or disprove my suspicions on the matter and additional information or confirmation is always good.

 

[Seamus Haley]

D'oh!

I hit the stop button on my browser when it was sending because I had forgotten to spell check. Sorry about the double post.

 

[Dianne Johnson]

While I agree with Seamus in that we really don't know what genetic background our Colombian (or common) redtails hail from and that they do change color/shading over their lifetime, I personally don't cotton to the temperature related theory. In colubrids, incubation temperatures do play a large part in what the neonates may turn out like because eggs are unable to move to thermoregulate. However gravid boas are not stationary and are able to thermoregulate and can maintain their body temperature accordingly barring any major room temperature fluctuations or outright incorrect temperatures to begin with.

That said, your boa may or may not retain that pinkness into adulthood. I have five adult Bci and 3 juvenile Bci, all slightly different in coloration. Two of my adult males are very light in background color with a lot of pink/orange on their sides. One of my adult females has a fair amount of pink over a somewhat darker background color than the two males. The remaining adult pair are both darker in overall coloration with speckles between the saddles and a tan/grey background color. Of the juveniles, one female I produced is a very light cream color with some pink (fathered by one of the light males and the female showing pink) and whom I expect to darken somewhat, but basically retain the pink and lighter overall coloration. The remaining pair of juveniles (yearlings produced by a friend) are both darker in coloration with little or no pink showing at this time - as do neither of the parents to the pair. It is my opinion that most neonates/juveniles showing pink are going to retain at least some of it into adulthood, especially if the parents display the same trait. Even so, how much pink they retain is at best a guess IMO.

Dianne

 

[Double "D" Reptiles]

Like lots of pink

Well, sometimes it's these little things that lead to better things. We purchases an entire litter back in late May (10 were shipped sold to another buyer out in Virginia and we rec'd 5 here.) One of them we got, all were females, had an extrordinarily excessive amount of pink in it with slightly lighter saddles, so we kept her. Today this girl gets lighter with each shed and her pink has turned a nice dark salmon color. One reason we selected her was because her belly was almost a solid pink and that hasn't changed. So, since Salmon is, if I remember correctly this early in the morning, a co-dominant trait, you could have simply happened upon something special but won't know for certain for a while longer. Your snake could simply be a F1 salmon that will show better color in the future. The more typical salmons, the lighter colored ones, are F2 which happens when you breed 2 F1s together or even the more outstanding F3s (something like breeding 2 F2s or is it a F1 to a F2.)

Anyway, as with most boas, it's all a matter of what you like to begin with and waiting to see how the colors change over time. It already sounds like you selected one that you liked, so perhaps you'll get something special out of it that was unexpected.

David