Nuclear Kenyans 04 litter one.

[Stockwell]

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801kenyansnuks04sept17l1-med.jpg
Above is my first Nuclear Kenyans of 2004.
There are 21 babies in this litter, only 2 shy of my record of 23.
My "NUCLEAR" line represents many generations of selective breeding to intensify the orange pigment. Neonates are born a bit drab and usually in opaque, but the orange comes in bit by bit over the first year or two. Below is coloration after about one year of age. Males tend to be brighter than females
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/508/1801KenyanNuclearfat.jpg
Any day now I'll be receiving my first Nuclear albino hets from the mating below.
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/508/1801Dscn0975.jpg
Mixing the high orange nuclear line with the Mark Bell Amel line
should produce bright orange albino specimens equal to or nicer than the exceptional female below(my Bell Female)
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801Dscn0866.jpg
thanks for looking

[corrado]

wow Roy absolutly amazing Congrats

Sebastien

[Joe]

Thats awsome bud... might have to get my hands on some of those hets... again congrats!

[BoidKeeper]

Roy I don't even know what to say. That female is amazing! Say mine are a year old now. I should post some pics so you and others can see how nice they turned out.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Katt]

KILLER!!! Can't wait to see how they look when they shed!!

[CamHanna]

If these came from selective breeding rather than a one major mutation than isn't it likely that the brightness is the result of a number of small, random mutations combined to form your beautiful nuclears. Therefore mating them to an animal that does not have all these little mutations would produce animals that are heterozygous for all these mutations but in mating these hets only 1/4 would have each gene, and the possibility of one having all or most of the genes that make a nuclear would be very low.

Just my theory, hopefully it's disproven.
Good Luck
Cam

[leoncurrie]

Originally posted by CamHanna
If these came from selective breeding rather than a one major mutation than isn't it likely that the brightness is the result of a number of small, random mutations combined to form your beautiful nuclears. Therefore mating them to an animal that does not have all these little mutations would produce animals that are heterozygous for all these mutations but in mating these hets only 1/4 would have each gene, and the possibility of one having all or most of the genes that make a nuclear would be very low.

Just my theory, hopefully it's disproven.
Good Luck
Cam




Never question Mr. Stockwell's ability to breed animals. He's been doing it longer the you and I have been alive.

[CamHanna]

Yes I know. I certainly didn't intend to be disrespectful and would never question Mr. Stockwell's herpetocultural greatness (NOT sarcastic). I merely presented a concern.

Cam Hanna

[Stockwell]

Cam, the exact genetic nature of the intensified orange is largely unknown. I simply keep back the most orange babies every year, and have done so since 1988, breeding only the brightest with the brightest. This tends to concentrate the degree of "orangeness"(if that's a word)and they certainly have got significantly brighter over the years.. The Kenyans I produce today, are a long way from the original yellowy/orange Huff founder stock.
This is certainly not a single recessive mutation,and I don't think of it as a mutation at all, but line breeding for patten and color traits, is done quite regularily and the resulting enhanced appearance is genetic and will influence offsping.
As another example, when my bright wide banded hondurans, are bred to normal narrow band Hondurans, the resulting offspring will be a blend, but many will exhibit the wide band brighter orange characteristic.
Another example would be Cal Kings. Much selective breeing has been done with them, and that is why we now have Banana cals and knockout 50/50's, and even some that are mostly white . It's a matter of holding back the trait you want and amplifying it through numerous generations.
This also happens naturally in the wild, if one color survives better than another.
In Tanzania there is a bright race of Kenyans usually called "flames" These bright orange snakes have probably evolved to match the surrounding habitat.
Breeding Nuclears to other regular Kenyans, usually results in offspring that are somewhat intermediate in brightness.
Since the orange in albino Kenyans is probably a function of the same chromatophores that influence the bright orange in the non albino, my hope is to blend more orange into the the albino by outcrossing them with my high orange line.
In regard to mixing nuclears with Bell Amel's the result is yet to be seen but I suspect the het babies should be less bright than my best Nuclears, but brighter orange than normal Kenyans.
The appearance of the hets isn't particularily relevent to me.
What I want to see , is the appearance of the future albinos, produced from the hets. My hope is that at least some of the Amel offspring will be much improved in orange coloration over the typical ugly faded albino Kenyans often seen on the US market.
The poor orange quality in many albino kenyans is probably due to the founder albino being an Egyption sand boa, at least in phenotypic origin.
The Egyption nominate form(colubrinus colubrinus) are a more yellow washed out race.

The Mark Bell male I am using as the gene vector to pass the amel gene, is a fairly nice looking animal(he's in the above mating pic). The amel babies produced from the hets should be at least as nice as he is and hopefully there will be some pigment contribution from the Nuclear mother, but of course this is still left to be seen.
That's why it's such a fun and interesting project.
I will also inject the amel gene into some kenyans with wide orange that tends toward striping, which hopefully will eventually produce very wide orange striped albinos.. They could really look nice, but thats a few years away, as I'm still growing up some females that are tending towards striping.

Next year I should produce pure Bell amels het for anery, and anery's het for amel, double het normals, and also my first snows.

I'm occasionally asked, so I will state here that I don't work with Paradox albinos. That is a completely different mutation originally found on a single imported Tanzanian flame kenyan, from Dodoma valley.
While I do love tanzanian flames, I have no use for those random black blotches on paradox albino specimens. I just don't find it attractive so someone else can work with those.
Kenyans are lots of fun, and very easy to keep, and there is lots of potential for improving albinos and seeing new variants in the future.
I produced some weird chocolate Kenyans last year.
I'll eventually breed them to each other to see if they inturn make more brown babies.

[vanderkm]

Amazing color on the albinos. What is even more amazing is the number of babies that can come out of one of those females!! Simply unbelievable.

Congrats on the litter -

mary v.

[Stockwell]

Hi Mary! I should clarify that the adult pictured with the babies is the father not the larger mother that produced them. She was all baggy and not looking her best so I photographed them with their Dad.

[vanderkm]

I should have realized it was not the mom - guess it is just too early and hadn't had my first cup of coffee yet! They still are huge babies and lots of them because the females aren't more than about 4 feet long - right?? No wonder the poor girl was a little 'baggy'!

Interesting in the albinos that the black areas become yellowish not white - and the belly is truely white. Interesting how amelanism acts in different species. That Bell female is really spectacular.

mary v.

[Simon]

Also looking!

Those orange are just way too nice!!

Can't wait to see your nuclear albinos~!!

[Jeff_Favelle]

Awesome!!!!!!!!

[Invictus]

Incredible Roy! I absolutely can't wait to see what a nuclear albino will look like.

[Linds]

That's a sweet litter size :cool: Best of luck with the albino project as well, albinos are only good when they are bright... :sun: ;)

[Clownfishie]

WOW. What else is there to say... lol. Those nuclears are awesome... and that albino is just amazing!! And as for nuclear albinos... mMmMmmm. LOL.

Congrats on the litter Roy!



Jen

[Stockwell]

And here they are after their first shed, pictured with a hold back male from last year
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801Nuclears04.jpg