House Snake Morphs & More

Information Library

A collection of knowledge on (not just) lamprophid snakes

Categories

All
Breeding
Community
Enclosures
Feeding
Morphs & Genetics
Troubleshooting

4\24\2025
Unfortunately when our webhost weebly merged with square, any of these pages that had custom coding were rendered inoperable. Those that did not have custom coding are still visible. We are working to remove the incompatible code and hope to have the down pages available again as soon as possible. Terribly sorry for any inconvenience. 
  • Home
  • Available
    • All Available
    • Waitlist
    • Trades? Payment Plans?
  • Care
    • House Snake Care
    • Black House Snake Care & Info
    • African File Snake Care
    • African Egg Eaters
  • Information Library
    • Library Articles
    • Morphs of House Snakes
  • Contact
  • Shipping
  • Terms

3/27/2025

T- Albino or T+?

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Ok so heres what you need to know.

What the T stands for in "T" albino is Tyrosinase.

The difference between T- and T+ albino is whether or not the animal has (partially) functioning tyrosinase genes (+) or not (-). Tyrosinase is a copper-containing enzyme crucial for melanin biosynthesis, catalyzing the oxidation of tyrosine to L-DOPA and subsequent reactions that lead to melanin (color) production. 

If you just said, Huh?- no worries
, Heres the differences for what it means for us as snake keepers/breeders:

T- have red irises as adults, and T+ have black irises. 

But its really hard to tell them apart visually as newborn hatchlings until you have a trained eye for it. So its always best to keep track of lineage, but even more so if you're going to work with both.

I've never noticed any difference in temperament or care between the two. So if pet ownership is what you're after, just pick whichever one pulls your heart strings you know?

There are things that are good to know for breeders planning future pairings though:

They are not compatible genes, so if you cross a visual T- albino with a visual T+ albino you will get double hets instead of visuals.


T+'s are more of a caramel color than t-'s, (tyrosinase contains copper). They tend to turn more brown or warmer toned as they age, but not by much.

I find T-s to be more saturated in color and a bit cooler toned. Excellent for retaining locality colors when outcrossing.

T+'s are the go to choice for retaining warm tones and when you dont want that extra saturation though. For example the T- hypo butter would be kinda white or practically grey, whereas the t+ hypo butter is a gorgeous shade of soft pale yellow. T+ are considerably easier to work with when doing hypo morphs too. Its pretty easy to tell a T+ hypo apart from a t+, but its impossible to tell a T- hypo apart from a light colored T-, so that's something to be aware of.

So which one is right for you as a breeder is going to strongly depend on your end goal. 

​I hope that helps :)

Share

0 Comments

3/24/2025

How to properly label your hatchlings

0 Comments

Read Now
 

This page is currently down

​We are currently working out some custom coding issues with the webhost for this page and hope to have it back up soon.

Share

0 Comments

3/24/2025

Zambian or Uganda Green?

0 Comments

Read Now
 

This page is currently down

We are currently working out some custom coding issues with the webhost for this page and hope to have it back up soon.

Share

0 Comments

3/24/2025

Genetics, Localities, and Polygenic Traits, Oh my!

0 Comments

Read Now
 

This page is currently down

We are currently working out some custom coding issues with the webhost for this page and hope to have it back up soon.

Share

0 Comments

12/6/2024

My snake was born with small eyes and a pointed snout. Is this genetic?

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Odds are no. 

So when we look at abnormalities, we need to keep in mind there are two major factors to a snake developing into a happy healthy snake:
     1. Its genetics- or the instructions left by its parents to build that baby snake. 
     2. Its incubation- the resources, and ability to carry out the instructions.

If a problem happens with either, that's where abnormalities come from. 

So! Lets address this most common abnormality. If we look at house snake embryology you’ll notice that the entire face actually develops at a pointy shape before it rounds out later in development.
Picture
Now if we look at the ocular migration, (slide D) we can see that the eye actually develops very much so near the beginning of development. So! Here’s how this all applies.

If during incubation the egg experiences a rapid rise or drop in temperature/humidity/oxygen during the migration stage the development of the eye can be shunted, or fail to develop entirely (no eyes!)

If it doesn’t develop properly the system will use time & resources to try to repair it, but subsequent stages will be delayed and need to “work around it” so to speak. Since the rounding of the face is the last thing to develop, it may run out of resources to finish that task, and hatch with a slightly pointy face instead.

This is typically an incubation issue, not a genetic one. However, if for some reason the animal later produces only pointy face small eyed babies, that would mean she suffered a spontaneous change in her genetic code, which is now preventing the hatchlings from proper development simply because the instructions are not there. But this is highly unlikely to happen.

​This is almost always an egg that was smaller from the gate (less resources to spare), then was attacked by mold or experienced an instability early in development.

​Hope that helps!

Share

0 Comments

7/1/2021

All About Extreme Gene Albino

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Born bright orange these guys are stunners for sure. 

A relatively new project for me, I only have so much information on them, and what they do at the time of writing, but I hope to update as I work with them more. 

Origins

The story I was given is this. A wild albino house snake was captured in East London that was a blood orange color, and had the stripe typical for that locality. That snake was bred to another (east london locality) in captivity and then when the het offspring came out "oddly consistent" they were held back. The best of the male offspring would later be bred back to mom and when visuals were produced they were put up for market at a European trade show as "extreme albino" or "extreme orange albino". That's where I come in.
Picture
One of the hets
I am always on the look out for rare or odd house snakes, and am privileged to have friends worldwide whom look out for them for me (as I look out for their interests here in the US) so when a Dutch friend of mine happened across 23 bright orange babies and an older male het,  I was more than happy to take the call.

I briefly spoke to the breeder (in broken Dutch- not my strongest language) in a video chat where I was shown the animals and it was arranged that I would pay my exporter for them and they could be sent with another shipment coming from South Africa that just so happened to be leaving Amsterdam in just 3 days. Just 11 days later they were here in the United States. Unfortunately because of the rush to make the export and the fast paced nature of the show, I wasn't able to get as much information on their background as I typically would like to have.
I would later find the reason they were being offered at all was because their original breeder had entirely left the hobby and wholesaled all of their animals to exporters at the show.
​Unfortunately due to the volume of sales the exporter deals in, he wasn't able to provide me any additional contact information further than the one phone call I had with the person selling them at the show,
but some *theories* were presented as fact that due to its similar appearance to Deon Nell's "true albino" that it came from that blood line. So I set out to confirm this with Deon, and he informed me that it was not possible. So unfortunately, that's all I truly know about their background.  ​​​
Picture

Genetics-

Again this is a new project so these are just my observations so far. 
It's obvious that these animals are not a typical albino, but when bred to others they are surprisingly compatible. I've done a couple crosses with them now and in every case the pairing results in babies that are brighter, more intensely colored, and with patterns that are consistently distorted, typically are either very stripey or granite speckled. In my cross to a Kzn Red Albino, I found the red was brought out immediately and rivals any other red type morph i'm currently working in. In a cross to my facemask project line it brings the white up crazy high on the sides. While it did retain some striping in each pairing so far, It only seems to retain its patternless pure white stripe when crossed to east london locality capes though. So I believe that just happens to come from that locality. So far it seems to effect both color and pattern to a degree no matter what I do with it though, so I look forward to continuing to explore it in future pairings. 

Share

0 Comments

6/2/2021

Should house snake keepers shun hybrids?

0 Comments

Read Now
 
This question is asked frequently, "In many sectors of the hobby it is frowned upon or even considered "unethical" to breed hybrids. Should this attitude exist for house snake keepers?"

I think its important to keep in mind that house snake taxonomy is a mess (More on this in the popular "House Snake mess for dummies" Article). We know little about what constitutes a "pure" animal to know what constitutes an "impure" one to even explore the argument to a finality, but lets use the arguments that are common in other sectors of the hobby to explore the issue.

"Hybrids that get loose from irresponsible owners then taint the purity of wild populations"
Unless you actually live in the places these animals are native there is no risk that your "hybrid" animal will get loose and "taint" the purity of the wild strains like there is with say a specific locality of California kingsnake. So were safe there- a black house snake in africa will not be changed by yours here in the US.

"If people breed hybrids we wont have any pure animals anymore eventually. "
Black house snakes are still being exported in mass, with least concern status, so there isn't currently really a need to preserve the "purity" of every single one like there is with say blue tongue skinks where the native borders are closed, and what we have now may be all we'll ever have. So that argument also doesn't apply here like it would elsewhere either.

"Hybrids are sickly mongrels that don't do as well as their pure counterparts..."
All morphs of any animal are caused by mutation, so we have to ask ourselves where do we draw the line on this one in the first place? Is a wild caught "pure" albino cape with light sensitivity automatically healthier than a hypo green with no issues? Not in my experience. House snakes are still young in the trade, but so far I haven't come across a hybrid that lacks the health and vigor common amongst the different species. For me, that will need further exploration before Id be comfortable taking the stance that hybrids are unethical on the grounds of health. Ironically that would require more hybrids to be made in order to prove or disprove as well. I can say that some of the common morphs are hybrid crosses and most people aren't even aware of that, yet they live productive lives in captivity all the same. Butters/Illumo/hypo green are worthy examples. 

4) "People are breeding hybrids because they don't want to have to buy/wait for/breed another pure animal. Then they dump the hatchlings. "
I too think the why is important. Perhaps the most important is WHY? why does this person want to cross their animals? I've personally made several hybrid crosses and I can tell you it isn't that easy. This fact alone will weed out many of the people who will attempt hybrid pairings for the "lazy" or otherwise "less than ethical" reasons. It's a lot harder, so there's going to be a reason to endure to the point of success.
For me its to understand the boundaries of their taxonomy. Many house snakes are currently *legally* lumped together (like black house snakes and togo stripes) as the same species even though it makes no sense. "Hybrid" pairings give us information to understand these animals both here in the US and in the wild. Others may want to explore their gene plasticity or create new morphs. Point is there are perfectly valid reasons to create hybrid house snakes, and anyone that's ever seen a butter (or one's price tag) can tell you they are not being "dumped" either.  In my experience so far its been quite the opposite. I personally can not create enough of some of them to keep up with the demand for them. 

What about the localities?!
Localities with visual differences are technically not (always) *hybrids* of two species, so not exactly the same argument. They are usually two animals of the same species collected from different places (hence the term locality).  I do agree that localities should be preserved to the best of our ability (I go over that pretty in depth in my Red Kenya vs Kzn Red post if anyone is interested). I do find it unethical to claim an animal is anything its not, and especially would not label an animal as "x,y, or z" locality if you don't actually know that, because that does have the capacity to change the "purity" of that locality in captivity here over time. Even that hang up is avoid by just being honest though. There's also the very valid argument to be made that even the localities that we do "breed pure" will not stay the same as those in the wild over time, since we will be selectively breeding those towards the traits we breeders like, resulting in differences over a long enough scale of time. But again that's another subject than strictly *hybrids*. 

So we should just take peoples word?
Some will say that you shouldn't expect people to be honest and sure that's true, but you certainly can say that about every aspect of life- that's not new here. The best thing to do is to research the traits of the morph, specie, or locality your interested in and of course research the breeder you intend to buy from. 
​
Long story short
if you honestly represent the animals you have made as hybrids, so that everyone knows exactly what they are getting, I just don't see the kind of reasons to devalue or snub hybrid house snakes like there is in other types of animals in the hobby.

Lastly, It is ok to agree to disagree. 
Hybrids aren't for everyone. Some people don't like the idea of animals having any type of mutation at all. That's ok! You can like hybrids or not. You can like mutations "morphs" or not. One of the best features of this hobby is that were all a little misfit in the first place, so there's no reason we cant respect each others differences. :) 

Share

0 Comments

4/18/2021

Is my house snake a Lineatus?

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Many striped fuliginosis are mistakenly sold in the United States as Boaedon Lineatus. One common reason may be because they are being imported from benin and togo alongside black house snakes, and they currently share the same scientific name but dont look anything like each other.  This may confuse importers who then go looking for a scientific name that they think fits better.  So the striped fuliginosis gets labeled a lineatus by well meaning importers and then sold us such. 
​

​So how do you tell which your snake actually is? This video will show you how.

Share

0 Comments

1/30/2021

KZN Red & Red Kenya Comparison & Crosses

0 Comments

Read Now
 
KZN Red and Red Kenya- the two red house snakes. What's the difference?
There are some. I detail my observations from working with and breeding these two snakes below. First, we'll start with KZN Reds.

KZN Reds have been around in captivity much longer with several morphs established so very red house snakes here in the US are much more likely to have Kzn Red blood than Red Kenya. 

Both types vary in color intensity and both can shift color at any time (like most house snakes can). There are noticeable differences in color tone between the two however. 
Picture
Pure Red Kenya (Top) & Kzn Red (Bottom)
Kzn Reds start out somewhat brownish and gain their red color as they age.

They also have a darker base to their color, and that color is typically fairly cool toned. Think " deep ruby". Kzn Reds certainly can have a warm tone too however it seems to be consistently less common.

They typically have a faint speckled appearance that is nearly patternless, with eye stripes that parallel to another line nearing the neck, similar to other capes, but that line quickly disappears down the body. 

When bred to other capes, the first generation of offspring are similar to the pure kzn parents, but with a stronger amount of pattern more typical of non-locality specific capes.  In my projects ive noticed this continues to look closer and closer to a standard cape the further the genetics drift from the origin source.
Picture
This beautiful example is a burnt orange color and still has the amazing solid eye color, black eye rings, yellow jagged eye stripes, and patternless body that differentiate this locality. Photo used with permission, Credit Sjoerd Prins of Royal House Snakes
Picture
This red kenya is rather cool toned in color (partly due to the lighting) but still has all of the other "markers" of a red kenya.

​Kzn Red & Red Kenya Cross

Red Kenyas-
Red Kenyas hatch out already red, and their color tone is fairly warm, with an orange base (think ketchup).

They also have a different look to the eye. The eye itself is solidly the same color. Also notice the pronounced black ring around the eye, this varies in thickness but everyone ive owned or hatched has had it. 

Pure Red Kenyas have no pattern other than their eye stripes. This has been consistent in my projects and those ive seen of others I trust. Ive noticed that they can have some red parallel lines in their belly scales as well.

Their eye stripes also are shorter, typically kind of yellow in color, and a bit more jagged looking (like lightning? if that makes sense) when compared to the smoother longer eye stripes of the Kzn Red.  I've also noticed that in Red kenyas the eye stripes touch or nearly touch at the nose, whereas they are farther apart in Kzn Reds. 
Diversity of Red Kenya Color
As you can see, the Red Kenya locality is not a matter of what color or hue it is, they have a specific differences: eyes, eye stripes, eye rings, pattern, etc. 
At the time of this writing I have only sucessfully hatched one clutch of Kzn Red - Red Kenya Cross but what Ive noticed is a mixing of the two traits.

F4 pictured to the right has the eye stripes and pattern typical of KZN reds with the warmer tone color and parallel red ventral scale coloration seen on some (but not all) red kenya. 
M2 has the faded pattern and eye stripes  of a kzn red but slight black rings and the warmer tone of red kenyas

M3 has faint black eye rings, solid eyes, and eye stripes that are closer together like the red kenya but with some parallel striping and pattern fading into the body like the KZN red does.

Based on these and the rest of the clutch I feel its safe to say that these two localities are fairly compatible despite their taxonomic differences (kzn red are a capensis and red kenya are fuliginosis).  At the time of breeding them it was my hope to 1) see how the traits combine to further understand their differences and 2) be born with and continue to develop in time a nice deep red color.  Time will tell :) ​

Red by Cape Crosses

Cape crosses tend to take after their cape parents in most house snake pairings and it is no different in Reds.
​
Both of the following animals have Kzn Red Blood. The first (stretched out) was produced by breeding a pure kzn red to an Albino cape. Note the high amount of pattern present when compared the the pure kzn red hatchling pictured next. 
Picture
Picture
In the next pictures a Red Kenya was bred to a Cape Albino then those babies were bred back to siblings. Ive noticed the base color of the red retains its warmer color and the eyestripes still are a touch yellow and touch at the nose on these pairings.

Albino Reds

Even in their second and third generation I find differences. In RK albino I notice a fair amount less pattern the higher the blood concentration is RK. In KZN Reds I find you can push the red in the pattern higher, but not the base, resulting in higher contrast hatchlings. 
Naturally, I'm always thinking of new ideas and ways to make even more stunning babies. There isnt many morphs of these yet but I will be updating with pictures of morph babies of both as I create them. Feel free to share your experiences as well!​

Share

0 Comments
Details

    Categories

    All
    Breeding
    Community
    Enclosures
    Feeding
    Morphs & Genetics
    Troubleshooting

    Archives

    May 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021

    RSS Feed

Contact     Available     Care     Shipping     Terms   
  • Home
  • Available
    • All Available
    • Waitlist
    • Trades? Payment Plans?
  • Care
    • House Snake Care
    • Black House Snake Care & Info
    • African File Snake Care
    • African Egg Eaters
  • Information Library
    • Library Articles
    • Morphs of House Snakes
  • Contact
  • Shipping
  • Terms