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Visual differences of Lava gene in snow and amel hatchlings??

Glenbrooks

Glenbrooks

GlensReptiles.com
I have been working on a variety of Lava & Ice varieties. In particular motley and stripe. I have however in the process produced a large number of snow and amel hatchlings (striped, & motley) from parents that are het for Lava. Therefore I am sure I have some hom for Lava snows and amels. Any good advice on how to visually tell which are Lavas?
 
Someone recently posted a photo of an amel lava as well as a regular amel sibling. The amel lava has a smoother and softer coloration. Now whether that is typical of amel lavas or not, I can't say.
 
Pics of a few

Unfortunately, I have passed my hatchlings over to a buddy to take to an upcoming show. Here are pictures of a few that I have kept.:

Amel Motley (suspected Lavamel)
Lavamel-Mot_M.jpg


Lava Motley from last year
motley_lava1.jpg


Snow (suspected Homozygous for Lava gene)
Ice-snow_M.jpg


Striped Snow (Suspected Not Homozygous for Lava gene)
St-Snow_F.jpg


Ice
Ice_F.jpg


Lava
Lava_F.jpg
 
Susan,
Thanks for the recommendation, and I have really tried to look for a "smoother and softer coloration" and to some degree can see it. I might also describe it as less contrast in the snows. The problem is that I have seen similar discrepancies with color in clutches without any hypo genes present. So if anyone thinks they have a good way of telling, please let m know. My buddy is going to sell them as "normal" albinos and snows, even thought they have Lava, motley and stripe genes mixed in there. We are just not confident we can make a good guess at visible Lava effect on amels and snows.
 
Glenbrooks said:
I have been working on a variety of Lava & Ice varieties. In particular motley and stripe. I have however in the process produced a large number of snow and amel hatchlings (striped, & motley) from parents that are het for Lava. Therefore I am sure I have some hom for Lava snows and amels. Any good advice on how to visually tell which are Lavas?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the world of madness!

I too am going thru the exact same craziness as you. I've posted a bit about it in Danny's photo post but PJ made an excellent suggestion to bring the topic over here.

I bred an Anery, het lava and amel to a Amel Lava, het anery...should be easy to figure out the hatchlings right...what a mess.

Here's a pic of my amel lava at about 6 months of age...

Bliss.jpg


That little whippet turned into this 4 years later...

Bliss-1.jpg


Bliss2.jpg



And just for PJ...lol...

Bliss3.jpg



Not only are there 'red' things to sort out, there are also white 'things' to sort out...are they amel aneries or lava amel aneries.

What I've decided to do is hold several of each back...mature them for a year and see what happens. Make a decision a year from now who to keep and who to let go from my holdbacks. Then down the road...do some breeding trials. In the meantime I'm planning to scout out a Lava...no combination wanted...just the single gene thank you very much...lol.

Opening this Pandora's box leaves me with more questions than answers. I can't tell the difference visually. I've had input from 2 other breeders, one in Europe and one in the U.S. who have had potential lava amels hatch; in regards to 'is it an amel' and 'which is the lava amel' both have said, 'beats me, I can't tell'.

I'm sure if you see a hundred, it gets easier. For now, I think I'll just grow a few up...if I get lucky with my choice in holdbacks, great. If not...then I'll know next time, I made the wrong choices. I'm just basing my choices right now on the only thing I have to go on...Bliss' photo from when she was a hatchling. As for the snows (?)...oh, I don't even want to think about it. :crazy01:

As have most of us who have amel lavas at this stage, we've turned the pages so many times trying to read Joe's written word, but hey, I'm the first to admit...my eye just doesn't see that subtle difference he could recognize and pick out the lavamels from the amels.

Ruth
 
I've read, were Joe talks about the Amel Lavas having a Faint " bluish hue " , near or on the top of their head when theey are hatchlings. I bought a Lavamel from him that had it.

But it still could be hard to tell. Good luck.
 
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