Reptile & Amphibian Forums

we went to the arlington expo saturday to get a bearded dragon for my sons birthday and he ended up getting a ball python. I found out on the general ball mess bd that he is a morph. What can you guys tell me about this cross breed? he is a 3 year old male 66% het axanthic. what does that mean? we have always had bearded dragons this is our first snake I am familiar with thecross breeding and morphs of beardies so I assume this is the same I will just have to do some catching up as to the ball morphs. I was at the start of the game when people started cross breeding beardies. so what type of snakes were bred to make an axanthic?

Okay, this will be the quick version since I am at work, but you can find great genetic info at www.newenglandreptile.com.

An axanthic is a snake lacking yellow pigment, the hatchlings are generally silver and black in color and most will brown out with age.

You have a 66% Het Axanthic. Here is how it was made:

A a
A AA Aa
a Aa aa

The 'A' represents the axanthic gene, and the 'a' represents the normal gene. This pairing would be a 100% het axanthic to a 100% het axanthic. This pairing would statisticaly produce 25% Axanthics, 50% - 100% het axanthics, and 25% normals. Because there is no immediate way to tell which of the normal looking balls are 100% hets, they are labeled as 66% het for axanthic. In other words, of the non-axanthic snakes in the clutch, 2/3 or 66% of them should statistically be 100% het for axanthic.

I hope this helps, and congrats on your purchase!

Any more questions fell free to e-mail more or add another post!

-John

An Axanthic IS a morph, but a 66% possible Het is almost as likely to be a normal, as it is to be a morph. So how do you find out. Do you know what line of Axanthic it might be? You can get a normal female, breed him to that female, and breed him to all the female offspring. The other options will get more pricey.

Dave

So as was already stated, axanthics are animals lacking yellow pigment. They are recessive(think blue eyes in humans, you need to get blue eyed gene from both mom and dad in order for you to have blue eyes, if you only have one, you carry the trait, but don't show it) so they need to be homozygous in order to express the axanthic look.

Het. stand for heterozygous(having only one copy of the gene) and what the 66% Het. Axanthic means that there is a chance it has the gene, but you won't know until you breed it with an axanthic or 100% het axanthic. 66% Hets come from 100% het X 100% het breedings. Statistically, you have a 1/4 odds of hatching an axanthic in this breeding, 1/2 odds of having het. axanthic, and a 1/4 shot at having a normal. Now here is where the 66% part comes in, you can't visually tell the difference between a normal and a het. so since the breakup would be 2 to 1 odds of a "normal" looks snake having the axanthic gene equates to a 66% possibility.

So your snake may have the gene, and more than likely does, but you won't be able to prove it without breeding it to a 100% het axanthic (these are produced from Axanthic X Normal breedings, which guarantees that all babies have 1 copy of axanthic gene) or a Visual Axanthic from the same line.

-Dan