Thanks for the reply, Ray.



What is "Hypo" & what is "Het"...?



Have any pics of a 5' or 6' Tri-Color next to you, so I can see how big they get in relation to a human?



Thanks for the great reply so quickly!





Dan,



"hypo", which is really Hypomelanistic, is a recessive trait/gene that reduces the amount of black pigment on their bands and on the tipping of their scales. These snakes have a really bright appearance with a purplish shade on the black areas... as compared to the "normal" looking or "wild type" looking snake.



The hypos are more expensive than the normal looking simply because they are prettier, more sought out, and harder to produce than normal looking ones. The term "het" (or heterozygous) simply means that the snake carries the recessive gene of let's say hypomelanistic but does not visually show that recessive gene. In other words, you might see a tricolor honduran het for hypo... which simply means that your normal looking tricolor carries the hypo gene. Also, be careful when people say het for something... you need to find out if it is "definite het" or "possible het"... "Definte het" would mean that it is 100% that the animal carries that gene... and example would be a normal tricolor bred to a hypo tricolor will produce babies that are 100% normal looking and yet 100% definite het for hypo because one of their parents is 100% hypo. Now, for the term "possible het"...let's say you breed a tricolor hypo that is 100% wild type with no recessive gene at all and then you breed that to let's say a tricolor looking but is a definite het for hypo (like the babies from the 1st example), then the babies for this second example will produce visually all tricolor wild type ones but 50% of that clutch will carry the hypo gene and 50% do not carry it at all.... in other words, since you cannot tell with snakes carry the recessive gene, it is labelled as "50% possible het for hypo".



Lastly, sorry i don't have a pic of a tricolor with me holding it. I normally take pics of snakes without humans included...hehehe...



Thanks and hope this clarifies some of your questions...



Later...



Ray
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RAY

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