Hypo

[Sama]

If you breed it to a snake not carrying the hypo gene the babies will look normal(never mind the ghost markers which might or might not be present). If you breed a hypo to a hypo or a carrier you can get more hypos. They often look like they are always in shed and mix well with many morphs.

[Sama]

Lol, I took to long to type it out on my phone.

[cmack91]

Hypo is short for Hypomelanistic, melanin produces pigment in skin, hypo means lack of, so together (Hypomelanistic) means lack of pigment (specifically black in this case). The snake carrying the gene will have less melanin coming through, and in the case of a ball python, gives it kind of a hazy appearance, almost like lightly sandblasted glass.

Its a reccesive gene, wich means that in order to be visual, the gene has to be present on both sides of the allele (Homozygous). If you take a Homozygous hypo, and breed it to a normal, it can only pass down a gene from one side of the allele, which means that the resulting offspring will have the gene only on one side of the allele (Heterozygous). Since its not strong enough to overpower the "normal" gene on the other side, it will not be visual.


*Looks like i took too long also lol

[Rob]

What exactly does it mean when a snake has a Hypo gene?

It means it's spooooooooky! Boo!

[RandyRemington]

I've noticed the increased use of "orange ghost" in recent years. Used to be orange was just one of several popular adjectives to make one compatible hypo line stand out from another (yellow, butterscotch, green, and orange). But for some reason orange has become the standard lately and I had trouble selling this beauty because I couldn't honestly say she had any of the original orange line (which I'm not sure didn't come out of one of the other lines anyway). I know her ancestry had been proven compatible with orange ghost but even though I think she was better looking than most orange ghosts lots of buyers only want that name now, which is probably why suddenly most for sale are now "orange ghosts", lol. Enough to make me hope the term "hypo" eventually catches on to replace “ghost” and the lines all together.

[Mike41793]

I've noticed the increased use of "orange ghost" in recent years. Used to be orange was just one of several popular adjectives to make one compatible hypo line stand out from another (yellow, butterscotch, green, and orange). But for some reason orange has become the standard lately and I had trouble selling this beauty because I couldn't honestly say she had any of the original orange line (which I'm not sure didn't come out of one of the other lines anyway). I know her ancestry had been proven compatible with orange ghost but even though I think she was better looking than most orange ghosts lots of buyers only want that name now, which is probably why suddenly most for sale are now "orange ghosts", lol. Enough to make me hope the term "hypo" eventually catches on to replace “ghost” and the lines all together.

She looks good to me!

I have a Q for everyone while were on this topic: What would HYPERmelanistic be then? A axanthic?

[Rob]

No orange here

[LotsaBalls]

She looks good to me!

I have a Q for everyone while were on this topic: What would HYPERmelanistic be then? A axanthic?

It would be an increase in melanin, a dark snake.

[Royal Hijinx]

Hypo combos well... Hypo Mojave

[Rob]

Hypo combos well... Hypo Mojave

= sexy