Question about axanthic genetics

IMHO, definitely not an axanthic. On the other hand, that's a snake I'd personally keep as a dinking around project to see if you can reproduce that nice, light, banded appearance & creamy coloration. Very pretty BP!!!

K~

Maybe something good for a pastel project.

not axanthic,but i whould defintly try to prove that one out.Looks verry interesting to me

If it's not an axanthic, then why have I seen people posting pictures of axanthics even more brown than mine saying "this is an example of an axanthic" I fully realize that true axanthics are silver and black. That is why I said I had a sub-standard axanthic because it has browned out. I have been told time and time again that an axanthic has no yellow, and then I get one that has no yellow, and people tell me it's not an axanthic. What is up with y'all? Can no one have an axanthic that isn't a professional breeder or something?

As a side note, the normal that is pictured next to my snake that y'all say isn't an axanthic makes the brown in my snake stand out more than the silver. When he is in his cage solo, he looks VERY silver. I'll try to find a better pic.

Well....all we can do is offer an opinion based on the pictures you provided. Do keep in mind that some of these opinions are coming from people who own and have handled many, many axanthics of all shades and ages and lines....so they have a pretty good idea of what to look for...subtle clues and shadings that might not be apparent to many of us.


No one is saying that "only big breeders" can own axanthics...but it is highly unlikely that a genuine axanthic worth a few thousand dollars (even a "sub-standard" one) will just drop into someone's lap at a normal price. I would dare to say it's not entirely beyond the realm of possibility....but extremely unlikely. About on the lines of winning a huge lottery prize.

Everyone has said...the only way to know for sure is to breed it and prove it out. Since you don't know what line it is from, you can't know which line it would be compatible with....so the best way to prove it out (in my opinion) would be to breed it to a normal...raise up the "hets," and breed them back to their parent. Then you may either prove its an axanthic (because the babies will definitely be silver/black) or might prove that its really pretty look is genetic, even if its not axanthic.

It does not look like an axanthic to me either. However, it is a very nicely colored normal. An axanthic is a ball python morph that some people just have to see in person to figure out.....it is very hard to capture their look in a photo. Nothing is 'up with us'....people are just being honest.

If you really believe your snake to be an axanthic, then breed it and find out. However, without any genetic background on the animal.....all you can really claim to have is an 'axanthic-like' normal....if it is genetically reproducable, that is a different story.

Y'all never really answered my original question anyway. Regardless of the debate above, if I DID have an axanthic...any axanthic...say you know what line it is. If you breed a substandard axanthic to a brilliant axanthic of the same line, will the substandard one dilute the genetics of the brilliant one and cause the babies to be less than desirable, or will the brilliant one enhance the substandard's genetics in the offspring??

And what do you call a coloration in a ball python that has no yellow?

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Originally Posted by Collins2602

If it's not an axanthic, then why have I seen people posting pictures of axanthics even more brown than mine saying "this is an example of an axanthic" I fully realize that true axanthics are silver and black. That is why I said I had a sub-standard axanthic because it has browned out. I have been told time and time again that an axanthic has no yellow, and then I get one that has no yellow, and people tell me it's not an axanthic. What is up with y'all? Can no one have an axanthic that isn't a professional breeder or something?

As a side note, the normal that is pictured next to my snake that y'all say isn't an axanthic makes the brown in my snake stand out more than the silver. When he is in his cage solo, he looks VERY silver. I'll try to find a better pic.

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It's kind of like buying a honda and then saying "I drove it really fast last night, is my car a porsche?" ... If you have an axanthic, you know it because that's what you bought and that's what you paid for.

Metaphors aside, here's how I'm certain that your animal is not an axanthic without even seeing a picture ...

There are two types of ball pythons in the pet trade in the US ... Captive Bred and Born (also know as "CB") which are produced and hatched here in the US and Wild Caught (WC) or Captive Hatched (CH) which are hatched in West Africa and shipped to the US ... By most estimates, WC/CH animals out number CB animals in the pet trade by at least 20 to 1 ... It is extremely likely that your animal is a CH or WC from Africa.

If that is the case, from the time that animal was born it passed through a lot of hands ... The African trappers, the African exporters, the American importers, the American distributers, the American wholesalers, the American distributers, etc ... All of the people make their living buying and selling ball pythons ... THEY KNOW better than anyone else what a normal is and what an axanthic is ... To all those people an axanthic means more money ... If your animal was an axanthic, it would not just "slip through" the hands of all those people as a normal ... at least ONE of them would catch it and sell it for more than the value of a normal ... it's thier job to, and they are all very good at their job.

On the off chance that your animal is actually captive bred, it's even more less likely that a breeder that invested thousands of dollars into an axathic project, took years of their own time to raise up the animals to breeding size, and then after they finally produced an axanthic, sold it for a normal ball python price ... it just doesn't happen like that ... ever.

It's not that only professional breeders can have axanthics or that something is "up" with anyone ... it's just that if you don't really know what to look for, descriptions of mutations in text on the internet or in books can be misleading ... there's a big difference between an animal that looks like it doesn't have any yellow on it and an animal that lacks the ability to produce yellow pigment.

But hey, what do I know? ;)

http://www.8ballpythons.com/uploads/axanthics.jpg

-adam

forget about whether or not what we have is an axanthic. If, at some point in the future we have true axanthics, will a sub-standard one dilute the genetics of an awesome one. that's all I'm asking. Please stop harping on the "but you don't have an axanthic" thing. Thanx

There are lots of normals with seemingly no yellow. I have a normal male with no yellow, not incredibly rare in normals.
And that said, my goodness, it's amazing the attitudes that develop when a person isn't told what they want to hear. :frustrate