I guess it probably looked as a question. 
Sorry for that. 
I’m basically in simple words of the same opinion as you, regarding Rainbow not being allelic with albino or candy. 
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I’m quite a bit late to this but I just wanted to point out that the pictures @reneesreptiles posted and the ones @t_h_wyman was referencing about the adults being a different color are NOT rainbow animals. OTB Reptiles was working with what he thought was rainbow and ended up with an entirely separate mutation instead, that is not rainbow and has a significant ontogenic changes.
So to recap, rainbow is a mutation that looks very similar to candy/toffee as adults. The other ones posted by OTB with darker, more monarch-looking color are a separate mutation entirely. Rainbows grow & age very similar to toffee/candy.
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Very interesting, thanks for pointing that out! Do you know what OTB has been calling this new mutation? I knew that he was trying to figure out what was going on with the gene, but I didn’t know that he finally figured it out.
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I have an update about my pos het Rainbow female. I bred her to a Super Enchi dbl het Rainbow Hypo male, but I only got 3 eggs and none of them were Rainbows. I’ll try to pair him to her one more time, but I’m losing hope that she’ll prove out. Even if she is het Rainbow and I just got unlucky (yes, I know that it’s a 1 in 4 chance, so technically it was more likely to not get a visual with only 3 eggs), she lays small clutches. I got a 4 egg clutch in 2021 and only a 3 egg clutch this year, so I’ll more than likely retire her after this last try even if she does give me a visual Rainbow.
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Thank you for this @inspirationexotics, I had not heard this new development. I also thank you for the polite and civilized manner by which you brought the information forward. It is greatly appreciated! 
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I don’t believe he has named it yet, but he was providing pretty regular updates on his instagram throughout last year! I’m guessing he will continue doing this.
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He just posted an update yesterday. He’s calling it Mimic.
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I saw that! It’s so weird how we were just talking about it and now he posted that. 
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Got another update! I got this boy from a MM auction the other day:
He’s a Rainbow Enchi from Susquehana Ectotherms, and breeding size to boot! I figured that, instead of pairing my pos het female to the Super Enchi het again and dealing with more pos hets, I’d just get a visual Rainbow and not have to worry about if the hatchlings are het or not. Not to mention that, since she likes to lay small clutches, it’ll be more likely to actually get a visual if she is het Rainbow.
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Out of curiosity, how small are small clutches? I personally have heard from multiple large-scale breeders that the rainbow is a non-viable project due to what sounded like a lack of fertility (in the US specifically, they seem to do fine in EU). I don’t know whether that’s on the male or female side, or even if it’s true. My guess would be the issue would be with visual rainbows though, not hets. I’ll be interested to see how pairing your new male goes!
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The last time I checked, the average clutch size is around 6 eggs and she consistently lays clutches smaller than that. The breeder that produced her got 2 clutches from her before I got her. The first clutch had 5 good eggs that all hatched, but the second only had 1 egg that went bad during incubation plus 2 slugs. I’ve also gotten 2 clutches from her so far. 4 good eggs in the first with 2 slugs and 3 good eggs in the second with 2 slugs.
I’ve heard about the fertility issues in Rainbow before, but then I hear others say that they don’t have any issues with it at all. I’ll have to ask the breeder I bought my males from what his experiences with it are and let y’all know what he says. Personally, I think that there are a few different lines of Rainbow floating around.
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This sounds remarkable like the talk around Caramel back in the day… I wonder if perhaps Rainbow and Caramel are allelic?
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I have wondered that. I just know that I personally have spoken to multiple breeders in the US who got into the project and then completely out of it because it was deemed non-viable, but EU breeders I’ve spoken to say it’s fine.
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And back in the day, a lot of Caramel breeders said there was nothing wrong with the morph (same goes for Desert, Spider, Champ, Woma, HGW, SuperCinny, etc…)
I am not saying there is something wrong with Rainbow, I am just cautioning that when higher dollar projects are involved, facts and logic very frequently go right out the window
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I have no doubt. Just, since breeders like to hide proof of issues, there’s no way to know for sure, so I just mention it to everyone I know who wants to get into the project. Or there’s thought that the US lines are too inbred but the EU ones are more outcrossed. I don’t know, but sure would like to find out.
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