Richard Zweifel had a paper in the Journal of Heredity in 1982. It has a good discussion of striped and some preliminary info about some other mutants.

Bern Bechtel had a piece about albino, but I do not remember where it was printed.

I call black and white with a banded pattern wild type. It is also called desert phase.

Coastal phase is brown and pale yellow with a banded pattern. I do not know whether that is a single mutant or not.

Striped is a dominant mutant gene with variable expression.

There are probably several independent mutants that affect pattern in addition to the striped mutant. Zweifel had a couple but hadn't worked out the inheritance. The 50-50 black and white banding may be one, and I've seen pictures of kings with very narrow white bands. Wide striped may be a combination of striped and whatever produces 50-50 banding. I have no clue to inheritance of any of them.

It would not surprise me if many of the mutants had several different names in the trade.

A friend of mine mated a wild type with a poorly striped Cal king that had normal coloration. Among the babies were an albino and a baby with pink eyes and skin that was about two thirds as dark as normal. Probably two different mutant genes, both recessive to their normal counterparts.

I am not aware of a web site with an organized list of Cal king mutants, but I haven't looked hard, either. Someday ....

Paul Hollander

[ Hide Replies ]

• California King Genetics ? explain please - Watever, Thu Sep 22 22:04:11 2005
• You may have better luck............. - TobyEKing, Thu Sep 22 22:07:15 2005
• RE: California King Genetics ? explain please - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 00:29:18 2005
• And also.......... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 00:33:27 2005
• RE: California King Genetics ? explain please - Watever, Fri Sep 23 00:37:46 2005
• RE: California King Genetics ? explain please - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 00:45:10 2005
• Not a Mutation ? - Watever, Fri Sep 23 00:51:40 2005
• RE: Not a Mutation ? - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 06:33:23 2005
• Actually that is an OLD link, here is the updated one.... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 09:12:53 2005
• RE: Actually that is an OLD link, here is the updated one.... - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 09:22:48 2005
• Taking it to Tucson today,....... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 11:32:48 2005
• RE: Taking it to Tucson today,....... - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 11:35:19 2005
• Yes to all.... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 11:47:11 2005
• RE: Yes to all.... - ZFelicien, Fri Sep 23 11:49:53 2005
• RE: Actually that is an OLD link, here is the updated one.... - Watever, Fri Sep 23 10:32:06 2005
• Some answers........... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 11:42:35 2005
• RE: Not a Mutation ? - Watever, Fri Sep 23 10:26:39 2005
• Not the same thing,......... - Kerby..., Fri Sep 23 11:45:38 2005
• RE: California King Genetics ? explain please - Paul Hollander, Sat Sep 24 17:56:40 2005