Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im a little confused on the concept of hets. I was hoping someone could explain it to me. From what i've come to understand if you were to breed a 100% het albino male ball with a normal female ball you would have a chance at getting some albino babies? And if i was correct in that, can it work with a 100% het female and a normal male? Thanks in advance for any help!

Genes generally come in pairs, one from each parent. Then when the animal breeds it passes on one of each of its pairs to each of its offspring. For any given gene pair about half of the offspring get one copy and the rest get the other copy.

Heterozygous means having an unmatched pair of genes. We are mainly interested in mutations which are unusual versions of a particular gene. A heterozygous for albino ball python has an unmatched pair of genes at the albino gene location. It inherited a normal for albino gene from one of its parents but from the other parent it inherited a copy with the albino mutation. Most ball pythons have a matched set of normal for albino genes at that location so would have the homozygous normal for albino genotype.

However, the albino mutation is recessive. That means that even just one normal for albino copy can compensate for one albino mutant copy and cause the heterozygous for albino snakes to look normal. The only visible albino phenotype animals are the ones that are homozygous for albino (having a matched set of genes at the albino location both with the albino mutation).

So, if you breed a heterozygous for albino snake to a homozygous normal for albino all the babies will get the normal for albino version of the gene from the homozygous normal parent because that's the only version that parent has to give. The heterozygous parent will randomly give the albino mutant copy to about half the offspring and its normal for albino copy to the other half. So, on average about half the offspring from het albino X normal for albino will be het albino and the other half will be completely normal for albino. Because albino is recessive the het offspring will look normal just like the het parent so as a group the babies will be referred to as 50% chance hets although in reality each will either be a het or not it's just that you can't tell short of breeding them which are which.

There will not be any visible albinos produced because that would require two copies of the albino mutant version of the gene and it's only available to inherit from one parent. Because the albino gene is not sex linked it doesn't mater which parent is the het albino and which the normal for albino.

Wow, great explanation Randy, but let me break it down a bit.

What was said is that a 100% het bred to a normal would result in half of the offspring being 100% het, however, you do not know which ones they will be. So, they are called 50% hets.

Normally, going the long route, a breeder will put a 100% het male with a few normal females, hold back all the females in each lutch, and breed the father back to them. The odds of getting a homozygous form out of one of these pairings has to be damn near 100%, unless somehow, only the males inherited the gene.

In your case, your 100% het female bred to a normal would result in 50% hets, but the odds of selecting a 100% het male out of the entire clutch to breed back to her is a slimmer chance. Although it would be exciting to test as a first time breeder, your best bet is to splurge $65-100 for a 100% het albino male.

Hope this helps!

-John