Caramel Albino Lines

Hey
i´m thinking about buying a caramel albino and i´ve got an offer for a caramel albino-bell line. Can anybody explain me what the difference is between a bell line and other lines?
I would appreciate any information or pictures.

Usually the different lines are not compatible together IE they cant be bred with eachother and produce viable offspring. They usually get there name from the breeder that first bred them. For example Peter kahl was the very first to breed a strain of albino boas so there is whats called a kahl albino, which would not be compatible with the sharp strain which is another albino strain.

With caramels it's a little different. I believe all of the actual Caramel lines are compatible. There is a little confusion because there are some somewhat similar looking mutations with similar names that are actually different mutations all together and not compatible; crider and ultramel (one of these used to have "caramel" in the name but has been dropped of late).

To start with people tend to name lines after different import animals proven by different breeders. But once they prove compatible then over time the line names usually get dropped. I think the issues with caramel have resulted in the line names being kept because some are hoping one line is better than another but I doubt there is any difference in regards to the problems. The reported differences in problem occurrence rate seem to vary much more collection to collection than line to line which makes me think there is an environmental variable in how likely the problems are to be expressed. I wish I knew what the variable is because I have three possible possible het caramel females gravid with a het caramel male now. I’m thinking of trying maternal incubation just because I want to keep the eggs a little cooler than my main incubator.

Caramel lines are compatible, many people will purposely cross them to try to avoid kinking.

Here is some info I found on Vin Russo's website, the bell line I think was the original 'ultramel', though I've also heard of classic carmels called bell line as well? Sounds like you need to get more info from the breeder.

http://www.cuttingedgeherp.com/pytho...ythons&UID=121

I´ve heard that kinking is common within the albino trait. So important to me is to know if the bell line or other lines doesn´t kink.

The only line that doesnt kink is the crider line produced by eric crider. Kinking has been seen in all other lines

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snake lab

The only line that doesnt kink is the crider line produced by eric crider. Kinking has been seen in all other lines

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Actually the crider line and the ultramel line are thought to be the same thing. In any case, ultramels aren't noted for kinking either.

But Ultramel and Crider aren't caramels at all. I got 6 eggs last night from the first of my 8 year old possible possible het girls. Still trying to dial in the incubator to 86 just in case that help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RandyRemington

But Ultramel and Crider aren't caramels at all. I got 6 eggs last night from the first of my 8 year old possible possible het girls. Still trying to dial in the incubator to 86 just in case that help.

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They're obviously a completely different mutation, but originally they were thought to be the same thing based purely on looks. Ultramels were being sold as carmel albinos for years.

Hopefully eventually the confusion will clear up. To make matters worse I've read that the name "caramel" was originally coined for the Criders but sounds like they ended up taking longer to get established and by then what we call caramel now had taken the name. So Crider and Ultramel are not "caramel lines", or "caramel forms", or any kind of caramels at all, they just happen to have some similarities in appearance, agreed? They also aren't albinos although they used to be called "caramel albinos". We make things so confusing with our morph names ...

So, as far as actual caramel lines is there just NERD and Maslin that still have line names?

Heck, I still see 'enchi pastels' offered for sale even though it was always known to be a seperate mutation from the pastels (which were originally called 'jungle' pastels due to their similarity to the classic jungle balls which are themselves a non-heritable mutation that probably has something to do with irregularities during incubation rather then genetics) For that matter what about the cinnamon pastels and the black pastels which if they actually had any pastel in them would be called pewters instead?

For that matter, what about the axanthics? Three different lines of recessive mutations and one co-dominant mutation all called axanthic because they cause a reduction in yellow pigmentation? Then theres the gargoyle which is a combination mutation that has less yellow pigment then any of them.

Naming conventions in ball pythons never really made a lot of sense and probably never will.