Hopefully Kathy and Don will have time to respond but I'd like to hear from anyone that has a good grasp of genetics and LOTS of experience.
We just had an unexplainable outcome with one of our projects.
First we acquired an unknown sub-adult female. Looks amber (hypo and caramel) but slightly different than your typical amber. We have a hypo male that is also high yellow.
First year breeding.
Hypo hy male X Amber looking female
All the hatchlings are hypo and as they mature you can see that some look just like dad and some like mom. Hypos with more yellow.
We also breed Hypo hy male X Hypo (with typical amounts of yellow, orange, and red) All the babies are hypo and as they mature they look better than average but not quite as much yellow as the other clutch from the Hypo hy male X Amber looking female.
Second year breeding.
Caramel male X Amber looking female
Half the babies come out looking normal and half the babies coming out looking caramel. Odd result because if mom is caramel and hypo you would expect all caramels het for hypo. Some caramels indicates that mom may be a new type of caramel that may not be fully compatible with the standard caramel gene?
Third year breeding.
No males from the first year are up to size and we are not interested in creating more caramels like the male that was used in the second year of breeding. So we cycle the female. She comes out of cooling, gets as much as she wants to eat but no exposure to a male. She drops a full clutch of 14 eggs, all infertile. We are delighted because we are trying to eliminate sperm retention as part of the puzzle. I can't say it is a gurantee but I would have expected some fertile eggs if she had retained sperm.
Fourth year breeding.
The survivors, best looking hatchlings from the first year breeding have matured and are up to size. Prior to cooling the group is split between myself and a good friend. The original female remains with me.
Hypo high yellow son X Amber looking female = 14 egg clutch. Incubator mishap, screw up on my part, and the whole clutch is lost. We wait another year on this one.
2 females from the very first clutch are bred to one of their brothers. All 3 are hypo and all 3 are high yellow.
First clutch is Sibling X Sibling = ALL NORMALS Yes, you read it right. They all came out looking normal. No hypo, No high yellow. These look like typical normal corns.
We are still waiting on the second clutch.
Very important to note that in the time that these females were being raised they NEVER spend a single moment with another male. Not during box cleaning, moving racks, cleaning, etc. NEVER a single moment exposed to any male.
How could all the hatchlings from this first clutch not be hypo?
Both parents/siblings that were bred are hypo and at the very least they should be het for caramel. Look back to the second year breeding. Half the babies looked like mom and half looked like dad that was a recessive gene caramel. The original females high yellow look was somewhat compatible with the that males caramel gene.
Any explanation for how this could happen?
