Dumb question....

[joshua.britto]

What is the precise difference between, a hypo, a salmon , and a pastel....?
I don't want to sound ignorant but i'm fairly new to boa community so you'll have to forgive me.

[jhsulliv]

Re: Dumb question....

A salmon IS a hypo, but a hypo isn't necessarily a salmon. Hypomelanism is an actual genetic trait. A pastel boa is just selectively bred to have less black, but genetically speaking it is still just a normal boa.

John and Rich Ihle started to selectively breed hypomelanistic boas for pink coloration and they have been called salmons. Most of the blood now is so mixed it's probably hard to really know what you have, but certain lines of non-salmon strain hypos are around and are noticeably very different from the Ihle salmons. Larry will correct me if I'm wrong on any of my breeder history since he and Jeff Ronne are the encyclopedias on boa history around here.

Inferno Pastel belonging to an RTB Member --- notice the black on the tail


Hypo boa belonging to Jeff Gee


This is a super (homozygous) salmon of mine


Can you kind of see the difference? I may not have picked the best photos.

[joshua.britto]

Re: Dumb question....

Thanks! the visuals of it all are much less distinct than other species i have worked with, thanks again for the info, familiarity will come to play soon enough i suppose!

[satyra]

Re: Dumb question....

hey thats my baby!

[joshua.britto]

Re: Dumb question....

there appears to more red on the hypo, but the salmon looks cleaner. I have a hypo that came from a hypo-hypo pairing and a friend lead me to believe that he felt strongly that it was a probable super, but i guess you can t say until it's proven. are boa traits primairily recessive, dom, or co-dom?

[joshua.britto]

Re: Dumb question....

also what causes the tan coloration? as opposed to the siver/grey? is it the left over pigment from hypo melanism?

[satyra]

Re: Dumb question....

hypos and salmons will all look completely diff from each other, even within the same litter. this is one of my girls, her daddy was a super hypo, mom was a salmon. mostly shes clean, but she is RED in person, and VERY gorgeous IMO my other two are hypos, one is peachy, the other is more pink.





with hypos, since the black pigment is less than in a normal boa, some boas will be pink/red, others will be orangey-peach, and others will just be a lighter brown, when you take some of the black pigment away, the reds start coming out more. it depends on the breeder who produces them, whehther they really selective-breed their snakes or not. most people like the pink-red, really clean salmons/hypos.

im pretty sure there are more recessive boa morphs than co-dom. i seems like most of them are recessive to me anyway. usually babies are more grey-silver, then as they grow the silvers turn brownish.

[Boa Amarali]

Re: Dumb question....

there appears to more red on the hypo, but the salmon looks cleaner. I have a hypo that came from a hypo-hypo pairing and a friend lead me to believe that he felt strongly that it was a probable super, but i guess you can t say until it's proven. are boa traits primairily recessive, dom, or co-dom?

Both can have alot of reddish coloration and strong tan-ish or buckskin
type color just comes from the Hypo trait genetics, how black color is
reduced and red colors are increased

Boas have many different Genetic types, Recessive , Codom/Incomplete
recessive , Dominant.
There are several examples of each of these traits in Boas

also what causes the tan coloration? as opposed to the siver/grey? is it the left over pigment from hypo melanism?

The color in Hypo or Salmon Boas is strongly influenced by selective
breeding as with other nice normal type Boas as in Pastel Boas like the
Inferno pastel pictured of satyras , produced by Tony Hawkins.

Although due to strong selective breeding salmons especially in the past
tend to have a little different appearance than Orangetail type Hypo boas
Both have reduced black and an increase of red
plus get that tan coloration

With time identifying genetic traits and selectively bred traits in boas
becomes far easier to recognize

[joshua.britto]

Re: Dumb question....

yea im still havin a lil trouble decipheringthem!lol!

[MSwift]

Re: Dumb question....

these are my boas here is an example of each one you asked about hope it helps

0.1 05 pastel




0.1 08 salmon





1.0 09 hypo

[Hunglikeafruitbat]

Re: Dumb question....

ZOMG! Mike your male hypo baby is AWESOME! It's got some kind of reverse ladder tail thing goin, how did pappa not end up grabbing a boa with so many stripes?

Mat.

[MSwift]

Re: Dumb question....

Thanks Hung here is a full body birds eye shot for you

[dangles]

Re: Dumb question....

Now, Larry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember a thread a while back about the difference between salmons and hypos. I remember there being a big controversy over this, but somebody said that rich ihle himself has said that salmon was the name he came up with for the hypo trait before it was officially named 'hypomelanism' and that there really IS no visual difference. Not to say that breeders have not done their own selective breeding, but the terms 'salmon' and 'hypo' are the same trait and can be used interchangeably.

That was the impression I have been under...

As for pastels, joley is right about them having less black and generally looking 'cleaner,' but most people who selectively breed pastels shoot for very colorful animals (reds, pinks, oranges). Take Tony Hawkins's inferno pastel line (pictured below). They are FILLED with extra reds and pinks! (*drool!)

This strays a little (I prefer 'builds on') jeff ronne sr's definition about them being cleaner and having a 'washed out' appearance (Larry you'll have to help me with he exact phrasing, but that is the gist of it )