"High Yellow" Diamonds

[Focus]

Hey everyone,

I was hoping some people with experience with diamonds could explain to me how to tell if a diamond is going to be ‘high yellow’ when it’s a hatchling. It seems that almost every diamond for sale is ‘high yellow’ these days and I find the variability to be enormous but they all get the label. Are all captive diamonds ‘high yellow’, if so are they all the same line? Is it important to sight the parents and is locality of any significance?

Thanks!

 

[Norm]

I don't have anything to offer as far as how to tell if a hatchy will be high yellow other than viewing parents. But I do have a major bee in my bonnet at the moment about what some people class as "high yellow". I started a similar thread a little while ago after seeing some high yellows on here that were just nice standard diamonds to me.
Buy from a reputable breeder or at the very least view the parents.

 

[Bart70]

I agree with Norm - The term 'high yellow' has become extremely subjective over time. Picking a good yellow one when young is harder than picking a broken nose. I recall when I bought mine it was pretty much 'luck of the draw' with a bit of guidance from the seller which is where buying from a reputable breeder is important.

I was lucky enough to see both parents, and holdbacks from previous years so I was at least comforted by the fact that there was reasonable 'potential' for mine to be nice. In terms of whether mine turned out any better than any of its siblings I will never know - only that mine is relatively nice and I am not disappointed with him.

 

[tahniandshae]

ive been breeding them for a few years now and they are hard to pick as hatchies, I have found that the bubs who turn out the highest yellow look lighter in color, grey, compared to their sibs, also just because mum and dad are high yellow doesn't guarantee you a high yellow offspring. hold backs give you an idea of what you could expect, but no guarantee, easiest way is find a good breeder and trust his/her judgement. if the pic goes through its a pic of a couple of my yearlings I bred a couple years ago

 

[kenny1]

From my experiences with diamonds, there appears to be a few different types eg localle
the diamonds that originally come from drier conditions away from the coastline are bigger and generally have cream to white diamonds with the black tending to have a brownish tinge and the yellow speckles being not so bright.
Rainforest snakes are generally smaller with jet black scales and the "yellow" ranging from lime green to a tiger shade of orange.
As hatchies you will need to view both of the parents and know the history of the bloodline, preferably both parents having very similar features otherwise you will be just taking a shot in the dark.
If you are looking for consistency in patern and colouring have a bit of a look at the Port Mac natural intergrade, they seem to be what some sellers are trying to pass off as "high yellows".

Has anyone else noticed these features across the broad range of diamonds?
cheers kenny

 

[tahniandshae]

not the pic I thought it was, I rate this male as high yellow, as I do the yearlings. pic of hatchling that turned out really nice

 

[kenny1]

Thats a very nice looking male,is it a pure breed? a mate of mine had one almost identical but it was 25% jungle, you could only just tell by the reduced rosette on its neck.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a pic of my pair, the male is more orange but the female is quite high yellow.
I will breed them this season hopefully.

View attachment 307924

 

[wokka]

Heretability of colour will vary amongst different pairings. Probability will increase as the desired outcome is repeated in repeated matings. The trouble with Diamonds is that they dont colour up for a few years so you need to see holdbacks form a couple of years matings, of the same parents, which are a few years old. That requires progeny from 3 &4 years ago which most breeders dont have, however many breeders know the history of their animals and may follow the progeny and siblings in different ownership.

 

[Norm]

Pic didn't work kenny, at least not me anyway.

 

[Focus]

Thanks for the responses. I thought that luck of the draw may have a little to do with it, in addition to the fact that 'high yellow' might be an overused term.