Recently a friend of mine, also obsessed with snakes and all things reptilian, was able to breed the unusual creature pictured here.
The product of two standard Diamond Pythons it, along with a number of hatchlings from the clutch, produced this amazing red colouring.
The anomaly being caused by a recessive gene, this snake pictured also had a pink tongue.
Albinism usually produces reptiles with this characteristic and, if you look closely, you will see the fork of the tongue is white.
A most unusual animal indeed and one that its owner plans to breed in the upcoming years with the aim of producing a full albino hatchling - one of the most sought after permutations in reptile breeding.
Ah, the rare and elusive "colour break", eh? I know plant breeders who dream of this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I can only ever hope to find a naturally occurring oddity, such as a new species of Ground Orchid, or something similar.
But breeding such oddities, that is something different entirely. I can see how that would be compulsive.
Denis