Pink Pastel Albino Hognoses
This morph removes the dark pigment from a western hognose and leaves it salmon and pink, a colour that is bright on a hatchling but much quieter by adulthood. The gene works independently from the common Albino, so breeding one to an Albino results in only carriers.
About the Pink Pastel Albino gene
A western hognose with a Pink Pastel Albino mutation loses its dark pigment to show shades of pink, salmon and red. These colours appear most bright on a hatchling and become much quieter once the snake is grown. Because this runs on its own recessive gene, it is separate from the everyday Albino mutation. What you buy is therefore a specific look rather than a variant of a more common morph.
Appearance
A strong reddish pink is the colour of hatchlings, but this shade calms as they age. By adulthood it is a faint pink that barely shows in a photograph, so a grown snake will not keep the vivid shade it hatched with. The eyes are red. With the dark pigment gone, the animal is left in pink, salmon and orange tones in place of the browns and blacks of a normal hognose.
Genetics
Because Pink Pastel Albino is recessive, only a visual animal shows the colour. A Het Pink Pastel Albino, 50% Het Pink Pastel Albino, 66% Het Pink Pastel Albino or Pos Het Pink Pastel Albino looks like a normal western hognose. The gene sits at its own locus apart from the common Albino mutation. This means pairing a Pink Pastel Albino with a standard Albino produces only carriers instead of a double-visual animal. The name Pastel Pink is sometimes used by breeders for the gene.
Two named combinations have come from crossing it with other recessive genes. These are Electric with standard Albino and Pink Snow with Axanthic. The Pink Panther is made with the incomplete dominant Anaconda gene.
Known issues
Fertility and neurological problems can occur in some Pink Pastel Albino lines. It is not resolved whether these issues come from the gene itself or from inbreeding in a narrow founder pool. Because of this, it is worth asking a breeder about the history of a line before you buy into it for a breeding project.