Albino San Diego Gophersnake Pituophis catenifer annectans

The pictured albino male was wild caught in 1983 in Lakeside, CA (near San Diego) as a juvenile. After changing hands twice I was able to purchase him and raise him up. He was large enough to breed in 1985, and did so with 4 wild caught females from his area of capture. Each female produced a clutch, and I kept one female from each clutch (hets) to raise up. Two of the females were large enough in two years, two took three years, but they were bred back to "DAD" and all produced albinos and hets. Later I outbred to other wild caught stock to increase the strength of the line. There has been a report or two about a possible hidden gene of some sort. I have had two reports that what were believed to be pure "Applegate Strain" albinos bred and produced normal looking babies. There is always a possibility that there was some sort of contamination from other stock, but it is worth mentioning. Back in 1985 the IHS had its annual meeting in San Diego, and when many of the antendees visited my place and saw the male, the comments were made "Now there is an Applegate Albino phase" and the name stuck. It was normal in the early days, when there were few abberrant color morphs, to name them after those who first produced them. In 1999, during a reduction in numbers in my collection, I put all my albino gophersnakes out on breeding loan. I no longer keep them, but occassionally get a few back from the loan arrangement, but I no longer offer them on my actual list, but thought you might like to see a picture of the original founder male, and know the history.

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