# boas genetics



## davesreptiles (Sep 10, 2009)

this may sound like a silly question but what is the differance between a sharp albino or a kahl albino. and what is the difference between a sharp sunglow or a kahl sunglow? can sharps be crossed with kahl or do you have to cross kahl wiv kahl and sharp with sharp and if i wanted to cross a hypo with one of the albinos are there certain strains of albino that go with certain strains of hypo can anyone shed some light on this for me please


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

davesreptiles said:


> this may sound like a silly question but what is the differance between a sharp albino or a kahl albino. and what is the difference between a sharp sunglow or a kahl sunglow? can sharps be crossed with kahl or do you have to cross kahl wiv kahl and sharp with sharp and if i wanted to cross a hypo with one of the albinos are there certain strains of albino that go with certain strains of hypo can anyone shed some light on this for me please




Sharp and Kahl albino are two different strains of albino that are not compatible.

This means that although the actual result is similar, the genes should be classed as completely separate.


A Kahl albino bred to a Sharp albino will give all normal babies 100% het for both strains.


If you are going to breed albinos it is important that you know which strain you have and stick to it.


A Kahl sunglow is simply a sunglow made with a Kahl albino and a Sharp sunglow is the same but with a Sharp strain albino.


The terms Kahl and Sharp are due to the fact that the mutations are named after the gentlemen that first discovered them/proved them out (Peter Kahl and Brian Sharp).

More info here: The Sharp Strain Albino Boa


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## davesreptiles (Sep 10, 2009)

thank you for claering that up for me


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## Iguanaquinn (Nov 13, 2010)

Hmm I need to save that website.... Is Albino naturally occuring or how do you get an Albino??


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

Iguanaquinn said:


> Hmm I need to save that website.... Is Albino naturally occuring or how do you get an Albino??



Like all base morphs, they are naturally occurring random mutations that cause an effect on the colour or pattern. Unusual animals are caught and taken into captivity and bred from. We then keep the litter and breed a few back to the parent animal and this tells us how the gene interacts with the wildtype gene (recessive, codominant, dominant). Then we can breed the mutation and increase the numbers in captivity.

After we have a few, we start combining them with other mutations and patterns to create 'designer morphs' that, though not technically impossible in the wild, the chances of the random mutations making it to adulthood AND finding another in the wild would be incredibly slim.

Both the original Sharp albino and Kahl albino were wild caught animals. Of course the first thing that Brian Sharp had to do was show it wasn't the same version as Peter had breed. Once he had bred a few babies to a Kahl strain animal and discovered that the two strains were not compatable, he named it as a new strain.


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## 1b3 (Aug 17, 2011)

Line breeding, if that's what it's called? What measures are taken by breeders, if any, to prevent inbreeding as this can't be healthy? If someone were to deliberately outcross and breed back to the morph, would that be of any use to long term breeding?


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

1b3 said:


> Line breeding, if that's what it's called? What measures are taken by breeders, if any, to prevent inbreeding as this can't be healthy? If someone were to deliberately outcross and breed back to the morph, would that be of any use to long term breeding?




Initially inbreeding is specifically used as you want to expose the recessive allele (or at least find out if it is indeed recessive, codominant or dominant).

There is very little risk of 'inbreeding depression' with a few closely related breedings in the early stages.

With dominant and co-dominant morphs, there is no risk at all of inbreeding as out-crossing makes no sense - the morphs will occur in the following generation even if you breed to completely unrelated animals.

With recessive genes some evidence exists that suggests early albino animals were severely inbred to get maximum albinos out...however it is only really the albino boa (Kahl strain) that had the issues (one or no-eyed babies from albino x albino matings). It is not certain that this is a direct result of inbreeding though.


In general terms, reptiles seem to exhibit less inbreeding depression than mammals and a few generations of inbreeding/line breeding doesn't appear to cause any issue in the majority of cases.


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## Airforce_snake_guy (Sep 3, 2011)

I have another question about boa genetics. I'm wanting to get in to breeding boa morphs, would it benefit me to start with a DH or a co dom or a dom idk why it seems like the DH would be a good place to start but any advice would help also i know there are sites that list all the python morphs but what about boas?


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## StuG (Nov 4, 2009)

The complete boa constrictor by Vin Russo, John Berry's designer Morphs book, BoaConstrictor.Com (jeremy Stone's website) and JnB Boa's website are all good source's for various info on boa morphs.
As for where to start it all depends really on your budget, what you want to produce, do you want to produce a specific morph or the most variety of morphs possible from the pairing etc etc.
Breeding Albino to Albino (both strains) has been said to cause some of the problems Bothrops mentioned ( eyeless or deformed boa's) so most breeders tend to avoid it. For example pairing a sunglow to a sunglow would produce all baby sunglows but most breeders would pair a sunglow with a Hypo het albino,you would make less sunglows but avoid the risks.


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