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Hypos? Het Hypos ? Chondros?

petie11o5 Aug 13, 2008 12:38 AM

What exactly does Hypo, Het Hypo and Chondros mean? What do these matter when it comes to breeding also? I am completly lost on these terms. Also what is outcrossing? An explanation on all of this would help me to understand the conversations on here better. Thanks!!!
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0.1 BRB
1.0 Columbian Red Tail Boa

Replies (12)

sean1976 Aug 13, 2008 01:14 AM

look up Punnett Squares, simple recessive gene, and dominant gene. Those are the basic level genetic terms you need to start with.

Hypomelanism, abreviated as "hypo", is a simple recessive gene which reduces the amount of black pigment in the snakes skin/scales. Since hypo is a simple recessive trait the snake will not show this effect unless it has 2 of the hypo gene.

Het Hypo is the term for a snake which only carries one hypo gene. Since it only has one the snake looks normal but if bred to either a hypo or a het hypo you would have a chance of producing some hypo offspring.

Chondro is a name for Green Tree Pythons. I believe it is a abreviation of their taxonomical name but am not sure.

Hope that helped some.

Sean.
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1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

olstyn Aug 13, 2008 09:11 AM

>>Chondro is a name for Green Tree Pythons. I believe it is a abreviation of their taxonomical name but am not sure.
>>

It's actually an abbreviation of what their taxonomical name used to be. It was chondropython viridis until sometime in the mid or late 90s if I recall correctly, but has since been changed to morelia viridis, reflecting their similarities with the carpet pythons (morelia spilota and its subspecies). They have actually been cross bred with several types of carpet (jungle carpets and irian jaya carpets for sure, possibly others as well) to create hybrids called "carpondros," but that's another discussion altogether...
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

rainbowsrus Aug 13, 2008 01:17 AM

Hypo is short for hypomelanistic or a genetically driven reduction of pigmentation, in BRB's that is a recessive trait or needs two morph genes for it to show,

Het is short for heterozygous meaning two different genes.

Het Hypo being an animal that has one hypo gene and one normal one.

Chondro is a Green Tree Python (GTP), not related in any way to BRB's.

Outcrossing is the process of breeding a morph to unrelated animals to improve the genetics. As animals become inbred, problems arise. By outcrossing, you bring in fresh and unrelated genes.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

waspinator421 Aug 13, 2008 01:20 AM

Hypo refers to the simple recessive genetic morph of Hypomelanism, which is a reduction in melanin. It gives the snake a very light overall appearance.

Het Hypo refers to an animal that is carrying the Hypomelanistic gene, but is not showing it.

Chondro is a species of arboreal python, nothing to do with BRBs.

The terms are important as far as breeding goes so you can predict your chances of producing certain types of offspring. For example, if you bred two Hypo BRBs, all of the babies would be Hypo. If you bred a Hypo to a Het Hypo, then statistically you would get half Hypos and half Het Hypos. If you bred two Het Hypos than statistically you would get 25% Hypos, 50% Het Hypos, and 25% normals (not carrying gene). Though you would not be able to tell the normals apart from the Hets without breeding trials.

Outcrossing refers to introducing new blood into the line to keep the genes strong, and prevent any unwanted defects from too much inbreeding. Most of the time this is done by taking a homozygous animal (showing the morph) and breeding it to a completely un-related animal to produce a whole litter of Hets for that gene.

I hope this cleared some things up for you!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

waspinator421 Aug 13, 2008 01:21 AM

LOL.... looks like I took too long to write my post and got beat twice over!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Jeff Clark Aug 13, 2008 01:28 AM

Aubrey,
....It looks like four of us were writing at the same time and being the oldest I was the slowest.
Jeff

>>LOL.... looks like I took too long to write my post and got beat twice over!
>>-----
>>Aubrey Ross
>>
>>©
>>www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

sean1976 Aug 13, 2008 01:31 AM

LOL Jeff you may be oldest but I am not so sure I am youngest

Sean.
-----
1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

Jeff Clark Aug 13, 2008 01:39 AM

Sean,
...It has to be either you or Aubrey and I suspect that she wins the contest.
Jeff

>>LOL Jeff you may be oldest but I am not so sure I am youngest
>>
>>Sean.
>>-----
>>1.1 BRB
>>1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
>>0.1 Silver TPRS
>>1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
>>0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
>>0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
>>1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
>>0.1 Reeve's Turtle
>>0.2 Amstaff's
>>1.0 Pudytat

ReneeValois Aug 13, 2008 04:49 PM

You all had slightly different approaches and bits of information which made the material that much clearer than a single post would have! No wasted effort here!

>>LOL.... looks like I took too long to write my post and got beat twice over!
>>-----
>>Aubrey Ross
>>
>>©
>>www.SlipstreamSerpents.com
-----
Renee
1.0 BRB (Loki)
2.0 amel & anery corns (Foxfire & Daguerre)
0.1 blood python (Duchess, arriving later this month)
1.1 Cats (Nightshade & Cuzzy)

Jeff Clark Aug 13, 2008 01:25 AM

Hypo= Hypomelanism, which is a decrease in the amount of dark pigment. There are quite a few Brazilian Rainbows around that people say are hypomelanisitic though many of them are just light colored normal animals. The bloodlines mentioned in the other post are generally univerally believed to be heritable simple recessive genetic mutations.
Het=heterozygous which is a term for an animal that carries one allele for a simple recessive gene such as the hypomelanisim gene in the recognized hypomelanistic BRB strains. Heterozygous animals look normal. For the animal to look like the simple recessive genetic mutation it has to have both of the alleles for the mutation.
Chondro is short for Chondropython which is the defunct genus name of the Green Tree Python. Green Tree Pythons are commonly called chondros because of the genus name even though the "chondros" have been moved into the Morelia genus with the Carpet Pythons.

>>What exactly does Hypo, Het Hypo and Chondros mean? What do these matter when it comes to breeding also? I am completly lost on these terms. Also what is outcrossing? An explanation on all of this would help me to understand the conversations on here better. Thanks!!!
>>-----
>>0.1 BRB
>>1.0 Columbian Red Tail Boa

Jeff Clark Aug 13, 2008 02:00 AM

petie,
...As you see there are many people who can answer easy questions on this forum. The questions you asked just scratch the surface of the varied subjects discussed on all the kingsnake.com forums. Much of the information posted on the forums is wrong and you need to be able to recognize the good information versus the bad. Consider taking college courses in biology, genetics, zoology, herpetology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, parasitology and pathophysiology if you want to really learn in depth about the subjects that are often discussed on the forums. If you have no college nearby we can make you a list of books to read that cover some reptile related subjects.
Jeff

>>What exactly does Hypo, Het Hypo and Chondros mean? What do these matter when it comes to breeding also? I am completly lost on these terms. Also what is outcrossing? An explanation on all of this would help me to understand the conversations on here better. Thanks!!!
>>-----
>>0.1 BRB
>>1.0 Columbian Red Tail Boa

aanata1 Aug 14, 2008 02:25 AM

If you plan to peruse the forums or breed snakes of your own in the future, I highly recommend looking up some basic genetics (some of the terminology and a punnet square or two). I was lucky enough to be forced to take genetics during my undergrad, and it has helped a lot!!

Here's a page with some Boa (red tail boa or BCI) genetic info... may help.

http://www.classreptilia.com/basic_genetics.htm

Also, I realize that was me with all the abbreviations... sorry, I'm lazy
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5.19 BRB
10.20 BCI
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
0.1 Albino Corn Snake
2.8 Leopard Geckos

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