Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I REALLY hope I ask this ? correctly,say you recieve CH baby (which I did) that has a clear belly, which some people say could be a possible sign of holding some new genetics and down the road you breed that m/f and you get nothing out of the direct ordinary, BUT you get some babies with that same clear belly from the clear belly parent could those be considered possible hets or het markers if the snake proves out special as opposed to the other normal looking babies in the group,obviously those would be the babies you breed back to the parent right?

Maybe. After you prove out the morph by line breeding and produce a visible morph it may only be a coincidence that the "visible hets" produce a visible morph. The clear bellies may or may not be a marker. If you end up with babies that look almost exactly like the picture, if you can pick them out of a group of normals, then the clear belly plus the rest of the snake's looks would be a marker...maybe. If you breed the non-visible hets and get a visible morph then you have a simple recessive mutation and there would be no visible hets...maybe. If you prove that only the visible hets produce a visible morph then you have a co-dominant mutation...maybe. A white belly such as the one pictured would not be enough to convince me that the snake is genetic, there would have to be an obvious and recognizable difference between the "markers" and it's normal siblings to say it is a visible marker. If you have babies now, then you will know in about 6 years if all goes well. -J.