Was the one pied a male? Did you use the same original het male for all 4 clutches? Did the male het ever produce any other pieds?

One explanation could be that only your female was a het and it took her 4 clutches to produce a parthenogenic fully homozygous male pied offspring (I know Dr. Both reports that sort of parthenogenesis not seen in pythons, YET, but if seen in other snakes why not?).

If you averaged 7 eggs per clutch the odds of going 0 for 28 from het to het are over 1 in 3,000. Certainly you could have just been that unlucky but I wouldn't rule out the male not being a het or maybe most of the first 3 clutches where female clones of the het mom with the documented python type of parthenogenesis?
-----
Randy Remington
anyone@snakemorphs.com
www.SnakeMorphs.com
FaceBook

[ Show Entire Thread ]