Juvenile pattern and albinism

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Posted by Jeff Schofield on June 20, 2002 at 14:03:00:

In Reply to: albino yellow rat pics posted by Chris on June 19, 2002 at 22:08:19:

With the yellows I think we are dealing with not only several different strains but a certain amount of inbreeding and cross breeding as well. I have seen some animals with obvious deformities that resemble the bulging eye problems of the Leucistic Texas rats that likely is caused by inbreeding. Some of these strains have been around at least 15 yrs while one in particular is brand new. There will be additional individual variation and not every snake looks like the one in the picture,lol. To confuse the issue some more we add the fact that these snakes metamorphose so we have little idea what the finished product will actually look like. In an effort to stabilize that breeders have tried to either keep their strains "pure"(read inbreed) or out breed to snakes highly unlikely to be from similar localities(increase of individual variation).
With the ease that these snakes are bred comes the stigma that they are all cross bred. When you start a new line(like me) you have to do ALL the homework on not only the parents but the grandparents of the said line. I followed up sufficiently so I can say without hesitancy that mine are pure as I can trace back to the WC grandparents.
There is a good chance that yours are pure even though they look a little different. These can be absolutely beautiful display snakes and most can be had cheaply. But the bottom line about purity has to do with the truth about the person you got the snake from, and where he got the parents from and so forth. Individual reputation of the breeder is the only way I know to determine purity.Jeff

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Thanks for the info Travis & Jeff Chris 06/20/02 (0)

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: With the yellows I think we are dealing with not only several different strains but a certain amount of inbreeding and cross breeding as well. I have seen some animals with obvious deformities that resemble the bulging eye problems of the Leucistic Texas rats that likely is caused by inbreeding. Some of these strains have been around at least 15 yrs while one in particular is brand new. There will be additional individual variation and not every snake looks like the one in the picture,lol. To confuse the issue some more we add the fact that these snakes metamorphose so we have little idea what the finished product will actually look like. In an effort to stabilize that breeders have tried to either keep their strains "pure"(read inbreed) or out breed to snakes highly unlikely to be from similar localities(increase of individual variation). : With the ease that these snakes are bred comes the stigma that they are all cross bred. When you start a new line(like me) you have to do ALL the homework on not only the parents but the grandparents of the said line. I followed up sufficiently so I can say without hesitancy that mine are pure as I can trace back to the WC grandparents. : There is a good chance that yours are pure even though they look a little different. These can be absolutely beautiful display snakes and most can be had cheaply. But the bottom line about purity has to do with the truth about the person you got the snake from, and where he got the parents from and so forth. Individual reputation of the breeder is the only way I know to determine purity.Jeff

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