Key West Boa Constrictors
The Super Key West has a death rate at birth that is unusually high. A Key West boa features a connected back pattern with crisp colour edges that stays clean for life, ranging from shades of bright grey to deep black. Know this before you pair two together.
About the Key West gene
The Key West is a pattern gene from boa constrictor lines in Colombia. The snake keeps a tidy pattern with sharp colour edges throughout its whole life. This gene provides a connected back pattern.
Appearance
The dorsal pattern has clear colour contours and is connected. Between animals, the colour varies a lot. It ranges from a bright grey pattern to deep black. Super Key West, the two-copy animal, looks like the CandyCane Guyana and the Roswell.
Genetics
Key West is incomplete dominant. A single copy produces a Key West while two copies result in a Super Key West. Some breeders call it "co-dominant", which is just the hobby's looser word for the same thing. It is not in any complex. This gene is very close to the heterozygous Roswell, which is sold as the Roswell Laddertail or RLT. It may well be the same gene. RLTs bred further into Colombian lines with good colour show the same trait. KWB is its short name. Two combo names in use are Hypo Key West and Key West Motley.
Known issues
The issue lies with the super, not with single-copy Key Wests. Super Key Wests have an unusually high death rate at birth, with a high rate of drowning before birth, and show blown-out sides like those seen in a Super Hypo. Consider this before you pair two Key Wests together.