Christmas 2015 I bought the kids a western hognose snake each. They were hatchling 1.1 (one male and one female) anaconda 100% het for albino. The anaconda part relates to the reduced pattern, which leaves a number of spots not dissimilar to those found on the actual anaconda (Eunectes murinus). The idea behind this purchase was a) to address the fact the kids wanted to keep snakes again b) help illustrate inheritance in action.
You see each of these snakes carries two different genes that can affect the physical appearance of any offspring. The first gene relates to pattern - one copy equals reduced markings. Our animals have one copy. The presence of two copies equals no pattern at all. This is called incomplete dominance, where the normal and patternless characteristics are both present to some degree when both genes are present.
The other gene is straight forward albino. The two we purchased carry the gene but do not appear albino themselves. Only if they were mated would we see some of the offspring - those inheriting an albino gene from each parent - showing the characteristic lack of pigment and pink eyes.
Both animals fed well throughout the year, although the female was a slower starter and this prevented her reaching breeding size. You generally want a female western hognose snake to be at least 200g before attempting to breed them. She finished 2016 just under that.
Anyway I had the kids drawing punnet squares to understand the possible genotype combinations from this pairing. There are many! You could get albino anacondas, supercondas (patternless), albino supercondas, normal, standard albinos and of course carriers for any of these possibilities.
Not being content with just these genes to play with, we decided to purchase a couple of extreme red albinos. So how does one of these differ genetically from a normal albino? Well it is as simple as them being line bred to exaggerate the red pigment. Nothing more to it than that. They are still albinos, the inheritance is the same, but the dilution is limited and as a result we see some very pretty orange or red examples.
Interestingly you can't guarantee extremely red animals by mating a high red male to a high red female. There will always be a number of offspring less red than the parents. This to the point that some of them can be a pale orange.
The price of an albino hognose snake is dictated by the strength of their pigment. A typical albino - very pale - is the cheapest of all. A yellow albino is considered more desirable, an orange albino better still, a deep orange albino above the latter and so on. Eventually we arrive at the deepest red examples that command the highest prices. From bottom to top, at current prices, it is generally £80 - £250 for hatchlings.
We were able to source an extreme red female (actually deep orange but her parents are both of that line) from Rob Pilley and an extreme red male (actually red) from Jelen Snakes in the Czech Republic. Ideally we wanted snakes from different lines to introduce genetic diversity.
So our deep orange female will - perhaps in 2018 - be mated to the red male and in theory we will get a mixture of colours. It might even turn out that this pairing, for some reason, produces a lot of very red offspring. They both carry genes for deep pigment after all and outcrossing lines can only be a good thing in terms of variability. Time will tell!
Of course it does seem a bit daft to buy or sell an extreme red that is not, well, red! I wrestled with that one for a while. You will get lots of people selling very standard looking albinos as extreme red and seemingly not getting the point. There are only a few breeders who are working with the genuine pure extreme red lines, but the animals are - as stated - just line bred albino hognose snakes. So it would make just as much sense for breeders to market some of the babies as extreme orange and some as extreme red. In other words what they look like! Especially when their stock don't actually stem from the original lines.
Extreme red female (extreme orange to be fair but compare her with the normal albino below)
And below is a typical non-extreme red albino. The brightness and clarity of the extreme red female (further up) vs even the snake below is unmistakable.
The point is that you are paying a premium for more attractive animals. Bright orange or red, the loveliest examples are chock full of pigment in a way most albinos are not.
Personally I don't like the really red animals, unless they are female. The deep red males look a bit too much like corn snakes to me and lose that albino glow. I am aiming for offspring that are a sunny orange/red colour, but that is just my preference. Look at the picture below, that male has completely lost his albino shine. Has colours like a wild-type corn snake.
Personally I don't like the really red animals, unless they are female. The deep red males look a bit too much like corn snakes to me and lose that albino glow. I am aiming for offspring that are a sunny orange/red colour, but that is just my preference. Look at the picture below, that male has completely lost his albino shine. Has colours like a wild-type corn snake.
Compare him to the male below.
To be honest I find the morph scene a bit ridiculous. Some crazy prices are asked for morphs just because they are new, look a bit different or carry multiple genes. The animal itself could be plain as day and somehow is commanding £2500. A good example is the 'ghost' western hognose (see pic below). It is an unassuming grey colour and in Europe they are asking 3000 euros. Are there actually people out there willing to pay such a high price? Like all other morphs the price will crash - be it steadily or rapidly - and getting that money back might prove difficult.
Could the animal above ever be considered more attractive than the extreme albinos further up this post? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
