The NFI Gene History and Description
In 2008, Joe Consolini had a litter produced by a Stripe female bred by a Stripe male. Neither of these parents was known to be het for Albino, so when a singular Albino popped out in a litter of 34, Joe was very surprised, and kept it back. It was also a stunner and a male, making him super special!
The following season, he wanted to see if he would produce any more albinos by doing a repeat breeding of the same pair. When the resulting litter of 35 was produced and there wasn't a single albino, this lone albino was an even more odd occurrence. He was also a Stripe, making him even more special.
In 2011, Joe used this male in order to create some more hets, so he bred it to a normal female. He noted that some of the babies were lighter and more contrasted than the others, so he kept back the nicest ones for himself. This group would ultimately found the NFI project, and would help to determine the non-albino NFI's down the line.
When Joe bred one of these Het Albinos to a visual albino, the results were astounding. Not only did he produce Albinos, but some of them appeared to be darker and have more contrast between the saddles and background color, and the tail colors were rich and vibrant. Not only were the albinos variable, but the hets had the same variation as the previously produced hets, with some being darker, and some being lighter and more contrasted. At this point, Joe started holding back pretty much everything from any litter related to these weird boas.
Noting that these albinos he had created were not "normal" albinos, he took them to a show and displayed them as "NFI Albinos", because he had No F*cking Idea what was up with them.
Fast forward to the 2021-2022 breeding season. Joe had a number of male and female NFI Albinos that were large enough to breed, and the outcrossing breeding trials began.
One of the first pairings from this season was an NFI Albino X Kahl Snow breeding. When the litter was produced, approximately half the offspring showed both the NFI gene and the Albino mutation; the other half were simply Albino. All were het for snow.
Then, on April 29th, Joe had another litter by an NFI Albino bred to a Het Kahl Albino. Again, this litter had NFI Albino offspring, normal Albino offspring, and those uniquely contrasting, non-albino offspring.
At this point, Joe and Jeff Ronne started trying to put their heads together to really figure this out. After seeing more of these "normals" het for albino, Jeff asked Joe if he could talk to him on the phone to try to put the pieces together. Based on these results, they began to suspect that this could, in fact, be a dominant or incomplete dominant mutation, causing the contrasting in the hets, and causing the vibrant albinos.
So let's go back, for a moment, to that first litter of offspring the lone Albino produced back in 2011. In one of their calls, Jeff asked Joe if he still had that original male Kahl Albino, and he did. Jeff asked him to go look at it. He did and Jeff asked, "Is he an NFI Albino?" After a moment of silence, Joe exclaimed, "He's an NFI! I can see the purples in him!"
This original NFI Kahl Albino is the grandfather of them all. Because he was the lone Albino in his litter, Joe hadn’t had him along-side normal Albinos as a neonate (when that color difference is sometimes the most obvious). The pictures posted show his purple eyes and that subtle purplish hue running through his pattern. He is now 17 years old and faded, but you can still see it.
The first litter of Het Kahls that this normal female produced in 2011 are the animals that Joe bred when he had NFI Albinos popping up. Once Joe was able to use the uniquely contrasted het Albinos to produce litters where he was getting more Albinos, he was able to note the difference between the more pigmented ones and the ones that looked like normal albinos. Out of this 2011 litter, Joe had kept and bred the "light phase" ones, and one aberrant one, that was darker. The darker aberrant animal has made Kahl Albinos but no NFIs. Each of the “light phase” animals he has bred, have made NFI Albinos, Albinos, and a mix of “light” and “dark phase” babies.
These results prove that the NFI trait is a standalone trait. If it were allelic with Kahl albino, those F1 babies from the original male Albino NFI could not produce both NFI Albinos and Albinos. Those babies in that first litter would be the equivalent of "parahets." As such, they would be either het Kahl or het NFI. Not both. This proves that NFI and Kahl are NOT allelic. NFI is a separate mutation. The fact that it was first discovered in Kahl Albinos is simply coincidental.
Discovering the Super
In 2021, the first litter of NFI Albino bred to an NFI Albino was done, and the results were of course, all albinos, with most carrying the NFI trait, and some appearing to be even more pigmented. Out of these heavily pigmented ones, Joe kept back most of them, but one of them was let go.
It was in 2023 when this darker albino that Joe let go was bred by Eric Pfeiffer of ESP Reptiles, and the resulting litter had only light, contrasting normal het albinos. This was the proof that in that litter of NFI Albino to NFI Albino, Joe had produced the first Super NFI Albinos, of which the singular male he let go was one of them, and Eric proved it out. This coming season (2025-2026), the first Super NFI Albino to Super NFI Albino pairing will be done, to hopefully create a whole litter of Super NFI Albinos.
Summary
The NFI gene is a stand-alone observable incomplete dominant mutation that creates a Super in the homozygous form. The additional combinations that will come are waiting for the Boa world to explore. The NFI Kahl Albino is expressed as a slightly darker and more heavily pigmented Albino. The Super NFI Kahl Albino creates an even more heavily pigmented animal that dramatically to completely loses a typical Albino appearance. The non-Albino NFI is markedly lighter than its non-NFI littermates. The Super form in a non-Albino has not yet been proven.