The long wait

[RicMartin]

Good luck. Their babies will be amazing.

[ConcinusMan]

Their babies will look normal... and will be double het for albino+axanthic. But if you raise them up and do a sibling to sibling breeding, the offspring from that breeding should produce axanthics, albinos, and possibly snows.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I can't wait!!!

[MasSalvaje]

Wow where have I been! Have you told the story of that pair before? best of luck getting a large successful litter!

I think she's axanthic. Just my opinion. Even if I'm wrong, the double hets this pair produces should still have some very interesting offspring of their own in the future.

Just curious Richard. Why would you label her axanthic and not anery?

-Thomas

[ConcinusMan]

Most normal easterns you see are going to have yellow or yellowish pigment where you are now seeing a bluish color. Not red. Other easterns I have seen with this bluish tint have proven out to be axanthic. Also, you could call it anery if you wish since the mutated gene would probably take away red, but only from a snake which was erythristic in the first place. It's actually sometimes a bit more complicated than just anery or just axanthic. Sometimes the effect of the mutation could be to take away red, or yellow, in which case it would be correct to call it anery or axanthic. Either one would be correct in some cases. Most easterns have yellow pigment, and this mutation is obviously lacking it. Easterns, and other species with this blue tint have proven out to be axanthic.

Not only that, many cases of snakes called "anery" (plains garter for example) are not truly anery. They are really a form of hypermelanism.

[MasSalvaje]

Easterns, and other species with this blue tint have proven out to be axanthic.

By genetic testing or because they come out looking blue? I am not disagreeing with you I am just curious. Don't Easterns in general have a lot of brown? If you have experience mixing paint you know there is a lot of red that goes into making brown colors. I have personally never really heard a good scientific explanation to the precise differences between axanthic and anerythristic, maybe it is because it is impossible to test. Are they just convenient terms to simplify our misunderstanding of chromatophores?

-Thomas

[ConcinusMan]

Genetic testing will not prove anything because there's a big difference between genotype and phenotype. They are not one in the same.

There has been much discussion of these matters and it usually turns into a very long and complicated debate. The fact of the matter is, almost any side of the argument tries to oversimplify the matter when it's not simple at all. Often both sides are wrong, right, or cannot be proven one way or the other. Jeff has done a very good job of explaining. You should read it: Garter Snake Morph

[MasSalvaje]

There has been much discussion of these matters and it usually turns into a very long and complicated debate. The fact of the matter is, almost any side of the argument tries to oversimplify the matter when it's not simple at all. Often both sides are wrong, right, or cannot be proven one way or the other. Jeff has done a very good job of explaining. You should read it: Garter Snake Morph

I have read it and think it is a very good way of describing things. That doesn't change the fact that it is a very over simplified, under studied part of our hobby.

-Thomas

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I have not told the story of this pair on here before. I am actually fairly new to the forum. Just figured out how to post pics so i thought i would show a few. Thanks for all the welcomes on this forum everyone has been real kind.(Even richard haha just picking)

[sirtalis01]

ok im no expert on genetics....so what would you call this beaty...only a few ppl seen this beaty in person n they all agry to be a hypomelanistic (lacking black) what do you guys think? she shown no black pigment just the brown/red and som cream color.