Posted by:
amarilrose
at Sun Mar 4 08:16:51 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by amarilrose ]
It's correct that it is best to think about that "66% chance" applying to each boa, and to NOT expect those proportions to work out as 2/3 of a group being hets.
What a Punnett Square will tell you, among other things, is that a het x het breeding will statistically produce the following genotypes:
1/4 Morph (homozygous, shows the morph)
2/4 Het (heterozygous, appears normal)
1/4 Normal (not heterozygous for the morph)
...where the fractions refer to the chance of producing each genotype from each egg (ova - each baby), and statistically where the proportions of the litters as a whole would pan out if you were to look at a significantly large number of identical breedings - there is no guarantee that any one het x het breeding won't produce all morphs or all normals... but the odds are not in favor of it.
Since nobody can visually tell the difference between the statistical 1/4 normal, and the 2/4 hets, the resulting babies from a het X het cross are only identifiable as:
1/4 Morph
3/4 Normal-appearing boas
Since it is statistically probable that the 3/4 of the litter that appear normal consist of 2/3 hets and 1/3 normal, all of the normal-appearing babies are referred to as "66% POSSIBLE" het for the recessive morph in question. In reality, each of the normal-appearing babies is ONLY either het or not - there is no such thing as a partial het! A lot of people do not fully understand this.
Remember that whenever you have "% possible" hets, the number is supposed to reflect the statistics involved... and that there are still humans (who may be greedy or unscrupulous, or even completely honest) behind the marketing of any animal you might wish to buy. From the way you phrased your question however, I am more inclined to think that you are perhaps a breeder trying to understand how to market a new boa litter. (?)
Good luck to you 
~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
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long answer - amarilrose, Sun Mar 4 08:16:51 2007
