Christened Salmon Boas
At this point in the story, I was now the owner of the dark female boa for the third time! As the light-colored babies matured, I was constantly reminded of, and impressed with, their salmon coloration, which became both richer and deeper. Lacking a formal name for this color morph of boa constrictor, I simply began referring to them as "salmon boas" when talking to customers and friends.In the fall of 1995, I bred the dark female to the male Colombian; in spring 1996, she produced a litter of 30 babies. Out of these, 14 were salmon, 15 were normal, and one showed extreme melanism (very dark colored). I quickly realized that I had a very special breeding project going with these boas.
I kept the most impressive babies (including the very dark one) and devoted my time and effort to rearing these animals for future crosses. Because the success of this project hinged on determining the mode of inheritance of the salmon color pattern, I knew the importance of keeping detailed and accurate records regarding all the activities of my animals.
With the salmon babies growing rapidly, I was able to perform the first salmon to salmon breeding crosses (Five crosses in total), as well as on normal sibling to normal sibling cross in the fall 1996. In total, six second-generation litters had been produced by spring 1997. Inspection of the second-generation offspring showed that the ratios clearly were not typical of recessive inheritance (Russell, 1990) and that alternative explanations needed to be explored.
After discussing these results with a close friend, Dr. Gordon Schuett, and his colleague Dr. Kimberley Hughes, we agreed to collaborator and to perform a large variety of crosses to determine the mode of inheritance of the salmon trait. Although several of these crosses were not likely to be fruitful from the perspective of short-term commercial gain, they were extremely important in assessing the mode of inheritance.
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