Regular albino vs high contrast albino

[decensored]

Chris,

In many ways I agree with you. Until Matt proved that there was something unique going on with his gold blush mojave I was happy just selectively breeding my snakes. Now that someone has placed the name gold blush onto the World Of Ball Python Morph List. I feel it is my responsibility to prove whether the trait is dominant, co dominant or recessive. As of yet I have not isolated the trait. It's difficult for me as a breeder to fully enjoy the experience. As honored as I am to see the words Gold Blush on the Morph list, It has brought a sense of frustration to me. I feel that in this case the cart has truly been put before the horse. I am hopeful that within the next few seasons I will have the trait isolated. Once that is done I will be able to take the gold blush which is not a mojave and incorporate that trait into all other morphs. I understand the confusion and frustration that this is causing. The frustration for me is how could the bp morph list include a trait that has not yet been isolated.

I'm excited about the future of this project, please be patient with me as I work it out.

Brian

Hey Brian!

I am very excited to see what the future holds for your animals. I've been watching for a while and am looking forward with great anticipation. I can't imagine the pressure that's on you now, and I thank you for not taking offence. I appreciate the time you have put into this discussion, and wish you the best of luck.

Cheers,
Chris.

[Pythonfriend]

wow, this thread is now really interesting and exciting.

the thing with WOBP is, i dont think they even try to be a watchdog. they act more like an aggregator of information. if you send them some nice pictures and some reasoning for why you think its a morph, they list it. and when there are issues, like evidence that several morphs are actually the same morph (lesser/butter, pastel/citrus pastel/lemon pastel/blonde pastel), they will just stay out of it and do nothing.

what i am waiting for is a prankster to get some morphs on WOBP that really dont exist.

listing a morph before its really pinned down and proven out, and failing to properly differentiate between single-gene base morphs and line bred traits, thats completely normal for WOBP. dont get me wrong, i like WOBP, because as an aggregator of information they do a REALLY GOOD JOB. they are just not in the business of verification. the problem is that often people dont get it, they assume that because its on WOBP, its real. that is like assuming something is real because it got published as a book.

that can be frustrating, i mean, apparently Brian Gundy is still in the process of figuring out the gold blush, and someone else just went ahead and got it listed on WOBP. dont sweat about it. gold blush mojave being listed on WOBP is like google returning search results when you search for "gold blush mojave".

in response to decensored, i have to say that i really think that in the end, gold blush will prove out to be a base morph and not a line-bred trait. the patternless gold blush mystic potion, and what it consistently does with mojave, and new things happening when other people combine it with other morphs like GHI, all that makes me feel really optimistic.

its really interesting to hear that you do see differences between a quality het high contrast albino and a normal, in the form of intensified yellow.

[kc261]

Even if gold blush is a separate morph in the sense that it is caused by a separate gene, it may be difficult to the point of nearly impossible to separate it from mojave. I don't know if it hasn't been done yet simply due to lack of trying, because it was assumed to be more of a selective breeding thing than a distinct gene. Or, if it hasn't been done yet because the two genes are difficult to separate. If they are on the same chromosome and at adjacent or nearly adjacent loci, most of the time a snake will either inherit both or neither, because they won't get separated very often.

I also don't know how the gold blush mojave originated. Is there any possibility that gold blush mojave isn't the mojave gene at all, but a different (just very similar) gene in the BEL complex?

[OhhWatALoser]

Breed mojave x gold blush, make the super mojave and observe the offspring of that snake. If all mojave display the goldblush trait or not will give insight.

Breed gold blush x gold blush, make the super mojave, observe the offspring of that snake. If even one mojave does not display the goldblush trait will give some insight.

[Pythonfriend]

I also don't know how the gold blush mojave originated. Is there any possibility that gold blush mojave isn't the mojave gene at all, but a different (just very similar) gene in the BEL complex?

Brian Gundy has to answer that, but he explained it to me earlier. basically he has a mojave project in which he tries to improve and refine the mojave gene, and in this mojave project the gold blush trait sort of just popped up, hatched out, and then kept appearing.

so we dont know for sure. maybe a random mutation happened, and maybe its a gene that is invisible or almost invisible in a normal, but that interacts strongly with other morphs, and became visible when it hit mojave. or maybe its a recessive that got flushed to the surface by inbreeding, but then, im leaning towards thinking that its dominant or codom, because i think the interaction Matt Lerer noticed with GHI happened in one generation, but i could be wrong about that.

im quite sure its not in the BEL gene complex itself, because the gold blush mystic potion exists. mystic and mojave are already in the BEL complex, and a BP only has two sets of chromosomes. it would be impossible, like a "lesser mojave phantom".

[kc261]

im quite sure its not in the BEL gene complex itself, because the gold blush mystic potion exists. mystic and mojave are already in the BEL complex, and a BP only has two sets of chromosomes. it would be impossible, like a "lesser mojave phantom".

Oh, right.... I knew that.

[For Goodness Snakes]

I think it's important to remember that the actual gold blush looks like a normal, like a special or a yellow belly. Next season I'll be breeding my gold blush to a normal to see if I can produce more gold blushes then breed the gold blush back to the gold blush babies to produce a super or not then we'll know if it's a dominant or a co dominant, I'm assuming it's not a recessive trait.

Thanks for your ideas.

Brian