Possible WC hypo

[adamanteus]

Humour me, Guys...... Albinos lack pigment, don't they?

1. A person or animal lacking normal pigmentation, with the result being that the skin and hair are abnormally white or milky and the eyes have a pink or blue iris and a deep-red pupil.

al·bi·no / alˈbīnō/ • n. (pl. -nos) a person or animal having a congenital absence of pigment in the skin and hair (which are white) and the eyes (which are typically pink). ∎ inf. an abnormally white animal or plant: an albino tiger. DERIVATIVES: al·bi·nism / ˈalbəˌnizəm/ n.

[Bill]

Is he a wild caught?

[GartersRock]

Well... Very few albinos lack all their pigment...

Maybe there is a better genetic term for these "Caramel Albinos" but that's what Scott calls them. *shrug*
And his snake has red eyes.

[adamanteus]

Surely if it is only black pigmentation that is lacking (or reduced) it would be amelanistic? I don't understand the term 'dark albino', it seems a contradiction to me.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I am going to go ahead and say with these pictures it's just a pretty lightly colored snake. You have an eastern garter snake by the way. I occasionally find garters that look a lot like that, usually without a stripe though. It may be hypo in the sense that it is lighter than many garter snakes, but it (to me) doesnt look to be a genetic breedable morph or color mutation. I am not sure how the pics are turning up on everyone else's computers, but I saw all the pictures on his myspace and it's definately not looking to be an albino. Like kevo said, it very closely resembles his lovely Female eastern, George.

Could you maybe take a few more pictures... in sunlight or a reaaally nice bright source of light? A good shot of the face and eyes would be great, possibly on something natural, like some bark? I can't honestly tell from your pictures by the lighting.

Here is a lightly colored male that I found two weeks ago, who is also, like your find, quite a light snake.



Here is a truely hypo female that I found last year and have had since.

[Bill]

Ok james I will humor you. I mamals you are some what correct. However it is not a lack of colour it is a lack of melanin or black colour. A hypo melanistic animal would have a reduced amount of melanin. A albino would have no melanin and a lousistic would have no colour but would not have pink eyes They are usually blue.

[crzy_kevo]

uh oh now we have 3 smarty pants guys on the forum
lol just kidding guys

[adamanteus]

Definition: A pigmentless white phenotype, determined by a mutation in a gene coding for a pigment-synthesizing enzyme.

Surely lacking melanin is amelanistic, not albino. I thought leucistics still carry yellow pigmentation.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Bill is correct!

Leucistic snakes are the ones that are white. In mammals, many albino one's are white simply because most mammals are one solid color. There are both leucistic AND albino animals, both of whom look similar because mammals are already one solid color so naturally their albino form is one solid light white colors. The difference can usually be seen in the eyes, an albino creature should have reddish or noticeably light or see-through eyes. Leucistic animals almost always have blue or black eyes, but either way there is some blackness to the eye. Many mammals who are referred to as albino are technically leucistic.

Tyrosinase negative albinos are the same thing as Amelanistic, both terms mean that the snake lacks the pigment melanin (or technically, the tyrosinase that helps make it). So, an amelanistic or albino snake would have varying degrees of pigmentation (depending on the strain), he should have all of his pigments, excluding the melanin.

Hypo melanistic and tyrosinase positive albino are very similar. Both animals have and roduce melanin, in hypo's, it is reduced areas of melanin coverage, whereas in T positive albino, you won't see any actually black pigmentation or patches of darker skin, there is only a trace amount of melanin in their skin, and their eyes are usually dark.

[Bill]

Shannon,Thank you. That was truely impressive