# Weak Albinos?



## MaxReheat (Jun 13, 2009)

This is my 1st attempt at breeding snakes. I have 2 healthy 100% for Albino Boas which we paired together. The female gave birth yesterday to 34 live and 2 still borns. 7 of the remaining live ones were Albinos as was one of the still borns.

Now the Albinos are dying off one by one and all the normals look healthy. I have 2 remaining Albinos that look weak. Is this common? Am I doing something wrong? Temps are between 88-92C


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## fatbloke (Apr 6, 2008)

that sucks dude 

fingers crossed 4 the outher 2 there should be sum1 around who nos there stuff soon:2thumb:


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## DJ Villa (Feb 6, 2009)

I'm sorry to hear this.
Sorry i can't be of much help though i would suggest lowering your temps. 
I keep mine around 83-85f


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## gingerpony (May 31, 2008)

i know this is posted in the right section but it might be worth posting in 'snakes' too as it might attract more attention............? and more replies/help?


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## Conners (Dec 7, 2006)

Is there anything at all different about the environment the albinos are now living in compared to that of the poss hets? 

Personally I wouldn't lower the temperatures as I think you have them exactly right - this is just going by my personal experience with a recent litter.

Perhaps keep the humidity relatively high.

Were the snakes that you've lost born with large unabsorbed yolks?


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## MaxReheat (Jun 13, 2009)

We're down to one now, the normals are still healthy in the same environment. A couple had unabsorbed yolks, humidity is quite high.

Obviously the temps I posted at the start were a typo, I'm not trying to boil them alive. F not C!


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## **starry11** (Apr 3, 2009)

so sorry to hear of your loss, 
It certainly sounds like the problem is more genetic than environmental. I'm not very clued up but it could it be both parents had a reccessive gene that was weak? They themselves had a dominant gene making them normal coloured and healthy but were het albino (reccessive) which was carrying an unknown disorder. The het babies are ok as they have a dominant gene over riding and the albinos suffered as they have two reccesives ? I'm not quite sure if that makes sense, I'm sure someone with better understanding and experience will respond, I hope the rest pull through .


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## Spuddy (Aug 24, 2009)

Ive heard of this before, Albino animals been weaker than the rest of the clutch. 

If my memory serves me correctly breeders was/still are having alot of trouble trying to successfully raise albino bearded dragons last time I heard. Most still only living a few days.

Theres still alot we dont know about genetics, and could be sometime before this weakness in Albino animals is exposed and ways 'around it' are found.

Could be a freak one off, and you breed them again next season getting perfect Albino's, or could be defective Albino genes in either one or both parents.

Spuddy.


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## alan1 (Nov 11, 2008)

OP... you could try pm'ing *gazboas* or *ez4pro *
link this thread to them...

from my limited knowledge of boas, i'd say the parents are too closely related


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## BenjaminBoaz (Jan 6, 2006)

Last year a friend had albinos in his litter and only one survived like what your describing. 
Not sure on the parents but think they were het for albino.


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## volly (Mar 6, 2009)

MaxReheat said:


> This is my 1st attempt at breeding snakes. I have 2 healthy 100% for Albino Boas which we paired together. The female gave birth yesterday to 34 live and 2 still borns. 7 of the remaining live ones were Albinos as was one of the still borns.
> 
> Now the Albinos are dying off one by one and all the normals look healthy. I have 2 remaining Albinos that look weak. Is this common? Am I doing something wrong? Temps are between 88-92C


 
Not sure if I have read this wrong or if I'm missing something but are both parents only 100% Het for Albino?

If so, can you get albino babies from that kind of pairing?

I was always under the impression that one of the parents had to be a visual in order to get visual albino babies and that "hets" would just produce other hets or poss hets?

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong as I really can't make sense of this and my head is about to burst, lol.

Must have read it wrong but can't work out where.

Sorry to hear your problem though and hope your babies survive and do well.

All the best,
Volly


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

volly said:


> Not sure if I have read this wrong or if I'm missing something but are both parents only 100% Het for Albino?
> 
> If so, can you get albino babies from that kind of pairing?
> 
> ...


You have read this thread correctly. 

A het albino has an albino mutant gene paired with a normal gene. Two het albinos can produce albinos.

Each parent gives one gene from each gene pair to every baby. That reestablishes the gene pairs in the baby snake. If both the father and mother give a normal gene to a baby, then that snake looks normal and is genetically normal. If the father gives a normal gene to a baby and the mother gives an albino mutant gene, then the baby looks normal and is a het albino. If the mother gives a normal gene to a baby and the father gives an albino mutant gene, then the baby looks normal and is a het albino, too. If both parents give an albino mutant gene to a baby, then that baby is an albino.

Probability theory says that each baby has a 25% chance of being an albino. There were actually 8 albinos in 36 babies, which is pretty close to 25% of the litter.

I can't say why only the albinos were dieing. There could be a number of reasons. One possibility is Inability to find the water bowl.


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## BenjaminBoaz (Jan 6, 2006)

When I have neonates I put them all into a 50'ltr rub with damp kitchen towel on the floor and a large shallow water bowl. Keeping them all nice and warm and humid. Once they clean up a bit I put them in their own hatchling box again on damp tissue and each has a small water bowl. Soon as they Slough they start getting dry kitchen roll with a water bowl. Really sad to loose babies though.
Het x het : statistics say 1 in four albino, 2 normal het albino and one normal. There fore the normals are called normal 66% albino until proven. (as you can't tell by looking.. Although there may be indicators) 
An albino to. Het albino : 2 in 4 are albinos and the other 2 in 4 are normal het albino.


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## volly (Mar 6, 2009)

paulh said:


> You have read this thread correctly.
> 
> A het albino has an albino mutant gene paired with a normal gene. Two het albinos can produce albinos.
> 
> ...


 
I stand corrected :lol2:

Thanks for clearing that up - at least I can get my head around it now :2thumb:


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