Love is in the air

Most people start introducing their rosys several weeks after they end brumation, but Jerry Hartley recommended that I start introducing them now to ensure not missing the fertility window.

Here are some pictures.

Rosy boa morphs- Albinos, Anerys, Axanthics, and Snows

-Snow white. pic by albinorosy.

This information should all be covered (and more accurately) in Jeremiah's book.

---Mutation background
There are various mutations that snakes can have that affect the way they look. I'm only gonna talk about three.
Albinism - What we call Albinism is not actually the lack of all color, rather it is the lack of only dark pigment. Depending on certain underlying factors, the eyes are sometimes affected.
Anerythrism - This is the lack of all red coloring. The snake ends up looking bluish grey.
Axanthism - This is the lack of all red and yellow colorings. Looks similar to anery.

We label snake mutations as albino/anery/axanthic based on how they look to us rather than on any actual genetic testing. Axanthism and Anerythrism can be impossible to distinguish, so naturally there are disagreements about it.


---Known rosy mutations
There have been several of these mutations found in rosys. They are:
*Albino White Water - an albino rosy was found in white water canyon in 1993. Eyes are not affected.
*Albino Limburg - an albino was found somewhere in the temecula valley and then purchased by Randy Limburg. Only albino rosy with red eyes.
*Albino Harquahala - produced in captivity from wild caught stock. Quite rare. I only know of 2-3 people who have these.
*Albino Borrego - found in the wild. Currently only 3 in existence.


Albino Harquahala, pic by Jerry Hartley.

Albino White Water

*Anery Borrego - although quite rare, probably the most common of the rosy anery/axanthics.
*Axanthic Limburg - Most people call them anery, but they're probably axanthic. The original was purchased by Randy Limburg.
*Axanthic Morongo - Appear to be axanthic. Very rare.
*Anery pioneertown - Just produced in 2008 from locality captives.



Anery pioneertown with possible het sibling, pic by albinorosy

Borrego anery, Limburg, and Morongo Axanthics. pic by makoman.

---Snows
If you breed animals with two different mutations together, you will end up with offspring that are carriers of both mutations. Breeding two of these "double carriers" together gives a 12% chance of producing an animal with BOTH mutations expressed.
A "snow" is an animal with both Albinism, and anerythrism (or axanthism) expressed. Naturally they are hard to produce, and very expensive.

So far, the following have been produced:
*Carlson Line Snow - WW albino and Borrego anery. They have a light yellow pattern, and dark eyes.
*Limburg Snow - Limburg albino and Limburg axanthic. Solid white with red eyes.
*Snow White - WW albino and Morongo axanthic. Solid white with solid black eyes.



Snow White and morongo axanthic. Pic by albinorosy.

Carlson Snow with Albino WW. Pic by AncientDNA.

People have also crossed some of these morphs with various other localities, to bring out extreme colors or traits. One of the many interesting crosses is Kent's cross of the WW albino with a really bright Anza-Borrego. He then bred the Hets back to each other and produced this animal.


50% anza-borrego. Pics by Kent. So cool.

Warming up time!

Spring time has arrived for my rosys!.

A couple days ago I opened the door and heat vents in the snake room to begin the warming up process, and then today I cranked up the heat.

The snakes are cruising their cages, but especially the males. Breeding time will arrive soon.





The snakes that did not brumate are also all are doing well. The 07 male Bahia de LA, and the 07 Female San Matias have both transitioned to fuzzies. I'm really pleased with this, as they've grown quite a bit since I got them a few months ago.
The albino female will probably make the the fuzzy transition next feeding. She has been doing SO MUCH better eating, and even took food from my hand a couple days ago. My Male Lake Chapala is a garbage can, and eats everything I thrown at him. He is now taking full grown mice and growing really fast.


This years breeding season is looking very good. I sold a couple snakes over the brumation period, but should still produce quite a few if all goes well.

Litter 1 - Albino X Albino het anery
All babies will be albino, with a 50% chance of being het anery

Litters 2 and 3 - Het Albino X Albino het anery
50% of babies will be albino, with a 50% chance of being het anery
50% of babies will be het albino, with a 50% chance of being het anery

Litters 3 and 4 - Het albino het anery X Albino het anery
12.5% of the babies will be snow (albino and anery)
12.5% of the babies will be anery, and het for albino
37.5% of the babies will be albino, with a 66% chance of being het anery
37.5% of the babies will be het albino, with a 66% chance of being het anery

These are the litters that could be produced with my currently breedable animals. Depending on what I find down in CA next month I may be able to produce some F-1's this season as well. Pretty much all the CA localities have been getting good amounts of rain which should greatly increase our chances of success.
Getting excited!

Upcoming trips

I am getting really excited for the next few months. I have two or three big trips coming up.

March
My brothers and I are going on a flipping trip across rosyland in March. We plan on spending day 1 in the integrade zone, day 2 in the coastal localities, and day 3 down on the border/unicolor areas. Then on the drive home we'll hit a locality or two in the low-desert. This will be a blast herping with my brothers, and I'm sure we'll see lots of rosys.
These are the basic color variations we might see. Days 1-4:


April
I'm still trying to decide if I can go on this one or not. Jeremiah Easter is hitting an area of Nevada that he thinks will have rosys, and has invited me and some others to come along. If we can find one, it will be the first rosy boa officially recorded in Nevada.

May
The Annual Rosy Club 2009 will be held in May this year, down near the integrade zone. I plan on meeting up with an old close friend and seeing if we can road cruise some rosys. We'll probably also get up in the mountains during the daytime and find some zonatas. I'm really excited for this trip. The friend I'm going with has been one of my favorite herping buddies for a very long time. Although all our friends enjoyed snake hunting, he and I were the only ones who memorized the scientific names of every snake in North America.


I do have some sad news too. Another friend, the one who was planning to give me the pair of F-1 carrizo road rosys pinged me. The female carrizo rd died a couple days ago. It has been a picky eater and had just now started eating consistently. The male has been great with no problems. What a bummer. Oh well, we'll probably just try to catch a female. He's seen lots of them there and knows the area really well.

On a happy note, my 08 WW albino female started eating really well. I can easily start feeding her fuzzies now. With the way she's pounding food, I'm tempted to power feed her and put her down this fall for breeding. I probably won't rush things though.

Just noticed she's back in the blue. Snapped this pic a few minutes ago.