My "dinker" female.

[JayCee]

I got a free normal female a couple years ago from a friend of a friend. She was a pet store purchase (5-6 years before I had her) that the person couldn't take care of anymore. She appeared healthy and had "possible het. pied markings" and I couldn't beat the price.

She produced some Spiders last year for me and one of the buyers recently contacted me to ask if I had any pictures of the parents. After getting the pictures he asked if there was any chance that mom was Axanthic.

I've never thought of her as anything other than a "light colored normal" but after he asked it made me start to question. I'm color blind so I thought I would snap some pictures of her with one of her normal looking offspring.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]







At worst she's a great eating light colored proven normal female that has an outside shot of being Het. Pied (has locked up a couple of times with my Pied male this month to hopefully settle that question).

Any thoughts one whether or not she could be Axanthic ?? If she produces Pied this year then my decision is easy, keep one of her male Pied offspring to breed back to her. If she doesn't produce any Pied, would it be worthwhile to breed one of her sons back to her on the off chance she is Axanthic or does she really not look like an Axanthic and I should breed her with something else.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[kc261]

First thing I would do is ask your customer WHY he started asking these questions. Did he hatch out an unexpected axanthic? If so, does he know what line of axanthic because the other animal was from a known axanthic line?

Your female looks grayer than the other normal in the pics, but no grayer than one of my normals. Of course a lot depends on lighting in the pic, as well. But even if she is not axanthic, there is a chance she or the spider you paired her with are het axanthic.

One other possibility, depending on what your customer was working with, is that I've heard of a line of albinos that the het albinos often look axanthic as hatchlings, then turn to normal colors after a few sheds. I don't remember much else about it, and some people in the thread were calling BS, so I'm not even sure it is real, but it would be a possible way unexpected "axanthic" hatchlings would show up.