# Please Explain Albino vs Hypo vs Leucistic



## Texastravis (Apr 6, 2012)

Alright, I am a tortoise guy but for some reason I own a bunch of albino-ish RES turtles. Trying to find out best breeding combo & what I got. I was told I have some pure albinos, soem hypos, and a leucistic male. Im am just not sure what this means though and how to tell the difference. 

What I think I understand so far:
Albino (Pure Albino): Albino skin and pink eyes
Hypo: Albino skin with black eyes
Leucistic: ??
Het: Regular turtle but with the albino gene

Breeding:
Albino x Albino = 100% albino
Albino x Hypo = ?
Albino x Leucistic = ?
Leucistic x Hypo = ?

If someone knows a good website that explains this that would be great. Any info is appreciated.


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## tortadise (Apr 6, 2012)

Leucistic is typically all white or all albino skin/shell with blue eyes.
Albino is skin and shell white/pink with red eyes
Hypo is white/pink skin with red eyes.


I'm no pro at this with turtles. But that's my understanding.


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## Texastravis (Apr 6, 2012)

Thanks for the reply. Did you mean to say black eyes on the hypo?


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## EricIvins (Apr 6, 2012)

Albino = Absense of Melanin ( dark pigment )

Leucistic = Absense of all pigment


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## tortadise (Apr 6, 2012)

Yeah.


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## Texastravis (Apr 6, 2012)

Hmm, I was told this male was leucistic but I am very doubtful now after hearing some of this information. Seems like I got a bunch of Hypos and some Albinos. Will have to pull them all out and verify this later. 

What do you get if you breed a albino with a hypo? Also what about Hypo with Hypo?


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## StudentoftheReptile (Apr 6, 2012)

EricIvins said:


> Albino = Absence of Melanin ( dark pigment )
> 
> Leucistic = Absence of all pigment



Ditto. Many people seem to automatically think albino means white. Although that is the literal translation of the word (Portugese or Latin, I think), the more accurate term for most cases of albinism is *amelanism*, which is (as Eric described) is a lack of dark pigmentation. Of course, the absence of melanin doesn't automatically result in a pure white animal. It all depends on what other pigments are in play. This is why many "albinos" (or "amels" for the nerds) often have retain some hues and pattern, usually some shades of pink, yellow, or orange. Pink or red eyes are always an indicator of amelanism.

Although you didn't ask, there is the opposite of that, called *melanism*; essentially, a utter dominance of dark pigmentation, resulting in an almost black/dark animal.

Leucism (leucistic), again is an entirely different trait, which results in a pure white animal with normal-colored eyes.

The trait is *hypomelanism*, which is simply a reduction (not an entire absence) of melanin. Again, usually the animal has an overall lighter appearance with reduce dark pigmentation and will still have normal-colored eyes.

Breeding an albino (amel) to a hypo results in what is often referred to as a hybino.


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## EricIvins (Apr 6, 2012)

Texastravis said:


> Hmm, I was told this male was leucistic but I am very doubtful now after hearing some of this information. Seems like I got a bunch of Hypos and some Albinos. Will have to pull them all out and verify this later.
> 
> What do you get if you breed a albino with a hypo? Also what about Hypo with Hypo?



What you have to realize is that you have to do your reasearch on each morph you have. Don't take things too literally, because a "Leucistic" Red Ear is not a "true" Leucistic........You also have many different lines of each morph, some of which ARE NOT compatible.........

I've found many people that have large groups of RES Albinos, and only produce normal looking double hets each year.........These animals are genetically useless, because if you do raise them and have them reproduce, you don't know which Albino type is which. Some are virtually identical, but still un-compatible with other Albino lines........

Confused?

Anytime you cross Morphs in the first generation, you get double hets. The F2 generation is where you may possibly hit on a double recessive animal........


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## StudentoftheReptile (Apr 6, 2012)

In the snake side of things, sometimes breeding two of the same trait together is called a "super" of that particular trait. In some cases, you never know what will happen! For example, when you breed a "Mojave" ball python to another Mojave (just a unique pattern mutation), you get leucistic offspring. Who'da thunk it?

I don't know what hypo x hypo gets or is called.


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## ALDABRAMAN (Apr 6, 2012)

Good question! Great answers!


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## Texastravis (Apr 6, 2012)

Holllly crapolllla! HAHA Man this is a bit more complex then I originally thought. I appreciate all the insight. I will try and get some pics of these guys and see if I can get to the bottom of all of this. But it does sound like a lot of this is selective breeding trial and errors.... Bummer


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## EricIvins (Apr 6, 2012)

Texastravis said:


> Holllly crapolllla! HAHA Man this is a bit more complex then I originally thought. I appreciate all the insight. I will try and get some pics of these guys and see if I can get to the bottom of all of this. But it does sound like a lot of this is selective breeding trial and errors.... Bummer



RES Genetics are very convoluted. Not necessarily complicated, but very confusing.......Mendelian Genetics apply, but the problem isn't with that. The problem lies in the fact that there are many different Morph lineages that are not compatible with each other, trade names, and some Morphs that are still misrepresented in the trade today.........

Selective Breeding isn't going to do a thing for you if you don't know what you have to begin with, and will only cause future confusion for you and other people down the road.......How do you know what morph you actually have, and how do you know if it's one mutation or two?

I can't tell you how many times I've seen one specific Morph called 5 or 6 different things.......


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## Zamric (Apr 6, 2012)

I find all this Facinating! but I think I will only enjoy the fruits of the breeders!


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## wildak (Apr 6, 2012)

What EricIvins said. 
You can have several lines of T- pink eyed albinos, if you buy an albino res online and later buy another from someone else there's a chance you will end up with a bunch of double hets that look like normal res. Once you line breed those back together you will get albinos genes from both sides if I'm thinking correctly (it's been a long day).

Often times you get morphs that are not strong genetic traits that take several generations of line breeding and sometimes you still get nothing. There's a few good books out there and this link will give you a bit of an idea but snake genetics don't seem to jive the same as turtles and tortoises.
http://www.newenglandreptile.com/genetics_intro.html 

There's a nice T- Albino Redfoot on the sale section.


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