I knew going into this season that I’d be hanging onto a fair few hatchlings for a while to watch the development of a few traits. Among that number are the ones who might be Red Factor. These babies have had their second shed. (Siblings are blue now.) I can see RF for sure on a couple, maybe on others, don’t think so on somebody else. I’d appreciate others’ thoughts.
The pairing for the first few here was Aria (Snow Cube Stripe ph Hypo, Caramel) x Allstar (RF Strawberry Granite het Amel). None of the nine babies are Ghost, so I’m guessing Aria wasn’t het Hypo. I apologize for the blurriness ofsome of the pics. The babies weren’t always keen on holding still. Since the important thing here was coloration, hopefully they’ll suffice for now. All pics are natural light, no adjustments.
First in the “yes” category: Legacy. His red undertones are even more distinct in person.
Next in the “yes” category, Rossini. Less red showing than Legacy, but it is definitely there. He’s also beginning to show that kind of orangy tint which I’ve noticed on RF Snows.
Here is Minuet. In certain light she looks like RF is potentially there. There is a bit more brownish coloring than the photos show. Looks like she’s going to be prettily frosted, I believe. She’s a “maybe” but I’m leaning toward “no.”
Here is Heart’s Delight. Snows are notoriously hard to get accurate pics of, and she’s no exception. I do not see RF in her at present. I know it may show later, she’s young yet. I’m leaning toward “no.” (Based on the first pic, I’m also leaning toward “dragon.”)
The rest of the Aria x Allstar clutch is blue. I guess there may be another possibility to account for the reddish tones. If Aria was het Hypo, could they be Hypoberry Anery or Snow rather than/and RF? I realize that’s a thing, but I haven’t seen any in person. I believe they’d be lighter, more Ghost-y. The sire is definitely RF so that seems the logical explanation.
Legacy is considerably redder than any of mine. Which either means he’s just a nicer expression of red factor, or could possibly be hypoberry. I just don’t have much experience with strawberry and its combos. I know Eric Westmorland works with hypoberry, maybe see about sending him a message?
Here is one more about whom I’ve got a question. This one is from Galahad (Moonstone Masque het Amel, Diffused, Stripe, 66%ph Strawberry) x Dazzler (Amel Cube Stripe het Anery). This baby has had red coloring on her belly since she hatched. She also seems to have brighter dorsal coloring than most Classics at this point. Might she be RF? Well, her maternal grandpa Boz was possibly a RF Snow Motley Stripe. He was very colorful. I bought him as a yearling from Kathy Love in 2008, well before the genetics of red-enhancers were remotely sorted out. I guess Boz may have been carrying the RF gene. If so, he may have passed it to Dazzler, whom I would accept as RF. Then she could have passed it to Flair. I don’t know. What do you think?
Hypoberry may be a possibility, I guess. I simply don’t know. Now that Legacy has shed twice, I will reach out to some folks who work with Strawberry and see what they have to say about Hypoberry in very young ones.
Looking at a couple of hypoberry aneries that Eric produced, they look much lighter than Legacy. So probably just a really nice example of a red factor anery? Hard to say for sure!
I was thinking that Hypoberry Anery looked more like Ghost. Thanks for the photos! I talked to Eric Westmorland about Strawberry, Hypoberry last year. As I recall, he’d said then that Hypoberry Aneries were pretty easy to distinguish from Aneries in a clutch. I don’t remember Red Factor being part of that conversation.
Legacy is darker than a Ghost type, like a more typical Anery. When he hatched, I thought I could see hints of red even then, through the Anery black. It’s obvious now. I’m going to reach out to a couple people. I know that Mount Pleasant has produced Hypoberry combos, too. I’ll see what they have to say.
If it helps, this is Dazzler’s son Rubik. He’s got very intense coloring. Rubik has more orange tones than his mom, but then he’s het Caramel and she isn’t.
That’s pretty much my take. Dazzler as possible RF wasn’t even on my radar until Flair emerged from her egg with red on her belly. Then I started trying to figure out why. This is Flair’s belly when she first hatched, before her first shed.
Thank you, my friend! I’m very pleased with how this clutch turned out. This year’s babies were a long time coming, as my mom would have said. It’s the first season with hatchlings from the youngsters I chose when I was rebuilding the collection back in 2021. I am sad that Aria is gone, but I’m happy to have some wonderful babies to carry on her legacy.
