Just posting a quick note here to announce a previously unknown gene in rosy boas ( L. orcutti, specifically the Anza Borrego locale). This is apparently an anerythristic gene, based on appearance, and recessive based on breeding results. One interesting facet of this gene is that it is not part of the Coastal anery complex (which includes all known rosy boa anery genes to date).
Thanks. I guess I should have put in the original post (which I’m not going to edit after replies have been made, and this shouldn’t even be an option) that I’m not really a morph breeder much, and I’m a bit torn on how pleased I am about this. I don’t like that novelty of this sort has any sort of pull on me, so it is an interesting experience in that way.
If you are a locality guy, then I understand the mixed feelings. The mutation practically guarantees morph breeding without regard for locality purity, unless you isolate it. And even then, it couid pop up elsewhere next year.
Yeah, ‘mixed’ is the best way to put it. I do breed some morphs – albino and conda hognose, albino rainbow boas soon, even locale specific albino rosies – but I mostly try to keep things real. I think the most interesting morph breeding that could go on with this is a locale-specific snow (if we assume that Borrego albino isn’t a locale cross, which I really have no educated opinion about), but I am sure that people are going to want to stack something like this with a bunch of other stuff.
Unfortunately, once a gene pops up there are very limited options on how to proceed. I could simply not breed the carriers any more, but I couldn’t even pretend that I’d just keep them and the existing offspring forever.
Culling them isn’t a great option, and in a real sense that’s a kind of morph breeding – a very heavy handed selection for normals. The offspring of test breedings could be sold into the wholesale market as normals, but that’s kind of sketchy. Selling them as ‘pet only’ is a weak option, since many casual keepers (and serious keepers, too) end up rehoming animals at some point in the near future.
Who’d a thought snake breeding could be at all morally complicated?
Well, it’s a really pretty morph regardless of the mixed feelings. I really like the goldish and grey tones working together. Good luck figuring out how to proceed.
