FREAK BOA

This is the long and short of it. This boa was produced from breeding a pair of double het for snow boas in 1999. The litter produced three female snow boas, five albino boas 66% possible het for snow, five anerythristic boas 66% possible het for snow and twelve possible double hets for snow. Twenty-five babies and her…which people are calling the “Freak Boa”. This was an incredible litter to get from twenty-six animals, three snows and her? That surely goes against the genetics rule, where one out of sixteen offspring should have been a snow boa. Peter Kahl received the three female snows, he gave me the original pair of double hets and the deal was that he would get the snows that were produced from the first breeding…..so he did. I am sure he was not expecting three snows. Then this black and white boa came into question as to if she was a snow or not? So Pete and I own her together, she stays with me. What is she? Well, she seems to show three traits, snow, albino and anerythristic. Her base color is that of a snow boa with a uniformed pattern of anerythristic color pattern throughout her body. Her right eye is pink her left eye is dark gray like an anerythristic boa. Her tongue is two toned black and pink, and it is very noticeable. Her tail is showing colors of purple, pink and red. Is she genetic? I doubt it. I will try to breed her parents again this year to see if it can happen again. If it does not, then I could have missed it the way the chances fall. As far as her, I could breed her back to her father, or breed her to a snow and see what happens, ultimately having to breed one of her sons back to her, treating him like a het for her condition? Therefore, I have no idea where this will go, if it goes anywhere at all. She is eating well, growing fast, and changing color with every shed. I do not consider her a paradox snow boa; the pattern is there and uniformed, its like an anery pattern bleeding through the snow. I have gotten out of most of the boa morph projects, trying to concentrate more on the ball python projects that I have. The SNOW boa project is still young and this new black and white boa has revitalized my boa breeding efforts, so time will tell if she can be reproduced or is she just a fluke? At worst, I will just get more snows and that’s not bad!

Article compliments of: Ralph Davis

Photos compliments of: Ralph Davis