albinos?????????????????????

[roadkill5000]

i didnt find spliff to be freaky looking i thought it looked rather cool although i couldnt afford one(not with my pocket money ) i would still like to own one.
sarah i think i have heard that same description for a blonde maccie or stimpsons was it a large snake :

[Nicole]

To see Bonde Macs (Cape York phase) check out my or Fangs' gallery.
They are a naturally occuring colour variation, but there is no 'albino' or hypo or anemelanistic (sp?) side to the difference in colour.

[popp]

I was under the impression that the bhp bob has isnt an albino but instead it carries the heterzygous or hypomelanistic gene.There is a difference but hopefully someone who fully understands & has read up on the differences between all the characteristics might be able to clear this up.

[hey_im_sam]

If this is the bhp in the gallery, it's what's called "amelanistic" i think. basically its a different level of lacking black pigment.

a true albino animal has no dark pigment whatsoever, hence the white/light body colours, and pink eyes. amelanistic is lacking a lot of pigment, hypomelanistic is lacking less... the animal may have fairly normal patterning just much lighter colours (see the young 'hypomelanistic' coastals that are around a little).

I'm also pretty sure that albinism is nearly always a recessive trait, if anyone has heard differently please correct me.
this means that a heterozygous animal would appear completely normal, but carry the gene for albinism. if mated to another heterozygous animal, the offspring (on paper) would be 25% normal, 50% heterozygous, and 25% albino. mating to an albino would produce 50% albino and 50% het.

i could go on for ages but will stop there hehe, not even sure if that really pertains to this post! but if anyone wants to know anything else, or if i need to clarify, please ask.

Also the only genetically proven trait i know of in coastals is called the "jaguar coastal", first bred in Norway - i know they've been talked about on these forums before! i've never heard of or seen an albino coastal..

[dan_lizard]

I have a half coastal half jungle, and he is beautiful enough....

But a half coastal half Jaguar..... Now we're talking!!!!!

[hey_im_sam]

heh!!
for those of you that haven't seen it, a visit to www.jaguarpython.com would be a good idea!

I could be wrong but I always thought amelanism was a complete lack of melanin, hypomelanism a deficiency, and albinism a complete lack of pigmentation.

[roadkill5000]

isnt there one of those hypomelamathingys that the animal is 100% black
ive heard of this before and it was refered to as hypomelanistic but what yous have been saying indicates hypomelanistic to have something to do with patterns and lighter colours .
any ideas :

[hey_im_sam]

i think there's something called melanistic which may be all black. at least that's what it would be called, because thats what it means heh.

i thought albinism was lack of dark pigment because albino animals i've seen still have patterning of some description. my thought on the amelanism was that in a book i've seen that photo of the bhp referred to as amelanistic. if anyone knows for sure it'd be good to hear

[roadkill5000]

thanks sam that actually rings a bell the photo that it came with the info was a shingleback but they are mostly black anyway

[saikrett]

i recon albino's look so cool.
i got to play with 2 albino blue tongues when i was doing work experience at Gosford Reptile park.
someone up there was telling me that sometimes albino's aren't as heathy as some of the others from the same clutch

[almaron]

Albino = total lack of melanin
Hypomelanistic = reduced levels of melanin (to various degrees)
Hypermelanistic = increased levels of melanin (to various degrees)

All these traits effect the melanin layer of coloring on snake, thus an albino is not necessarily an all white snake. There are other pigments responsible for the various patterns on snakes. Most albino snakes that normally have patterns are the classic white with yellow patterning. If a snake normally has no pattern, it just depends on what pigments are responsible for their normal color.