I have been trying to read up and talk to local breeders, but finding solid information is tough.
I am aware that some people refer to it as almost like a co dominant gene as het leopard has connected saddles, additional speckling and an aberrant head spear. But is there any proven validity to this?
And furthermore, how reliable are these indicators when paired with genes that influence these properties? I recently got a female that was sold as 100% het leopard because of indicators, she’s definitely something unique, but would love to get more opinions and a better education on the mattelf.
I am sorry I really don’t know much about the leopard morph as I don’t work with it.
I do know the leopard boa morph originally came from a wild-caught litter of Sonoran Desert boas (Boa sigma) imported from the west coast of Mexico. They were first produced and proven out in Germany by breeder Hans Winner.
So when I look at a leopard I do see the Sonoran Boa influences in it. Like color, head shape, and size.
I will admit some of the leopard boas are very cool looking like the ones that are orange with round patterns. I just don’t like any dwarf boas I like my boas big.
I have seen some some VPI that are over 6 feet. I am just starting to work with VPI boas so mine are still babies. I know mine don’t have any leopard or blood in them.
VPI is of Columbian origin, correct? So presumably VPIs have at least the potential to get fairly large-ish, if they don’t have any dwarf blood crossed into them.
I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t work with leopard and I’m not a breeder, so take my opinions with a mountain of salt. I’m just a layperson who really likes leopard and has spent a lot of time looking at pictures.
I could definitely believe that the boa pictured is het leopard. I believe leopard should be considered incomplete dominant, because the heterozygous form does noticeably affect appearance. That said, much like homozygous leopard, het leopard seems to be highly variable in expression, which makes it hard to pin down reliable markers. Speckling and aberrant pattern (including striping sometimes) seem to be the main markers, but the degree to which those traits are expressed seems to vary pretty wildly.
If the boa pictured has known leopard lineage, I think it probably is het leopard.
Yes VPI is mostly BCI mix now but in the beginning of the VPI morph I am sure they added Northern Brazilian BCC to it or at least the first few VPI were a high % NB BCC. That is where the widow peaks in VPI are coming from.
Yes, she’s from a very reputable breeder and comes from a long line of leopard boas.
Her pattern is interesting to me, it almost looks like jungle influence. But the extreme speckling throws that a curve.
She is a guaranteed het leopard so I have no doubt in it. It’s a very interesting debate as to the genes classification. Some het leopards have zero visual markers where others are abundantly clear.
But with this girl being so stacked with genes I find it very tough to pin down. I am unable to find any reliable info on how indy, hypo and het leopard interact. Indy and hypo both affect patterning so the stripe is quite possibly affected by that.
I’ll attach an image of a sibling of this girl who is indy hypo, but not motley and only possibly het leopard.
I was originally planning on purchasing a different indy, without the motley, but it didn’t work out. Was hoping to eventually pair her with this amber motley het albino male. Was very excited to see how amber, indy and hypo interact. But I will not be pairing motley to motley for obvious reasons.
