Hypo
Type: Recessive
First Produced By: Bill and Kathy Love
Aliases: Hypomelanistic
Issues: N/A
First Produced In: 1993
Availability: Rarest
Last Updated: 2022-02-10
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About
Hypo is a recessive mutation.
History
The first Hypos produced in captivity were in 1993 by Bill and Kathy Love. They bought a snake labeled Coral Snake $15 in a snake shop in Florida. It turned out to be het for Hypo and when they bred back an offspring female to the father, there were two Hypos produced.
Hypos in the trade trace their ancestry back to a single brightly colored imported specimen acquired by Florida breeders Bill and Kathy Love. The snake gave rise to a brightly colored line of tangerine Hondurans with equally wide bands trade named “Tangerine Dreams.” But breeding the original snake back to one of its own offspring yielded an amazing result: the first known Hypomelanistic Honduran!
In the years since, breeders have refined various lines of Hypos for specific looks. All are the product of selective breeding and quite variable in expression, often reproducing inconsistently. As with all selectively bred specimens, breeding two very good examples of the type usually leads to the greatest number of desirable offspring, but this is still far from a guarantee. Among these are bloodlines in which breeders have worked to lighten the black coloration into pale grays, and such lines as “extreme,” “ultra-light” and “mega” are all variants of this theme.
Appearance
Body
Hypomelanism (or “Hypo”) is a unique mutation that causes a reduction in the amount of black pigmentation. There is no set amount of reduction, and some specimens can have very dark black rings while others may have very light gray or pale brown rings. The reduction in black affects not only the black banding, but the overall coloration of Hypomelanistic snakes is lightened and brightened, with most appearing a lovely pumpkin orange in overall color.
Totally lacking black tipping and with very thin clean bands, all of the colors are accentuated into very clean and pure colors. Almost look pastel, or maybe plastic
Proven Lines
No known proven lines
Related Traits
No known related traits
Combos
- Ghost (Anerythristic Hypo)
- Hybino (Albino Hypo)
- Pearl (Albino Anerythristic Hypo)
