I'm off to learn what Het Possible traits are now.

Read these links to get a good grasp of fundamental genetics:
Mendelian Traits
Punnett Square
Zygosity


One thing that is confusing is how do you tell when something is het? Or is there a way you can tell visually?

Read and understand the above links so that the following makes sense to you.

The simple answer is no, in Dominant/Recessive traits you cannot tell a Het animal from a non-Het animal. That is why you end up seeing things like 50% (breeding a known Het to a Normal),66% (breeding 2 known Hets together) and 100% Hets (breeding a visual mutation to a Normal). However, there can be anomalies and markers that are caused by mutations in a Het animal, but these are more the exception than the rule.

There are also cases in which some traits will exhibit itself in a Het form such as Co-Dominant traits like the Anaconda/Supercondas. A Normal would have the gene XX, the Ananconda would be Xx and the Superconda would be xx. The Anaconda is basically the het form of both the Normal and Superconda genes which are both trying to express themselves at the same time, one of which is trying to show the pattern while the other is trying to show no pattern, which is why you get a reduction of pattern in Anacondas, both genes are expressing themselves at the same time but in a reduced capacity.

However, in Dominant/Recessive traits such as Amels "Albinos", Normal would be XX, Normal that is het Amel would be Xx and the Amel would be xx. The normal gene is dominant in the heterozygous form and overrides the recessive Amel gene so that only the dominant Normal coloration is shown.

Does it have to prove out in a breeding?

The bottom line is, the animal is either a Het or it isn't. Treat all possible Hets as Normals until you prove them out whether they are 50% or 66% Het. If you have an animal that is possible Het, then breed it to another possible Het or even a Normal animal and do not prove the possible Hets out with their offspring, the correct and honest way to label the hatchlings would be to call them Normals until the Het genes of the parents are proven otherwise. And remember this, even known Het animals don't always produce visual animals all the time. You can actually breen a Het to a visual and produce all Normals (although according to the Punnett Square you should get half visuals and half 100% Hets) which of course would be 100% Het. Punnett Squares are basically probability/ratio tables and in no way reflect hard numbers. It's amazing how many people actually believe that Punnett Squares predict actual hard number results, this is simply not always the case.

And for the record, I have had some conversations with people that believe you can take something like a 50% Het, breed it to a Normal and produce 25% Het animals. That is completely incorrect, ignorant and unscrupulous. With all possible Hets, the possibility only applies to the F1 generation of the original parents of known genetics. In other words, if you breed a 100% Het (which is a known Het) to a Normal, you will get 50% Hets. You cannot then breed one of those 50% Hets to another Normal to create 25% Hets. The same goes for breeding Het to Het animals which will yield 66% Het offspring. Both 50% and 66% Hets are basically F1 generation Normals with unproven traits and should be labeled as such.

I hope that is helpful in your understanding of what Hets are.

I have to be careful what I say here, I don't want to get stomped on by FR for not caring what the snakes actually feel or need.

Just do what I've learned to do and ignore him. If he says something to you that you don't like or want to hear, just shrug it off and feel free to post away without even responding or acknowledging his vain attempts at drawing attention to himself, he's just not worth the hassle. The rest of us here will be more than happy to assist you without the unnecessary belittlement.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

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