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Starbuck
03-24-13, 12:20 PM
So I have two cal kings, and i've been trying to do some research r.e. what kind of babies they'll have, my female is normal color aberrant pattern, and my male I have always introduced as 'Albino'

BUT! I was poking around on Ians vivarium and my male actually looks more like their hypomelanistics? So i am confused about the difference between hypomel and amel and albino.... A picture of him is posted below. Does anyone know the difference between these morphs?
My guy has red eyes, and is very yellow (not white) on his pigmented areas, and the places where i presume he would be black, he is a light, transparent purple. Thanks for the help!

brianm616
04-01-13, 04:30 PM
about 99.9% sure that that's a standard newport/striped albino (T- amelanism).

amelanism is a lack of melanin (black pigment) and also commonly referred to as albino.

-a tyrosinase negative amelanistic specimen (like yours) either produces a nonfunctional version of tyrosinase or no tyrosinase at all, giving a pink look to hatchlings.
-a tyrosinase positive amelanistic produces an abnormal but still partly functional tyrosinase enzyme, giving a lavender look to hatchlings.

hypo, meaning under, in hypomelanism - means under produced black pigmentation. it can and does work very similarly to T+ amelanism. typically there is much more dark pigmentation in hypos than T+ specimens. however, exactly where the line between T+ and hypomel is drawn varies greatly between subspecies of lampropeltis.

check out Southern California Kingsnakes - Home (http://southerncaliforniakingsnakes.weebly.com/) for more info.