Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a an 07 holdback pair from a het pied male X pos het pied female. The het pied male from Ben Siegel the pos. het female from Alan Bosch. They were twins from one egg. They both have ringer markings, lines down the underside near tail, and white bellies. My question is should I breed them together or breed the female back to the het sire. I know these markers are just guidelines and not 100% But I think they have something. Just wanted to get the better odds.
Thanks for any help
Tim
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3 ex wives
2 daughters
0.2 cats
way to many snakes(or so the ex wives say)

I would definitely breed back to the 100% het pied male-at least you KNOW he is carrying the right gene-everyone else involved here is a question mark......
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

I'd use the 100% het. At least if there are no pieds produced, you'd know the offspring are possible hets. If both parents are possible hets you'd...possibly...have possible hets? Also there's the issue of inbreeding. If you're breeding back to the father, you're only breeding back half of the genes (hopefully the pied gene, too). The female still has genes from her mom. If you're breeding twins together, there are likely no new genes at all. Ball pythons seem quite resistant to undesirable genetic defects, but I still think it's best to dilute the genes as much as possible while we're focusing on the gene we want.
Paul

Yea, Thats what I was figuring to do. The only concern is which parent is really het or are both? The mother could have been the one to pass on the gene. The father did come to me as a real het. Does Ben Siegel actually breed his own or are these some he acquired. I have never had any problems in the past but there is always that question with hets. I guess you just have to trust where you bought it. Now Alan has helped me out many times in the past with advice, instruction, nice snakes. But I had never met with Ben Siegel but have bought many snakes through him. I just thought with both the twins showing the markers that might be a choice as well. If the mother had had a larger clutch she might have actually shown me a pied! But she was young. and only 3 eggs. But 4 snakes! You should have seen my face when I saw 2 heads sticking out of that egg! WOW
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3 ex wives
2 daughters
0.2 cats
way to many snakes(or so the ex wives say)

~np!