Let me start by saying that there are gaps and uncertainties to this history. When I began breeding these animals, I kept very poor records. If there are people who remember things differently, please let me know so we might create a more accurate account of what actually happened.
In 1991, I purchased two baby Brazilian Rainbow Boas from The East Bay Vivarium. The babies were bred in captivity by Richard A. Ross, M.D., M.P.H. I know nothing of the history of their parents. The two babies that I purchased were from the same clutch. The animals ate voraciously and grew quickly. I was able to get them to mate for the first time in 1994. If I remember correctly, the female produced a clutch of 15 healthy babies. Three of these babies looked a little strange to me. They were a light orange coloration. They really stood out from their clutchmates. Being young and inexperienced, I sold the three odd looking babies along with the rest of the clutch. 14 animals including two of the odd colored ones went to the East Bay Vivarium. One of the odd-colored animals was purchased by a close friend of mine. I didn't keep a single animal from that first clutch. As the animals grew, it became clear that there was something different about them. They seemed to have less coloration than normal Brazilian Rainbows. I remember talking to one of the owners of the Vivarium at the time about this “hypomelanistic” condition. We wondered whether it was heritable or not. In 1996, I began to answer this question when I got my original Ross animals to reproduce for me a second time. I did not keep records from this clutch but there were six hypomelanistic animals born this time. Four of them were female and two were male. This strongly suggested a genetic link in that the results of the first mating were repeatable. I decided to keep all six animals. I sold the remainder of the clutch through an add in my local paper.
As I began to raise these animals, I realized that there was more than just odd coloration affecting these new snakes. They began regurgitating meals for no apparent reason. Temperature and humidity were fine. I wasn't handling them after they fed. But, if the meals were too big or too frequent, they were coming back up. Cliff Moser from The East Bay Vivarium said that he had had the same trouble with the two hypomelanistic animals I sold him two years previously. In fact, one of them died. The chronic regurgitations led to a very slow raise-up process. Instead of taking two years to mature, it was more like five or six. Once the animals had put some size on them, I sold two of my four females back to the East Bay Vivarium (this time for a pretty handsome price).
Thankfully, none of the remaining hypomelanistic animals died and in 2001, another piece of the genetics question fell into place. I suspected that this may be a recessive trait and that the regurgitations may somehow be linked to it. My goal was to outcross the hypomelanistic animals to produce heterozygotes. I thought I knew how the genetics worked and I wanted to “strengthen” the genes by bringing in new blood. At the time, I didn’t have a normal female, and wasn’t interested in taking the time to raise one up. As it happened, I was watching over the original male baby that I had sold to the friend of mine from that first hypomelanistic clutch. I decided to try to set up a breeding loan with the East Bay Vivarium. We crossed him with this gorgeous red female who had no known linkage to the original Ross animals. Six months later, she produced a clutch of normal looking (presumably heterozygous) baby Brazilian Rainbow Boas. My main goal now was to produce a second clutch of heterozygous animals only distantly related to the first. I did it at my home in 2003 with one of my two males born in 1996 and a female I purchased from Bill Gillingham in the mid-90’s.
Meanwhile, in 2002, the East Bay Vivarium was able to successfully breed one of their newly acquired females back to a male I had previously sold them. The clutch was made up entirely of hypomelanistic animals. This was the first time it had been done and it proved that this was a recessive trait. I do not know the current status of any of these animals.
Currently, there are only a handful of people in the country who are working with these animals. The East Bay Vivarium continues to produce heterozygous and hypomelanistic animals. In 2004, Brian Hummel of Texas became the second person who I am aware of to cross two heterozygous animals and get hypomelanistic animals in the clutch. I suspect Brian’s heterozygous animals came from the breeding loan I did with the vivarium in 2001. Eastern Indigos out of Walnut Creek California has produced heterozygous animals with a male they bought from the Vivarium and an unrelated female. I produced an entire clutch of hypomelanistic animals in 2004 by breeding a male and female who were part of the same 1996 clutch. These babies are showing promise. Two have never regurgitated (knock on wood), and I have it under control in the others. They are eating small meals but gaining weight. On September 19, 2005 a clutch was born here that is half heterozygous and half hypomelanistic. The dam was the result of the breeding loan I did with the vivarium in 2001. The sire was one of the two hypomelanistic males born in 1996. So far, there have been no regurgitations and the babies are feeding weekly on thawed, fuzzy mice.
Exotics By Nature out of Louisiana produced a clutch of hets and hypomels in 2005. I suspect that the dam of this clutch was part of the 2001 outcrossing project. The sire may have come from the 2002 hypomel x hypomel cross done by the East Bay Vivarium.
I am working on two projects associated with this line. I am raising up two pairs of heterozygous animals from different sires and completely unrelated dams which I hope to cross in 2006-2007. If I accomplish this, It will be the first time that two unrelated heterozygous lines have been crossed. Needless to say, I am very excited about this pairing. 2005 also showed a successful breeding project between a hypomelanistic male of mine and an anerythristic female from Robert Seib. The clutch contained 12 animals. Four males and eight females. It is hoped that crossing these double-heterozygous animals will produce the first ghost Brazilians ever!
There may be several other hypomelanistic lines being worked with. Darren Bell produced hypomelanistic animals about the same time I produced my first clutch. There is an animal in the collection of Tim Frazure who looks strikingly similar to my hypos. Her background is unknown. She produced a clutch of normal-looking animals in 2005. In early 2007, Dave Colling came into possession of a gravid, wild-caught female who produced a single hypomelanistic-looking animal in a clutch of five. As of this writing, no one has crossed any of the lines to see if they are compatible.
A clutch was born to an anerythristic female and a hypomelanistic male. Of the thirteen babies in this clutch, two appear to be anerythristic (See the gallery). This causes me to believe that this anerythristic gene may be dominant. This could change the course of my ghost project.
On October 14th, 2006, a clutch was produced as the result of pairing Het Male I with ML03.01 (a heterozygous female). She is a small female and only produced three babies. one of which is a hypomelanistic male. This is significant because the females that produced each of these breeders were normal animals completely unrelated to each other. This lone hypo male is the most outcrossed hypo BRB in existence at this point
