I found an Albino Garden Snake

[ConcinusMan]

the Checkered is a different subspecies of snake...

No, it isn't. One is not a subspecies of the other. They are completely different species. One is Thamnophis ordinoides which has no subspecies, the other is Thamnophis marcianus.

they are closely related enough that they can breed.

Actually they aren't "close enough". Northwesterns have diverged enough from most other garter species, and from other species with which they share their range, that reproductive isolation has occurred. They not only wouldn't (and don't) breed with other species in their range, it's impossible for them to do so due to drastic physical differences in their reproductive organs. It's like trying to "cram a square peg in a round hole". Their sex attractant hormones are different too. They simply don't attract other species and they aren't attracted to other species. It's highly unlikely they would or could crossbreed with anything other than perhaps their closest living relatives; Butler's and Short-headed but that hasn't been tested that I know of. Even though they are one of the smallest species, they are actually more closely related to the endangered giant garter snake than they are to T. sirtalis or T. marcianus and they still can't breed with a giant garter.

For all the doubters and haters I first encountered

There was only concern that the rare to opportunity finally preserve the albino gene for this species in captive lines would slip away once again. The chance has came and went several times in the past few years and we either don't hear from the people again, or their lack of experience results in the snake dying before it even gets old enough to breed or else they just don't know how to breed them or don't plan to. Baby northwesterns can be difficult to raise successfully even for me and I have years of experience with the species and garters in general. You lucked out big time.

Even now that the snake is obviously doing fine, keeping a snake alive and healthy, and successfully breeding to preserve the morph is a whole different ballgame and not exactly a beginners undertaking. Case in point, the idea of breeding her to an albino checkered. Not only would that not preserve the gene, it would create worthless hybrids and wouldn't even preserve the species let alone the morph. That is, if they could even breed with a checkered, which they can't. Also, the allele mutation that causes albinism in one species is often not the same mutation that causes it in another. Recessive morphs must carry two copies of the same allele mutation (or at least two versions of a nonfunctional allele) on the same locus in order to come out albino. In other words, breeding an albino northwestern to an albino checkered would likely not produce albinos even of you could cross the two. Same thing happens when you try to breed a T+ albino radix to a T- albino radix. You don't get albinos, you get double hets because the two forms of albinism don't reside on the same locus.


Here's my advice: Breed her to her own kind soon and it doesn't much matter what color the male is or where you get him as long as he is also a northwestern. The point is that she has offspring before something happens and she is lost or dies. All her offspring will be het for albino. That is, on the locus that carries the mutation, the babies will receive the mutated allele from mom, and a normal allele from dad if he is normal. It only takes one normal allele for the snake to be normal but in order to be albino the snake has to receive the mutated version of the allele from BOTH parents.

If she was bred to a male and had normal babies there's still the long and often difficult road ahead in raising her offspring to adulthood. Now, remember they will all carry one copy of the mutated allele. So, if you raised up a male and bred it back to mom, any eggs that recieve the mutated copy from the male AND mom, will come out albino. You could also breed two of these het siblings together and there would be a 50/50 chance of any one of the resulting offspring to coming out albino.

If this is something that you intend to do, she should have went into brumation a month ago and in the spring when a male is available, bring her out and put several males in with her and hopefully she would breed with one of them and produce offspring that are het for albino.

You did well. She's still alive and healthy and old enough to breed. But that's just one of many hurdles to overcome. She still has to survive a brumation (again, not a thing for beginners) and still has to successfully breed and produce healthy offspring. If that were done, losing her wouldn't be losing the morph forever since her offspring would carry the mutation for the next generation. As it stands now, if she died in brumation or was otherwise lost before having offspring, the morph dies with her until someone can find another wild albino. And that doesn't happen very often.